Lord of the Flies

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Lord of the Flies - review.

The book Lord of the Flies is about a plane full of boys crashing on a

deserted island. On the island the boys try to build a civilized

colony but soon fail. Within the novel, objects that the boys find or

make, turn into symbols. William Golding uses symbols in the beginning

of the book, the conch is a good example of this. The conch is a

powerful symbol that develops as the book progresses. The author puts

a lot of detail into this one symbol. The conch is a very important

symbol that at the beginning of the book is invested with power and at

the end this power is destroyed.

The conch during the beginning of the novel shows leadership, power,

and order. During the beginning Ralph finds the conch and blows it to

assemble all the survivors of the plane crash. At this time the author

tells us a little about the conch."Yet most powerful, there was the

conch. The being that had blown that ... was set apart"(11). Right

after the conch was discovered it is portrayed as being powerful and

whoever has it, is special, showing leadership. The boys pick Ralph

because he has the conch, which proves its significance and

leadership. Another example of its power is when Ralph speaks on pages

31 and 32 saying people can only talk if they have the conch and that

this person will not be interrupted. When the children obey this rule

about the conch it tells how this conch has power, creates order and

symbolizes rules. It is clear that the conch is invested with power

during the beginning and that it is already an important symbol.

The power from the conch develops further on in the middle book, and

soon holds a civilizing force over the boys, which can be interrupted

as an important symbol for civilization. The power from the conch in

the beginning of the book is strong but further on the power degrades.

Ralph proves that the conch has a force over the boys. "Ralph had to

wave the conch once more" (85). Ralph waves it to make silence to

prove the power of the conch and everyone obeys this gesture. However

he has to wave it again proving the power is degrading because at

first he only had to wave the conch once. Just this alone shows the

force the conch has over the boys. When the boys obey the conch and

when the conch is around, the boys act civilized and obey rules. This

proves the conch can be interpreted as a symbol for civilization.

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