By David Glandon
The “golden mean” is a concept made popular by Aristotle, one of the greatest philosophers of all time. This idea involves setting up an imaginary scale between two personality traits that are opposite from one another, and saying that the center between those two extremes is the optimal way to live. One such example would be between cowardice and foolhardiness you find the golden mean of courage. Using this rule, ideal leadership can be more easily defined. Optimal leadership lies on the spectrum between the two extremes of passivity and aggression. This idea that leadership is between these extremes is exhibited in the novels Lord of the Flies, and Ender’s Game by examining the secondary characters in the novels, the protagonists, as well as the inner conflicts that each of the protagonists experience.
First and foremost, it is important to contrast some of the characters that are exhibited in the two novels who demonstrate leadership. In Lord of the Flies both Simon and Jack function as leaders at one time or another, although neither seems to be as successful as the protagonist, Ralph. These secondary characters both have opportunities to lead but have some kind of flaw that prevents them from being an optimal leader. Simon has no overall goal or motivation. He lacks a drive for others to follow. It is obvious from the text, though, that he would be followed if he cared to lead at all. Early on in the book it can be seen how the littluns would follow him around as he showed them things and gave them food. He was able to garner a large amount of respect through being empathetic to their needs. This respect was not enough to make him a successful leader; he never rose to any sort of power in the book due to his complete lack of ambition. Jack on the other hand had a much stronger run in an actual leadership role, even managing to gather a large following near the end of the novel. He never became an ideal leader because the only goal that he ever expressed was to be in control. While he had the ambition that Simon lacked, he had no empathy or understanding of the people he was leading. When he breaks Piggy’s glasses, he shows no sign of remorse (“Lord of the Flies” 178-179). He did not care about Piggy, he only cared that the group thought he looked good. This lack of empathy did not make him a successful leader even though he has the capabilities to forge his own success.
There is a virtual mirror image in characters when you look at Ender’s Game. In this novel Valentine and Peter are the extremes of the leadership spectrum. Both of them were rejected by the school for very different reasons. Valentine was rejected because she was too compassionate and empathetic. It was not believed that she would be able to complete the task required of her because she would connect too much with the aliens or because she would not have the drive to be the leader they needed. That isn’t to say that Valentine had no leadership qualities. The book even mentions how her empathy enhances her ability to get people to follow her. “Val[entine] could always see what other people liked best about themselves… Valentine could persuade other people to her point of view—she could convince them that they wanted what she wanted,” (Card 127). Peter represents the opposite end of the spectrum. He even expresses to Valentine that all he wants in life is control (“Ender’s Game” 106). He was ultimately unable to rise to power without the help of Valentine, who provided him with other viewpoints that he would never be able to comprehend. She specifically provided him with more understanding on peacekeeping, empathetic ideas. In fact, the only reason that both of them were able to gather as much power and influence as they did was because by working together they were able to meet in the middle on the leadership spectrum. Together they were able to achieve what Ender was able to achieve alone. Peter even acknowledges this partnership’s advantages by pleading with Valentine, “But if you are there, my partner in everything, you can keep me from becoming—like that. Like the bad ones,” (Card 132-133). Having one of the two extremes is never enough to gather a following and to focus that following into a purpose. A balance between the two is required in order to achieve ideal leadership.
The protagonists of both novels provide examples of how successful leadership lies between the two extremes. Ender’s achievements in the final battle are purely a testament to his more moderate stance between empathetic passivity and aggressive control. He was able to understand where his soldiers’ strengths and weaknesses were due to his empathy, but he kept pushing them to their limits with the aid of his aggression. It was ultimately his thirst for control that enabled him to defiantly cheat by blowing up the entirety of the alien planet. “It was funny. The adults taking all this so seriously, and the children playing along, playing along, believing it too until suddenly the adults went too far, tried too hard, and the children could see through their game. Forget it, Mazer. I don’t care if I pass your test, I don’t care if I follow your rules. If you can cheat, so can I. I won’t let you beat me unfairly—I’ll beat you unfairly first,” (Card 293). Ender’s Game makes this explicit in how Ender was born for the sole purpose of getting a child that had a temperament in between Valentine and Peter. The system knew it needed a golden mean, and it got one. Ralph also represents this ideal leader in Lord of the Flies. Ralph became a leader almost by accident although he was quickly able to acquire the respect of the other children. He empathizes with the group’s overall goal of escaping the island. Because of this, he is able to retain enough control over the group in order to enforce rules that would allow a society to function, such as maintaining the fire, and that only the conch holder should speak. It is his control that allows him to lead, and his empathy that made people want to follow him. When he is trying to give a speech he shows concern for his audience, “He was searching his mind for simple words so that even the littluns would understand” (Golding 79). When he reevaluates Piggy’s worth, “But Piggy, for all his ludicrous body, had brains. Ralph was a specialist in thought now, and could recognize thought in another,” (Golding 78). It is clear that he thinks very carefully about others’ involvement in his leadership and understands how other people work and how they will react to him. This allows him to be true to the people he is leading, not getting lost in his own desires but staying strong with what he believes others want. These examples of optimal leadership have both sides of the spectrum represented in their personality, and that is what enables them to lead with so much success.
Finally the inner conflict of the protagonists shows how they fight to stay true to the center of the leadership spectrum. Ralph had a constant struggle staying between the two extremes. Throughout the book it can easily be seen that Ralph is burying his inner aggression and control in favor of his people and empathy. There are many examples early in the book where Ralph is biting back insults towards Piggy or a littlun. While a lot of the other kids join in and insult them, Ralph tried to be an example to the others by not joining in. There are also more extreme examples where he is fighting this aggression, “Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering,” (Golding 114-115). This inner struggle, combined with his eventual murder of Simon shows him falling into the aggression, but his immediate regret and shame allowed him to pull his way back to the center, whereas Jack didn’t even budge from his post. This struggle is what makes him a good leader, he did not give in to either side, he fought to stay in the middle where he would have more control over his actions. Ender experienced a similar inner battle. He had to constantly tell himself that he wasn’t like Peter. It was one of the most important parts of Ender’s personality, he was repulsed by anything he did that he thought Peter might have done. After every situation where he was forced to beat up opposition he questioned his inner motives. Being forced to confront an image of his inner Peter during the Mind Game also caused him a lot of stress. Eventually he learned that he couldn’t beat the Peter out of himself, he had to increase his empathy—the Valentine part of himself—in order to overcome his aggression. Ender is constantly trying to see flaws in himself and purge them in order to center himself as much as he can. He obviously was able to see how dangerous embracing his inner Peter could have been, and took steps to avoid sliding too far towards that side of the spectrum. His conscious understanding of his own inner workings, as well as the corrections he tried to make are what allowed him to succeed in leading his team to victory. Any leader should have this self-reflective tendency in order to achieve centering themselves.
Unlike the less optimal leaders within the two novels, the examples given of ideal leadership included their constant battle to find the middle ground between the two extremes, showing how both books have the same opinion on leadership. Optimal leadership must lie between empathy and control, passivity and aggression. Aristotle would have been proud.
Works Cited
Day, Sara K. “Crossing the lines of childhood, adulthood, and morality in Ender’s game.” English Studies in Canada, vol. 38, no. 3-4, 2012, p. 207+. Academic OneFile, db24.linccweb.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.db24.linccweb.org/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=lincclin_spjc&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA344286252&asid=db13a281bbcb6228c81a3a42ba939348. Accessed 17 Apr. 2017.
“Ender’s Game.” Novels for Students, edited by Marie Rose Napierkowski, vol. 5, Gale, 1999, pp. 99-121. Gale Virtual Reference Library, db24.linccweb.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.db24.linccweb.org/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=lincclin_spjc&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CCX2591800017&it=r&asid=9b54e31b95d953f26045cea4adedb5a3. Accessed 17 Apr. 2017.
“Lord of the Flies.” Novels for Students, edited by Diane Telgen, vol. 2, Gale, 1997, pp. 174-195. Gale Virtual Reference Library, db24.linccweb.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.db24.linccweb.org/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=lincclin_spjc&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CCX2591500019&it=r&asid=017662e5e2fd8f75209f036b65e1b6f9. Access
Image: Lord of the Flies cover art by Pentagram via the Wikimedia Commons. The copyright is believed to belong to the publisher, Faber & Faber, or the cover artist, Pentagram (Wikimedia Commons).