Ralph

Ralph.

The boy I have chosen is Ralph.  In the novel, he was elected to be chief of the island.  He was supposed to maintain peace and civilization on the island.  However, he was contested as leader by another boy, Jack Merridew.  

Jack Merridew. 

Jack had been in charge for the majority of his life so it was hard for him to just stand by as another person lead.  Ralph instantly saw the confusion and sadness when he was elected as a leader instead of Jack and he decided to let Jack be the chief of his choir.  Jack and Ralph had different priorities.  Jack didn't fully understand the circumstances they were in and felt that hunting was the most important thing they could do.  Ralph on the other hand, fully understood that their only hope of salvation was to maintain a fire so that passing ships might see the smoke.  

Smoke.

There was a constant conflict between the two of them which eventually lead to the separation of the boys.  From this point on, everything took a turn for the worse and the killing began.  Therefore, Ralph contributed to the tragedies by not giving Jack and his choir enough freedom to hunt and personal space.  Even though the fire is obviously more important, Ralph could have maintained it with the help of the other boys.  And Ralph and Jack could have compromised by Jack only taking a few boys hunting each time he went which would leave more boys to tend the fire and help out around the camp.  Also, Ralph could have easily prevented the death of Simon by telling the group that it was simply Simon and not the beast which they believed it was.  However, he killed Simon along with all the other boys participating in the dance.  Ralph could not have done anything about Piggy's death except for maybe keeping a closer eye on him or keeping Piggy closer to himself.  

Ralph could have kept a closer eye on Piggy.

For the most part though, Piggy's death was  an accident.  If I was in Ralph's shoes, I would have handled the majority of things the same way as he did.  However, I would have not have been so focused on Jack and his intentions.  I would have just accepted that he did not have his priorities straight and I would have tried to figure out a way to make a compromise with him instead of fighting him.

Fighting.

Other than that though, I find that Ralph did a good job of handling situations and being a leader in general, especially since he was only twelve years old.