Mistakes Ralph Made Towards Getting Rescued

Ralph failed to lead the group of boys to civilization by himself. After Jack separated himself from Ralph and brought most of the boys with him, it was clear that he took control of the island and became the leader. After Ralph was elected as the leader of the group in the beginning of the book, he was confident that he could complete the task of running a system of government on the island to keep the group alive and ultimately lead them to civilization. However, it did not end up being that way. Ralph made some key mistakes that led to the loss of his leadership and those ended up affecting how long they were stuck on the island. Ralph could have compromised with Jack, kept the boys on task, and formed close relationships with the boys to be a more successful leader.

Ralph did not try to compromise with Jack to keep the group of boys together. He and Jack start to develop a rivalry throughout the book. Ralph also begins to irritate Jack by antagonizing him because of his inability to be a successful hunter. Ralph makes this antagonism audible. "[Jack] 'We want meat -' [Ralph] 'And we don't get it.'" (Golding 51) This is the point in the book where Jack and Ralph started to become frustrated with each other and they start to despite each other. Instead of accusing Jack for not gathering meat and antagonizing him, Ralph could have talked to Jack about splitting up hunters and builders instead of trying to have everybody build shelters, which is what Ralph wanted.

Even though Ralph was considered the leader of the group, he failed to keep group members on task with their jobs. They got tired of doing their jobs every day over and over, so they quit doing them and they ran off and did what they wanted to. This resulted in a burnt out fire, and shelters that were barely able to stand. One thing Ralph could have done to fulfill the lack of job interest in his group was to offer rewards to people who completed a task or who worked hard. The boys would be motivated to work hard and complete their jobs as quickly as possible to the best of their abilities if rewards such as free time or more meat at dinner were given out. Another possibility would be to add consequences for the people who failed to complete their jobs. This also would motivate them to work hard so that they do not get punished.

If Ralph didn't have trouble getting the boys to complete their duties, then he could have attempted