Essay On The Conch Shell In Lord Of The Flies

One way the conch symbolizes authority, occurs when the boys don't listen to the rule of the conch and they further leave behind society. When the boys first organize themselves on the island they make begin making rules. The highest or most important rule is that whoever is holding the conch has the right to speak, without being interrupted. By making a rule involving the conch they have now made an authority figure. Some of the boys would follow the rule until the end but others began breaking the rule hours after it was made. When Piggy is holding the conch on the

In the novel, Lord of the flies the conch shell represents power or in other words law and order. This novel carries out a civilization vs savagery theme. In Lord of the flies the characters are very dynamic and use the conch shell to overpower one another. The conch shell may show corruption or it may show alignment

"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.

Singer-songwriter Eric Burdon once said, “Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It’s a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other.” In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, symbols are used to represent a deeper meaning to the novel. Three symbols he used are the conch, the Lord of the Flies, and the island. There are numerous amounts of symbols in the novel, one of them being the conch that Ralph and Piggy found.

In Lord of the Flies, evil is described in many situations. The author Golding is trying to put an image in our heads showing how the group has lost their civilization The conch is one of many symbols in the book to show fear. Ralph found the conch on the beach and he now uses it to obtain order .Whoever uses the conch has the right to speak,also when the conch is blown it means there is a meeting.

Maliha Kamran Mrs. Spring H English I 30 November 2014 LOTF Essay Symbols are snapshots of motion. They are synonymous with complexity and power, as they give people a kind of understanding that does not require an explanation.

Golding uses the historical precedent to show that specific things are needed in order for a society to continue. In the novel, The Lord of The Flies, written by William Golding, the conch shell symbolizes order and leadership, Piggy’s glasses represent intelligence and survival, the fire is a representation of hope. The purpose of the conch shell is that it is a means of communication within the group and determines leadership among the boys. Anger and confusion arises in the group, so the boys need to determine who is the leader of the pack when one the boys find the conch shell.

In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the conch shell, that Piggy and Ralph first find lying in the sand on the deserted island, to me, represented civilization and control. It gave the boys on the island a sense of government and routine. Once the shell is broken though, later in the book, complete chaos ensues and the boys on the island have seemed to lost their sense of civilization and have turned to savagery and hunting people like animals. In this book the author used a lot of symbolic language and there were many items in the book that represented something else entirely, such as the conch.

Initially discovered by Ralph, the conch shell symbolizes order as it first satisfies the role of reassembling separated school boys after crashing upon the island. At the sound of the horn, shadow figures begin gravitating towards the platform where the noise originated from, demonstrating its efficiency. As the boys establish basic structures of society, the conch serves as a summoning device for deliberative meetings considering the boys have yet to spend a substantial amount of time away from civilization, and therefore still respond to the concept of standardization. Within the second gathering, the conch develops political power as only the person possessing it is permitted to speak, restoring the undisciplined meetings with regulation.

He made the conch a symbol of order. The conch brings the boys together for meetings where they can talk and have order. Piggy also makes it so you cannot speak unless you have the conch. Piggy and the conch become very close, as if Piggy feels it as the only thing that has order, from being humiliated by all the other boys. An example of this is after all the boys run up the mountain to make a fire: “'Like kids!' he said scornfully, 'Acting like a crowd of kids!' Ralph looked at him doubtfully and laid the conch on a tree trunk...'What do they think they're going to do on that mountain?' He caressed the shell respectively, then stopped and looked up. 'Ralph! Hey! Where are you going?'” (37). This shows that the conch is a symbol of order because Ralph puts it down once order is lost and chaos begins when all the boys run up the mountain, but Piggy picks it up and starts caressing it, mourning the loss of order. Finally, he stops caressing it when Ralph decides to join the chaos and runs up the mountain after the other boys. Piggy is killed when Roger pushes a rock on Piggy which shatters the conch and sends Piggy flying out to sea to his death: “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.”(200). This shows that with the death of Piggy, the conch, a symbol of order on the island, also dies. Note how Golding describes it as “ceased to exist”. It shows that order ceased to exist with the death of the conch and Piggy, the only two things on the island that build or represent order, and how chaos ensues after they are gone. That is why Piggy's death on the island helps develop a theme of order versus

This imagery is symbolic of change in the boys. No longer are they civilized, they are transforming into barbaric creatures and the idea of democracy can no longer keep them together. The conch and Ralph start to lose their importance; evil is starting to prevail and use their ability to control unwisely, linking to the theme. When all sense of civility is lost, “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments” (pg 181) leaving the island with no leader. The explosion is symbolic of the island’s corruption, and the absolute loss of civilization. The conch was the idea of maintaining order within the island’s society, and when it breaks or “dies”, it’s the death of the idea civility. Piggy also dies here, furthering with the idea of having no intellect. With no civilization or rational thought, all sense of what used to be known has disappeared. All of the power that Ralph and the shell had, is now ceased to exist. The power inside evil has prevailed, proving the theme of power is dependent upon the situation.

My essay would be about why the conch is a symbol of order and unity in Lord of the Flies. Why is this important? This book helps us realize that there are symbols all around us that provide us with order and unity. Like in Toronto, something that keeps us civilized is our laws. Since the boys are stranded on an island without adults, they try their best to make up their own rules. The conch is what stands in place of laws and without it, the whole group goes insane. Similarly, in Toronto, without laws, who knows what crazy things would happen! The book teaches us the importance of togetherness and having rules, which is what my essay focuses on. After reading my essay, you will understand the significance the conch had on their civilization,

In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a plane crashes on an island and a group of children are stranded. The Lord of the Flies has many symbolic elements in the essay beginning from the title to the end of the novel. There were two elements that stood out to me; I want to examine the Conch Shell and the Signal Fire to show how the significance in the novel. The boys use the conch shell to indicate who has speaking rights at the moment. One boy says what is on his mind while holding the shell and others request it to comment on what was said.

The Lord of the Flies is a thought-provoking book with many symbols and significances. Truly, the sows head and conch shell mean diverse things. Lord of the Flies is about power along with the symbols having power too. Ultimately, the power of a person can use a symbol to control a group. The novel and symbols have different meanings that are stimulating.

When the boys first start a fire on top of the mountain, Piggy holds the conch and attempts to speak. But Jack scolds him by saying, “The conch doesn’t count on top of the mountain, so you shut up” (Golding 39). Boys like Jack begin to place restrictions on the conch and lose respect for it and for one another. Then one day at an assembly, Jack places even less importance on the conch excluding more of the boys and weakening the equal order and authority that the conch provides. Jack says, “We don’t need the conch anymore. We know who ought to say things...It’s time some people knew they’ve got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us” (Golding 92). Jack’s statement here clearly connects the end of the conch to a change in the social order. Jack is slowly becoming a power-hungry dictator, and the orderly influence of the conch is replaced by man’s evil desires.