Who Is The Conch In Lord Of The Flies

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Philip Doroszczyk English 1/3/17 The Conch In the novel, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there are many symbols which are shown throughout as the story unfolds. One of the most important is the conch, which has a significant role in the story. When growing up, many schools often have an item called the “talking stick,” which was used as an indication for who can speak. In the novel the group of boys who crash-land on the island use the conch as their “talking stick”. The conch has a lot of symbolic meanings but most of all it symbolizes power of order and authority. The conch’s authority is strong at the beginning of the book, but once the novel progresses it begins to lose its power and authority as order on the island crumbles. …show more content…

Jack begins to disobey the rules governing use of the conch which, at the beginning, he wanted to put in place. When Ralph orders the group to maintain the fire in case any ships go by, Jack decides to go hunting instead of watching the fire. It is at that time that a ship goes by and doesn’t see the fire because it went out due to Jack’s lack of obedience to Ralph’s authority, as holder of the conch. Jack’s desire to hunt causes him to disobey the rules and causes a blow to the group's order. Ralph, angry with Jack, calls a meeting to order. This causes Ralph and Jack to argue because Jack is disobeying the rules. Ralph gets angry with Jack because he let the fire go out, and Jack is angry at Piggy for insulting him. Jack begins to go against the rules as he feels that he isn’t allowed to do what he wants. “The rules!” shouted Ralph “You’re breaking the rules!”, “Who cares”, Ralph summoned his wits. “Because the rules are the only thing we've got!”, But Jack shouted against him. “Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong-we hunt!”(Golding 91). Jack doesn’t care about the rules because his anger puts it aside, he disobeys because he is not eager to observe order and rejoin civilization. Jack likes the freedom and liberty he has and knows that civilization will take it away from him as it has rules and consequences placed so there is order and structure. He knows that there are no adults on the island, and that the conch can’t punish him like an adult authority figure would. Jack does whatever he wants, thinking he won’t get in trouble and that there aren’t any consequences for his actions. The other boys don’t want to interfere with Jack and stop him because they are scared of him and they are intimidated by him. The conch, which becomes less useful

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