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Conch Lord Of The Flies Essay

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In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the conch is a primary symbol, which represents civility and order. Throughout the book it served as a power tool that the boys highly respected, in fact, the symbolism of the conch begins before it is even blown. Ralph is the one who originally discovers and posses the shell, but it’s Piggy who explains it’s significance. Piggy has to teach Ralph how to blow it; this shows how from the beginning the conch is linked with both Piggy and Ralph. Shortly after, Ralph blows the conch, which leads to the boys forming a meeting. This is the first time the conch is used as a thing of power. By blowing the conch, it gave the others an authoritative sense coming off of Ralph. “The children gave him …show more content…

Readers know that Jack, who represents brutality and the hunger for power, is constantly trying to overthrow Ralph for his position as leader. However, even Jack respects the conch at first, though it represents the exact opposite of his character. Simon is the only person that symbolizes true purity and goodness. He is only one who understands that the island is changing them and that their fear of the beast will eventually cause them to develop into beasts themselves. The conch, much like Simon, represents morality and harmony. When Jack and his hunters relentlessly kill him it is the first time readers truthfully see evil overpower good. Now that the once Christ-figure is dead their devilish traits start to escape them. Even Piggy, someone who is portrayed as wise and kind, tries to justify for Simon’s murder when he says, “It was dark. There was that- that bloody dance. There was lightning and thunder and rain. We was scared!” (156) Simon knew the truth about the beast, he had the potential to rescue the boys from themselves yet they escalated the situation and killed him for trying to spread the good news. The death of Simon was a real turning point in the novel. When the once pure, almost Godly boy is furiously executed is when the decline of the conch truly

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They blew it to gather the kids together and form a group, it was a tool used to gather meetings and they made rules to make them more civilized. In the text, Ralph says “And another thing. We can’t have everybody talking at once. We’ll have to have ‘Hands up’ like at school.” . . . “Then I’ll give him the conch. . . .

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The first time the reader realizes the power of the conch is in the beginning whenever the conch was found on the island. To illustrate Ralph says “ I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak, he can hold it when he’s speaking.”(33 ) This quote shows power and keeping everyone in line at the beginning of their journey on the island. For when someone raises the conch all the other boys are instructed to be quiet and listen to the speaker.

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The conch symbolizes the role of leadership showing they have some source of civilization, once the conch is broken a descent into savagery leads to a dangerous turn for the boys. The one thing that the boys all had that could bring them together was the conch. “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking.” Ralph says and later on says “We’ll have rules!”

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After the conch is broken it is spoken by Jack that the conch is gone in a wildly manner, he then proceeds to stab Ralph with a spear. The conch represents a certain jurisdiction for these boys and as soon as that's lost so is that line they don’t cross. The line gets blurred and they can no longer see it. However, there is more symbolism in this book; such as ‘the monster’ representing the lurking and growing evil in human nature. " ‘What I mean is...

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Indeed Lord of the Flies has tremendous amounts of connections to the real world. Important events, speeches by characters and even words tend to act as an allegory to the real world. I felt that the most important word of the book would be: “Conch”. The “Conch” is a shell of “ deep cream, touched here and there with fading pink” (16). and the authors expresses its value to be very expensive “ -- a conch, ever so expensive” (16).

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”(156) Piggy understands that Simon was killed because the boys were scared, and that they were influenced by what could have been. Fear destroyed the boys, as it destroys society, and will always be present

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The significance of the conch shell is first mentioned in the story as a symbol of law and order. In Chapter 2, Ralph blows the conch to summon the other boys back to the assembly and reports the findings of the excursion. Jack interrupts almost quickly to emphasize the need for an army for pig hunting. Ralph institutes, “‘ Another thing. We can’t have everybody talking at once.

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The Lord Of The Flies by William Golding is a book about a plane full of boys crashing on an island. The boys are by themselves no adults so they have to survive on their own and establish their own government. Piggy is one of the first characters we meet as a boy with poor eyesight, a weight problem and asthma so the readers already like him even if no one else likes him. Piggy is the closest thing the boys have to an adult on the island. Throughout the story Piggy embraces the character traits of being intellectually intelligent, Mature and loyal.

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The conch shell is first found by Piggy and Ralph who use it to call for survivors. The shell is then established as a symbol of democracy, as found in this quote, “... I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking,” (33). Allowing each boy to speak when in possession of the conch shows that, although Ralph is chief, all boys can have a say in the rulings of the island. This democratic system is a beginning representation of our world in which everyone knows their place and there is overall peace.

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Symbolism of the Conch in Lord of the Flies by William Golding represents civilization. The novel Lord of the Flies is about a group of boys from England who have been stranded on an island after an airplane crash. They are expected to fend for themselves and are slowly reverting back to their primal savage ways. The group is quickly split into two a savage side and a rational, civilized side. Throughout the novel a key symbol was the conch.

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Ralph never acknowledges that Piggy was the first to point out the conch shell and explained to Ralph what it was. Ralph, instead of giving credit to Piggy for the idea of the conch shell, blows through the conch and then takes charge. Ralph begins giving orders and proceeds to take on the role of chief. Ralph’s authority was made possible because “there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch.” (22).

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The conch is a part of his authority that is being shared with the boys when it is their chance to voice an opinion or idea. In addition, Ralph does not specify that the conch can only be used by a specific group of boys, rather the conch is available for any boy, therefore representing equality and respect for all boys. Furthermore, the conch represents civilization back in England with its rules and structure. When planning a rescue, the boys race off the build a fire. Upon the mention of fire, “half the boys were on their feet.

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The conch and the sow’s head both wield a specific type of power over the juvenile boys in Lord of the Flies. The conch, used to call assemblies, represents progress and civilization while the sow’s head represents terror, barbarity, and malevolence and is partly to blame for Simon’s demise. Lord of the Flies is a novel about power because throughout the book Jack and Ralph quarrel over who should be the chieftain of the children and the novel uses the conch and the sow’s head to represent divergent forms of power and authority. Also, the book shows the reader the power of symbols such as the conch and the pig’s head and even the island that the children remain inevitably imprisoned on until their liberation at the conclusion of the novel. Just about everything within this novel is a representation of something that is considerably greater.

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This is an example of the rules the conch symbolizes because, when Ralph holds the conch up they all know they need to be quiet and do as he says. Another example that shows the conchs rules is when the author writes ¨He held the conch before his face and glanced around the mouth. ´ Then i 'll give him the conch. ´ ´

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Represents humanity and their civilization. The blowing the conch is a test to see how far gone Jack's group are from humanity. If they do not come back then all hope of being rescued is gone. Some of the boys like Jack have already been taken over by their savage natures and they can't be rescued from that.

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