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Power and leadership in the lord of the flies
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Lord of the flies analysis opening chapter
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The first quote that shows us how important the Conch is when Piggy and Ralph used the conch to call the other boys when they taught they were alone on the island, “The conch, we can use this to call others. Have a meeting, they’ll come when they hear us (p. 16)” .We also do see how the boys are attracted to the conch like a magnet and quickly goes to the person who blows the conch, “By the time Ralph had finish blowing the Conch, the platform was crowded (p. 32)” .Besides that, the Conch also is an idea of civilization, rules and law.
Ralph finds the conch along the beach and is fascinated by its workings. The conch starts Ralph’s reign as he blows it, grabbing the island boys’ attention. As they gather together and speak their business of who they are they decide a need for a leader. The boys see Ralph as their new chief as they believe he is the fittest. Their prying eyes focus on Ralph as he commends them on how to survive.
In the beginning of the book Ralph meets a hefty boy called Piggy, and together they use a conch to call out to the other boys. “They obeyed the sounds of the conch, partly because Ralph blew it, and he was big enough to be a link with the adult world of authority”(p.50). This quote shows how the conch represents
Even though Ralph did not make a big deal about wanting to be chief, the conch was one of the main things that convinced the others to elect Ralph as their leader. At the beginning of the Lord of the Flies, the conch was known to be very powerful and represented, law, order, democracy, gave them a freedom of speech and it was something that attached the boys to
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 represents civilization and authority. However, later the conch starts to lose the sense of the authority. Everybody respects the conch at the beginning of the book. “Ralph smiled and held up the conch for silence.”
Early in chapter 1, one of the boys named Piggy finds it in the water and gives it to Ralph. Since Ralph is in possession of the conch, he feels as though he has a sense of power and decides that they should vote on who should be chief. On page 22, Golding states, “This toy of voting was almost as pleasing as the conch. Jack started to protest, but the clamor changed from the general wish for a chief to an election by the acclaim of Ralph himself.” Obviously Ralph is chosen, and this makes Jack very annoyed from the start.
The conch shell plays a big part in Ralph’s authority and order. His leadership skills, along with the conch by his side, is what made the other kids on the island listen and idolize him. Golding glorifies the power of Ralph and his conch shell in order to represent control, which is important to the ongoing order and regulation of the boys throughout their time on the island. Without the shell, there would be no order among the lives of the boys on the uninhabited island. In addition to Ralph promoting the power of the conch, Jack also agrees and emphasizes that in order to run a society, there must be a strong and rational set of rules that needs to be followed.
When the boys first got on the island, they hear a noise. A noise that came from the conch shell. Interested, the boys meet up where it was sounded. Ralph, the boy who blew the conch and gets voted as chief, and sets up rules regarding the conch, “give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking” (Golding 33).
Ralph is seen as a powerful, important person, and they want him to be their leader. “Let him be chief with the trumpet thing,” (Golding 22). In this case, the conch shell is used as a symbol of authority and leadership. Ralph unites the boys into one group so they can discuss further life on the island. The conch
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.
(Golding 16-17). This quote shows that the majority of children thinks and agrees with that the conch symbolizes the power, and the one who has conch should be the chief. The children vote for Ralph as the chief only because he gets the conch. After the election, “Ralph smiled and held up the conch for silence” (Golding 17). The conch still shows as the symbol of authority.
The Identities Lost In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, Roger, Ralph, and Jack begin to lose their identities on the island and chaos becomes inevitable. In the beginning of the novel, Roger “threw it [a stone] to miss” (Golding 62) at Henry knowing not to hit him, however that changes by the end of the novel when he kills Piggy with a large rock. This shows that as the story goes on, Roger slowly loses his idea of civilization and knowing society’s rules. This idea is important because it is extremely ironic in the sense that he knows if he hit Henry with pebbles he would be punished back home, however he ended up killing Piggy with a large rock after becoming a savage.
Although the insular setting affects the boys in many negative ways, it provides Ralph with a heightened sense of leadership and independence resulting in respect from all of the boys and his election as chief. Ralph fills the power hiatus left by the man with the megaphone and lack of another adult figure. Upon realizing this gap, a “Delight of a realized ambition [overcomes] him” (Golding 8), and Ralph’s intrinsic desire to be a leader immediately becomes significant. Instantaneously, Ralph fills the figurehead position that the island’s disconnectedness forces upon the boys. To them, the megaphone symbolizes authority, so when Ralph blows the conch for the first time to unite the boys, a deep respect develops inherently in them for him.
The conch is what the boys first find when they wake up on the island. The rule is that whoever holds the conch is the leader and has the right to speak. This is symbolic for the way the boys want to be rulers and be in control. It’s a sign of leadership that all the boys think is important, which causes conflict later on. Ralph holds the conch and is therefore the leader but Jack wants to be the leader so he can hold the conch and have the final say in what
