Leadership in Lord of the Flies (LOTF)

Introduction

You are an EXCO member of Prefectorial Board in your school. Being in a senior position, your teachers have assigned you to investigate and research about the different types of leadership. They have encouraged you to read up on Lord of the Flies, a book your teachers found to be deeply enriching and well-suited to help you grow as a leader and as a person. Taking this assignment as a challenge, you gladly accept it and embark on a journey to investigate and research about the different types of leadership exemplified by the main characters in Lord of the Flies that exist in society today.

There are many forms of leadership in LOTF. Democratic and autocratic are different forms of leaderships that are shown in LOTF.

Democratic leadership is a form of leadership that involves participative leadership in which members of the group take a more participative role in decision-making processes. In other words, everyone is given the opportunity to participate, ideas are exchanged freely and discussion is encouraged. Democracy focusses on group equality and open sharing of ideas, where the leader of the group is there to give advice and provide guidance. This form of leadership allows members to voice their opinions and decisions are made unanimously all the time.

On the other hand, autocratic leadership is a leadership style characterised by individual control over all decisions and little input from group members. Autocratic leaders typically make decisions based on their own ideas and judgements and rarely considers advice from followers. This involves authoritarian control over the group. The leader dictates all the work methods and processes, members are rarely trusted with important tasks or decisions. This form of leadership allows things to be accomplished quickly and efficiently in a short period of time.

Furthermore, Lord of the Flies is a dystopian novel written by William Golding to depict his feelings about the leadership and its impact on British society at the point of time. He subtly soaks his sentences with his opinion of the leadership around him and his views towards it. By analysing Golding's depiction of the book's characters, one can decipher the deeper meaning behind leadership represented in the book.

Task

My leaders-to-be, the task at hand is difficult. It requires you to learn more about the different types of leadership embodied and exemplified by the main characters in LOTF. At the end of the web quest, you will be quizzed on your knowledge and understanding of the theme of leadership in LOTF.

In LOTF, the author Golding expresses several real-life issues, including the differences faced by leaders in Britain, through the book's main characters, namely Ralph and Jack. This book conveys messages about leadership that exist in real life and offers different perspectives to problems through symbolism and word play. This book also talks about how differences in leadership can lead to a dangerous descent into savagery and anarchy.

At the end of the day, by learning about the different styles of leadership, you will learn more about the character traits of important characters in The Lord of the Flies. We hope that through this journey, you will learn things that you can apply in life, and to avoid the mistakes made by characters in the story because of the clashes in styles of leadership.

Watch this video, which will give you a brief introduction of both Ralph and Jack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEReKSCz8_w

Tasks:

1. Activities on the theme of leadership in the novel, 5 multiple-choice questions and a short open response.

2. To determine whether you're more of an autocratic or democratic leader, you will be put through scenarios where you will be needed to provide a response.

3. Are you more of a follower or a leader? You will be put in scenarios where you will be needed to provide a response.

4. What messages about leadership are William Golding trying to convey throughout LOTF? You will be needed to provide a short personal response.

Process

Part 1: 5 questions on the theme of leadership in the novel to test your understanding on the leading characters in Lord Of The Flies.

Visit: http://m.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/canalysis.html to get some clues about each of the characters.

Q1. What kind of system did Jack represent?

(a) Democratic

(b) Socialist

(d) Autocratic

Q2. What kind of system did Piggy stand for?

(a) Socialist

(b) Fascist

(d) Communist

Q3. What skill was Jack most adept in?

(a) Fighting

(b) Hunting

(d) Dancing

Q4. Choose the best reason for Ralph's triumph over Jack to be the leader.

(a) Ralph was more handsome than Jack was.

(b) Ralph was a symbol of order and power, whereas Jack represented savagery.

(d) Piggy recommended Ralph to the rest of the boys and said that he was the most intelligent and was the most suitable for the role of decision making.

Q5. Why did Jack feel that Ralph was inferior to him with regard to leadership?

(a) Jack was the chapter chorister and head boy, whereas Ralph did not hold any previous position of leadership.

(b) Jack was more decisive, whereas Ralph was hesitant and cautious in making decisions.

(c) Jack was more capable in helping the boys survive by hunting, whereas Ralph was just concerned with establishing order and law on the island.

(d) Jack felt that he was more worthy than anybody else, including Ralph, as was very confident in his abilities.

Part 2: To determine whether you're more of an autocratic or democratic leader, you will be put through scenarios where you will be needed to provide a short personal response.

Q1. You are the captain of a football team and one of your players challenges you when you are giving a team talk. Would you tell him to be quiet and respect the authority or would you give him a chance to voice his opinion politely? Why?

Q2. You are in charge of a group of young children for a day. You decide to bring them to the zoo for an outing. While you are getting the children in order to leave for the zoo, would you yell and tell each child how to behave when you get to the zoo, or do you let the kids elect a leader to be in charge through a voting process? Why?

Q3. You are the teacher of a classroom, where the children are rowdy and rebellious by nature. When it comes to lay down the rules, would you strike fear into their hearts by seeming scary and banging the tables or would you depict yourself to be calm and collected, while showing confidence in yourself while projecting your image of reason? Why?

Part 3: Are you more of a follower or a leader? You will be put in scenarios where you will be needed to provide a response.

Q1. Your school's football team's captain is sick and unable to join the team for a match. You are an influential member of the squad despite not holding an official position. Would you step up and lead the team despite uncertainty, or would you support your soft-spoken but capable vice-captain to take the lead? Why?

Q2. Your mother's overseas to tend to a work problem as part of her job scope. You are left in charge of the house, along with your older brother. As your older brother reaches home later than you do, would you try doing some chores that you are unfamiliar with, or would you wait for your older brother to come home and do them together, to avoid accidents and mishaps? Why?

Q3. You are part of an organizing committee for this year's annual school carnival. The other members cannot make it on the day itself and the event has to go smoothly for the sake of the school's name. Would you take the lead by being on the ground on the day itself, or would you say that you have something urgent to attend to excuse yourself in fear of failure.

Part 4: What messages about leadership are William Golding trying to convey throughout LOTF? You will be needed to provide a short personal response.

Visit this link: http://brokensocietylotf.weebly.com/ralph-vs-jack-leadership-in-lord-of-the-flies.html

Read about the different types of leadership in LOTF, its effects and consequences throughout the book.

Evaluation

You will be evaluated based on the detail of your response in the task section. Remember, there are no wrong answers, but your response must be well-substantiated for maximum marks. Use the links provided, and search the web to find out the answers to questions that you are unsure of.

For open-ended questions:

Criteria	Level I (0-3 marks)	Level II (4-6 marks)	Level III (7-10 marks)
Language and Fluency	The student make little or no effort to provide clear and grammatically correct explanations in sentences.	The student makes reasonable effort to provide clear and grammatically correct sentences.	The student makes maximum effort to provide clear and grammatically correct sentences.
Vocabulary	The student uses simple and limited variation of nouns and adjectives in his response.	The student uses a variety of nouns and adjectives to substantiate his response.	The student uses sophisticated and profound nouns and adjectives to write his response.
Creativity	The student uses little or no language techniques in his entire essay.	The student employs a few language techniques in his entire essay.	The student employs several language techniques in his entire essay successfully.

Part 1: Multiple-choice questions:

Q1. (d)

Q2. (c)

Q3. (b)

Q4. (b)

Q5. (a)

Conclusion

Well done my leaders-to-be, by reaching the end of this web quest shows that you have persevered through uncertainty and travelled through rough water to reach your destination to achieve the desired end product. Through this journey, we hope that this insight into the theme of leadership in Lord of the Flies has inspired and motivated you to gain new revelations on your own opinion about leadership.

In addition to gaining new knowledge of the theme of leadership in Lord of the Flies, our aim is to help you learn real-life applications of leadership through this journey. We believe that it is crucial to achieve and maintain a good balance between different styles of leadership, to come to a consensus that both parties can agree to, instead of encouraging conflict like in LOTF.

Do take the time to reflect on what you have learned over the course of this web quest and apply them in your daily lives.

Thank you for embarking on this journey, it has been a delight and pleasure to walk you through this experience. At this juncture, we would like to say goodbye and we sincerely wish you luck in your quest to be the best leader you can be.