"A conch he called it. He used to blow it and his mum would come. It's ever so valuable" Piggy, Lord of the Flies. The conch is a sea creature, its shell is revered in many cultures such as Hinduism and Buddhism for its beauty and the sound it makes. The conch is also that shell in Lord of the Flies which is blown into to gather the boys. The author, William Golding, uses the conch to show that democracy will succumb to rule by force in the face of serious trouble or need. In the book, it is a symbol of democratic power but it is not without its enemies who eventually overrule it.
The conch is a symbol of democratic power at the beginning of the story. First, it is used to gather the boys. Ralph blows the conch to assemble them (Golding 12). Gathering the people so that they can share their views, debate and vote is essential to a functioning democracy. As a result, the conch is fulfilling this prerequisite. In addition, it used to grant speaking privileges at meetings. Ralph explains this at the first meeting "I'll give the conch to the next person to speak. [
] And he won't be interrupted."(31) Therefore the conch achieves another prerequisite of democracy which is to give everyone the chance to voice their opinions and concerns. But what is democracy without the power to back it? The conch is a symbol of power for the elected leader, Ralph. When the boys vote for the leader, one of them votes by saying "Him with the shell"(19). Thus, it is the conch which symbolises power to the boys; they vote for it and its holder. In short, by gathering the people, giving them the right to speak and symbolising power; the conch represents democracy. However, it does have enemies.
Jack, his tribe and his tools, such ...
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... To sum up, the conch slowly looses its power to Jack and his tribe who first oppose it, then ignore it and finally destroy it; and any hope of democracy on the island is shattered by authoritarian rule.
It is clear through the symbolism shown in the book that the conch represents democratic rule. On the other hand, Jack's tribe and their tool, rocks, represent rule by force. By slowly removing power from the conch and eventually destroying it, we can see that democracy on the island does not have a chance against rule by force. In our world, an example of this would be Hitler who took advantage of the German people's poverty and need during the great depression to topple the democratic government and install authoritarian rule. Golding shows us this same thing through Lord of the Flies; democracy will loose to fascism if there is serious trouble or great need.
Ralph is losing control of Jack and the Conch is loosing its effect on the other
Generally speaking, the conch has represented democracy and collectiveness throughout the novel. Golding uses the conch to highlight many different ideas in the book by setting the story on an island, which is a microcosm of the entire world and the world that the boys lived in before encountering the fateful crash of the plane. The group of boys encounter problems which, even on this island, they are unable to escape from. It is important to remember that at the same time, there is a nuclear war taking place. The ‘long scar’ that ‘smashed into the jungle’ implies that the island has already been ruined permanently. It seems as though the attempt to remove the boys from a war-filled world has failed because the island is already contaminated by the crash of the plane, which was shot down by an enemy plane, this is somewhat related to warfare. The boys now need to survive on the island and this causes problems revolving around social order, as there are no adults present. In that case, some of the problems are attempted to be resolved by using the conch.
The conch shell represents democracy, power and stability. When Ralph first discovers the conch shell, Piggy proposes to Ralph that they, “…can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come, when they hear us” (16) and that was the birth of the conch shell. Throughout meetings that are held at the beach, the conch is used as a “speaking stick”. After Jack separates himself from the rest of the tribe, Ralph barges into the camp and attempts to use the conch shell to gather up his former tribe mates. The boys say that th...
Leadership and unity came hand and hand on the island of pig on a stick. One of the most important symbols in the book was the conch. The conch represented their civilization. Who knew one blow of a horn could could change everything, “the conch against his lips, took a deep breath and blew once more” (Golding 17). The boys listened to the sound of the conch and gathered. One by one they would file in and say their names, then came Jack.
In the novel, Ralph deserts civilization. At first, Ralph uses the conch to establish civilization and a form of democracy on the island. In the beginning of the novel, Ralph declares, “Whoever has the conch gets to speak” (16). The conch was used as a tool to retain ord...
Civilization and order needs to be established within a society or chaos will spread and the society will become a complete anarchy. William Golding uses a conch shell to symbolize this in his novel Lord of the Flies. The power that it holds gradually declines as the novel develops. The evil and savagery that’s within the boys brought the destruction of the conch to it’s end. The novel’s events that involved this symbol helped with the question of whether evil is present
When the boys arrive at the island after a plane crash, they are forced to find a way to keep everything in order and under control. “At first they delight in their freedom and in their pleasure of the island”( Saidi, Hasan1). Then the boys begin to explore, Ralph and Piggy find a conch shell on the beach. When Ralph and Piggy first see the shell Piggy says "S'right. It's a shell! I seen one like that before. On someone's back wall. A conch he called it. He used to blow it and then his mum would come. It's ever so valuable--" (Golding15). They use this shell as a symbol of how fragile order and democracy is. The sound from the shell gathers all the boys together after the plane crash. The plane crash seperated them in th...
The conch was the final representation of society, and with its destruction it shows the final transformation from a well-mannered group of boys into a group of savages. The conch shell was found by Ralph and Piggy in the first chapter of the book and was instantly used as a horn to call an “assembly”. Ever since the conch was used the first time it was always a vital role in the book, bringing together the boys in many situations Up until the very end of the book the conch shell serves as a glue for their civilization, being a vital part not only in calling all of the boys’ meetings, but also during them with it acting as a “hot seat” where if whoever had the conch shell was the one doing the talking. Despite all of this the conch was still destroyed by a member of Jack’s following,Roger. Roger had been very sadistic during the entire book, and this was at the peak of savagery in the book. “See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you any more! The conch is gone—” . With the conch being destroyed the boys’ ties to civilization are completely gone revealing the truth that Golding attempted to communicate in his book; True human nature is
The conch is first discovered on the beach by Piggy and Ralph, and it is used to summon all of the children together on the island. Also, the conch helps to create order within their meetings, and the only person who could speak would be the one to hold the conch. However, as civilization on the island starts to become lost, the conch shell starts to lose its power and influence. As Jack gains more power, he begins to destruct the boy’s civilization, and become savage. This is portrayed when Roger rolls a stone, ultimately killing Piggy and shattering the conch shell, an important representation of civilization. Once again, high power within a civilization can eventually end up depriving a fragile
The conch becomes a symbol of the right of a speaker to a fair hearing. While Jack uses his authority to produce a fascist, hostile environment where he controls the doings of his tribe.
The conch is a symbol of order and government. It is first used to bring the boys together, like a call to survivors from rescuers. Piggy suggests that “[they] use [the] [conch] to call the [other] [boys]” (Golding 10). The
The conch was used to call meetings but is also symbolic of the government structure and power. One of the main themes in the novel “Civilization vs. Savagery” is fought between two egos, Jack the Id who represents savagery and the desire for power and Ralph the Ego and protagonist, who represents order and leadership. William Golding created a society that was controlled by the dominant ego and influenced mostly by the person with the most manpower. Jack who was the leader of the hunter group influences the rest to join his tribe to hunt and kill. However, not all of the children on the island had the same savage trait as some others. This created a clash between tribes and leaders. You were left with the Good vs. Evil or Civilization vs. Savagery scenario.
In his novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding presents a conch shell representing the order of civilization. He uses this symbol to effectively portray the theme that humans are inherently evil and have savage desires, shown through the decline from discipline and peace among the boys on the deserted island. In the novel, civilization directly correlates to the boys’ past lives in England. Before coming to the island, there were adults present who maintained order by enforcing rules and punishing those who did not follow them. However on the island, the conch, representing this society, is a powerful object that demands the respect of the boys in a similar way that the adults do. As time passes, the conch’s influence over the boys weakens and ultimately all forms of civilization are rejected.
Oftentimes when people are faced with a moral decision, the evil almost always outweighs the good as it is usually more practical, or easier. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the characters are faced with a decision of good (civilization) and evil (savagery). In the novel, evil is portrayed through varied forms of events, characters and symbols. Golding depicts a picture within the readers mind as he ventures out to imitate how savagery will take over if there's no civilization intact. One amongst the various symbols that Golding exerts into the novel is the conch. Another symbol used in this novel is the Lord of the Flies. Amongst the Characters, Jack was used to represent evil. Throughout several components of the novel, innocence is used to show that anything can happen to even those who seem the most virtuous, even within the gentlest of hearts a seed of evil exists.
It was not significant at Jack’s end of the island, due to the fact that the conch represented order, and Jack does not agree with order. Since Jack had moved from Ralph’s group, order had no meaning for him. Jack would only do whatever he desires which is hunting and didn’t care about anything els...