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Conch Symbol In Lord Of The Flies

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People can change drastically when things are turned around in an instant. The Lord of the Flies is a book about young boys, whose plane has just crashed and they are stranded on the island without any adults. The young boys change throughout the novel; here, on the island, innocence is gone and their savage side comes out. William Golding uses symbols such as the conch, the signal fire and the beast in the Lord of the Flies to signify chaos, calmness, hope and fear which is intended to be represented by all of these things.
The signal fire symbolizes the hope of the boys being rescued from the island; then, it becomes a sign of their own chaos towards the end of the book. Golding states this on page 187 ?,”The fire reached the coconut palms …show more content…

In the book, the boys argued about the conch and if it still had its original significance. “Call an assembly?” Ralph laughed sharply as he said the word and Piggy frowned. “You’re still chief.” Ralph laughed again. “You are. Over us.” “I got the conch.” “Ralph! Stop laughing like that. Look, there ain’t no need, Ralph! What’re the others going to think?” (Golding, 158) The conch started off as a symbol of calmness and was supposed to help the boys keep order, as the conch being a “talking piece”. Later on, it turned into chaos, causing a lot of issues between the boys, and not being the symbol of calmness as it had started off as in the novel. The conch was one of the bigger symbols in the book and showed many different things, just like other things in the book, like the fire, and the imaginary beast. Lord of the Flies is a book about how boys get stranded on an island and don’t know how they will survive in the wild without any adults. In this essay, the symbols of the conch, the imaginary beast, and the fire symbolized different things like chaos, calmness, hope, and fear. Going from living in the suburbs, and having adults to help teach them things in life, to having to learn by themselves on how they’ll be able to

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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 was a symbol used to display order and power in the lord of the flies. In the beginning of the book Ralph is voted to be the leader of the group just because he has the conch they littleuns started chanting “Ralph, Ralph” “Him with the trumpet thing”, and Jack does not like the conch he wants to get rid of it just to prove that he is the rightful leader of the group and at the end of the story he ends up destroying it and all orders and power is gone. The Conch also represented order throughout the group in the book people can only speak if they have the conch and others can only speak if they raise their hand up like if they were in school to maintain order. Golding also uses the Fire to represent technology and also represents human

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In the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there are three symbols that changed throughout the book, the conch which acts as the order in the group, the beast which stands for the fear in the boys, and the dance and chants which shows the boys’ fall into savagery. In the novel, the conch represents the order within the group. At their first group meeting, Jack suggests they must hold the conch to talk, “We ought to have more rules. Where

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(Golding 30). This is showing how the boys respect the conch and the power of the conch, by Ralph raising it and everyone becomes silent. Piggy had the most respect for the conch because he barely gets to touch it. Piggy also shows how important the conch is to him. “I got the conch…you let me speak!”

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It’s ever so valuable”. Ralph used the Conch to locate and gather the boys together after the crash separated them. Ralph used the Conch as an object used to keep order, he established rules one main rule being you have to hold the conch shell in order to speak, which showed a sign of order because if everybody were to speak at the same time, things would be very chaotic and uncivilized.

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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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Ralph notices the discord but resolves it by enforcing, “I 'll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he 's speaking” (Golding 33). The conch represents the discipline of the boys and their civilization. Since Ralph thought to use the conch as a speaking system, the conch represents his leadership and authority over the boys. It also represents his authority because he is the only boy that does not need the conch to speak.

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The conch shell was an important symbol in the lord of the flies because it represents civilization, order, and loss of control when it is gone. This symbol is seen all throughout the novel, and without it the story line would change drastically. One of the best things about the conch is that they found it in the very beginning and for most other sables started later on on in the novel and that is interesting that is has been there the entire time and is a big part. I will be explaining this symbol in detail and giving its significance in the novel.

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The conch is important because the boys have assigned the power to speak to whoever is holding it. It becomes a symbol of order and civilization for the group of boys. Ralph has been voted leader of the group in part because he found the conch. “Ralph felt a kind of affectionate reverence for the

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The conch is a symbol of civilization, organization, and shared leadership. When Ralph first lands on the island, he picks up the conch and it is then used to indicate the speaker during the assemblies on the island. Ralph says after everyone tries to speak over each other at the first meeting, “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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We can't have everybody talking at once. We’ll have to have ‘Hands up’ like at school.” (44) Ralph discusses order on the island in the second chapter, and as the children are naive and don't know any difference, they bring up "Hands up," which they are familiar with from school. This passage portrays the boy's innocence and their childish nature. Ralph shows his authority by carrying out the following rule, “Then I’ll give him the conch.

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This is an example of how the conch symbolizes the rules within the boys society because the conch is what tells when the boys when they can talk. The rules created by the conch is what led to a lot of the boys disagreements which slowly drove them to become¨beasts¨. Overall the conch is the most symbolic piece in Lord of the Flies because it symbolizes the boys rules, their civilization, and power over the boys. This is important to the theme of the story because the conch helps the boys realize that they are the beast all along. The conch helps the boys to notice this because when it breaks they realize it was controlling them all along and making them the

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860 Words | 4 Pages

Homo sapiens when unfettered from humanity’s procedures and interdicts, permit their innate competence for malevolence to govern their actuality. In William Golding 's Lord of the Flies, the boys who are marooned on the isle come across several distinctive entities that symbolize ideas or concepts. Through the use of icons such as the conch, Piggy’s glasses, and the beast, Golding adds in layers of meaning to the surface text. The conch, which had a high priority during the formation of a society, degrades as the story progresses into a ruthful situation.

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Golding says “The boys broke into shrill, exciting cheering” (41) in the beginning of the novel, then at the end of the novel says, “A great clamor rose among the savages” (164). William Golding who wrote The Lord of the Flies changes his word choice from “boys” to “savages” to emphasize the fact that the boys change into savage creatures. Three symbols represent civilization and change into chaos over the course of the novel. The three symbols representing change are Piggy’s glasses, The fire, and the conch. These figures demonstrate the important theme that the calm civilization will soon break out into disorder.

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