Leadership Without Fear?: A Lord of the Flies Essay

What makes a good leader? By "good" I don't mean a leader who has good morals or is leading for a good cause, I mean a leader who can convince a large number of people to follow them and help them achieve their goals. As William Golding portrays in Lord of the Flies a good leader has to use fear of some kind. 

In the book, Ralph leads for the sole purpose of getting rescued, while Jack just leads for power and to meet the needs of his own desires. Ralph was chosen as chief at the beginning because he was fairly big in size and had an attractive appearance, but mostly because of the conch [Golding, 19]. But his power didn't last. There are a number of reasons why almost everyone left Ralph to join Jack's hunting tribe but if you think about it they all relate to their fear for Jack. 

Not only does this apply to the Lord of the Flies, all effective leaders need people to fear them in some way to make them do what they want.

Piggy may have been the most intelligent person on the island [19] but he had the appearance of short and fat, with glasses [1-2] , and had annoying personality traits, like the way he complained about his asthma to Ralph or how even while on the island he talked about the rules his auntie had for him [3] , so people didn't take him or his thoughts seriously. They called him by a nickname he didn't want to be known by (Piggy) and they did not respect what he had to say [17]. In other words they didn't fear him so there was no way he could be an effective leader for them. 

Jack on the other hand, was "...tall, thin and bony...His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness" [16 (direct quote)] , which is an intimidating and scary appearance. He was also of the oldest of the castaways, confident with giving orders, especially with his choir at the beginning [16] and did not let others criticize him, like when Ralph told him he should have been keeping the fire going instead of hunting [54-55]. 

Most people, even subconsciously, will fear someone who is bigger or older than them because they think they will be judged or hurt physically by them if they don't do what they say. It's human nature. This shows that physical intimidation is key in leadership. It's like when a little kid is bossed around by a stereotypical bully. The bully may not be smarter than the kid but because he is a few grades ahead of him, bigger than him and more buff, he can get his lunch money or whatever else he wants from him. 

Another example is like when a class at school has a teacher who is big, confident and strict. The kids are not as likely to misbehave in that class, opposed to a class where the teacher is smaller and doesn't have a big booming voice to control them with. So you could be the friendliest person in the world or someone with an IQ of 200, but like Piggy if people look down on your physical appearance or if you don't seem to be dominant to the people you want to lead, it will be difficult to make them listen to you.

Physical appearance, strength and confidence is not the only kind of fear a good leader needs their followers to have. Jack also had tangible rewards for anyone part of his tribe and punishments for going against the tribe. For being under Ralph's control, the only reward was the slight possibility of getting rescued but only if they worked hard to build a fire [144] and only if a ship happened to pass by and see the smoke. 

The only punishment though for not following Ralph, was a lesser chance of getting rescued. After a ship had already passed by [69-72] , it did not look like there would be any chance of rescue again soon. With Jack there was a lot more incentive to follow him. On the island you wouldn't just be eating fruit and nuts with him as your leader [78]. After a hunt you could feast on the meat of the pig you killed [78]. 

At one point, even Ralph and Piggy who did not like the savage ways of Jack's tribe could not resist the meat of the pig: "The boys with the spit gave Ralph and Piggy each a succulent chunk. They took the gift, dribbling...Betrayed by his stomach, Piggy threw a picked bone down on the beach and stooped for more" [165 (direct quote)]. Not only that but as Jack tried to emphasise, that whoever stayed with him would be rewarded with his protection from the beast [147]; also because of the fear of the beast that he created. Likewise, there was also more threat if you didn't follow him. Wilfred for example was sentenced to be tied up and beat [176] and Ralph, Piggy and the twins were attacked for Piggy's glasses [184-186] which wouldn't have happened if they were part of the tribe. 

This kind of fear is also used in the leadership of coaches of sports teams. Good hockey coaches will always punish their players in some sort of way, whether it be benching them for a period, yelling at them at intermissions or even making them do suicides in practice, if the players are not working hard or not following their instructions on the ice. Coaches also can grant their players ice time, if they do what they ask and show effort. They'll also always be able to give the reward of winning if they do what's asked of them. So without the fear of punishment or the temptations of a reward, people wouldn't have much reason to follow a leader.

If a leader creates enough fear with their physical presence and threats of punishment, then they can create one more type of fear indirectly that will make it hard for people not to follow them. This is called "mob mentality". Mob mentality happens when a large group of people act the same way or follow the same leader which creates the fear of going against the crowd and influences people to join the them. This was something that definitely happened in Lord of the Flies and that helped Jack to rule the island. 

Although it doesn't say explicitly in the text, I assume that soon after the chief re-election in which no-one put up their hand for not wanting Ralph as chief (which was probably also because people didn't want to go against the crowd) [139] and then Jack went off by himself, his choir boys/hunters soon joined him. Because of this, Roger and Bill, who had hung around and hunted with Jack earlier in the story [66] and Maurice, felt the pressure to join Jack's tribe even though they may have felt a bit of shame for doing it, since they left when Ralph and the others were distracted with making the fire and didn't tell them they were leaving: 

"Then for the first time he saw how few biguns there were..." [144 (direct quote)]. 

For example, this kind of fear happens a lot in our own life like when someone starts a fashion trend, then more people start following it so someone might feel scared to be different. It could also be a reason why someone would start doing drugs; if all their friends do them, they don't want to be left out. Mob mentality can be one of the most powerful kinds of fear a leader can create, even if they don't create it directly themselves.

If Jack hadn't created the fear he did, it would've been hard to get everyone to ditch their hope of rescue and join in his uncivilized way of savagery. Jack was a very good, effective leader because of his physical appearance, punishments and rewards, and his ability to create mob mentality. 

Even though he was a "good" leader, his leadership was not for the greater good of the people and in the end two people, Simon and Piggy, died because of it [170, 201]. 

To avoid being persuaded by leaders like Jack we need to get over our fears that make us go against our moral values because fear is something leaders need to be successful.