Charles Caleb Colton, a profound cleric and writer, once said “Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it's set a rolling it must increase.” This quote is proven to be true in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The novel takes place on a isolated island where a group of English boys’ plane crashed, and they have to attempt to survive. They attempt to put in a government system, but everyone knows that if there is government, there will always be corruption. William Golding displays how democracy and corruption are opponents, which shows that when humans go against guidelines and order, corruption will eventually take over. Democracy is symbolized through many different objects and characters. In the story, the conch shell is used to …show more content…
The annihilation of the conch signifies the final loss of democracy, and the beginning of savage dominance. Jack and his allies of ferocious hunters kill Piggy, and the symbol of democracy is lost. Ralph is now deserted by others who previously believed in democracy. It is now Ralph verse the savages and as he is being chased by Jack and his ferocious hunters, he runs into the Lord of the Flies, “Fiercely he hit the filthy thing in front of him that bobbed like a toy… He wrenched the quivering stick from the crack and held it as a spear between him and the white pieces” (215). Golding compares the Lord of the Flies to a toy, flashing back to Simon’s hallucinations, using the element of imaginary. The death of Piggy and the shattering of the conch prove that corruption takes over when democracy is lost. With the island only being inhabited by corrupt savages, Ralph gives in and fights like a barbaric animal in an attempt to restore order. The irony is, in his attempts to restore democracy on the island, he is acting as if he were one of Jack’s savages; using the spear from the boar head to fight like a mad man. Democracy is taken over by selfishness, savage-like behavior, which causes corruption to take