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How Does The Conch Shell Use The Power In Lord Of The Flies

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On the surface, The Lord of the Flies seems as if it is just a common adventure story about the struggles of a group of young boys. However, if you look closer you will realize it is a complex story about power and the power of symbols. The plethora of unspoken symbols and the impressive use of power in The Lord of the Flies transforms the novel into much more than just a favorable story. The Lord of the Flies is a legend in the world of literature, and the novel’s fascinating use of symbols allowed it to become this way. In the novel there are two main symbols that wield the most power and are the most influential on the characters. These two symbols are the conch shell and the sow’s head. On many occasions, not only do these objects have a certain power of their own, but characters in the novel use them to obtain power for themselves. The conch shell is a very influential symbol and in the novel, and it possesses a considerable amount of power. The conch’s power changes the way characters act and view things in a positive way, and often Jack and Ralph use this power to control the other …show more content…

While the conch is positive and keeps everything calm and collected, the sow’s head does the opposite. It represents the worst of human nature and fear. When the sow’s head says “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” (143) to Simon in his hallucination, it is implying that the real beast is the evil inside of the boys, which is represented by the sow’s head. An example of how the sow’s head represents fear is when it says “What are you doing out here all alone? Aren’t you afraid of me?” (143) This shows two things. One is that it is human nature to have fear and to cower because of it. The other is that the sow’s head is saying the boys should fear the evil inside of

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At the instant the conch shatters all authority is lost. The conch not only symbolized rules and authority but it separates the boys by if they want to follow the rules either under Ralph's authority or

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For Piggy, the conch represents order and reasonable thinking, because the conch is what holds civilization together and keeps the boys from becoming savage. As for Jack, his interpretation of the conch is that it holds rules, because it limits him from doing what he wants. In Lord of the Flies, the conch represents authority to Ralph, order to Piggy, and rules to Jack. Ralph is introduced in chapter one as a privileged boy with blonde

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In the book Lord of the Flies by William Goldings, a group of boys was sent somewhere anonymous to stay safe during world war two, but their plane got shot down. The group of boys became deserted on an island and two boys named Jack and Simon fought for leadership on the island. They both had different views. Simon wanted to get off the island by making smoke from a fire while Simon wanted to be a savage and have fun by hunting and killing. Throughout the book, we see different important symbols on the island, including a conch shell, fire, and a pig’s head.

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One use of symbolism the author uses is the conch shell. In the beginning of the novel, the conch shell represents power and authority. “...and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch.”(pg 23). Ralph saw the conch shell in a lagoon, “Ralph had stopped smiling and was pointing into the lagoon. Something creamy lay among the ferny weeds.

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This shows how the power roles have changed throughout the novel, where at first the conch held the symbol of democracy, but now that the faith in it has dissolved, the conch is just a shell thrown around in the monarchy holding Jack as ruler. Throughout the novel, many items and people change as power rolls in between their hands. Consequently there comes a time when an object loses power completely, yet even in destruction it may

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In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses items and people to symbolize many different things. These symbolic things include Piggy’s glasses, Simon’s epilepsy, the Lord of the Flies, and arguably the most important symbol, the conch shell. The conch shell was first found in the water by Piggy, who then comes up with the idea of using the conch as a blow horn to call for meetings. Throughout Lord of the Flies, the conch shell becomes not only associated with Ralph and his leadership, but with Piggy and his intuitive and wise ideas and Jack and his dictator-like, irresponsible authority. The conch shell, representing law and order, assisted in the election of Ralph as chief and ultimately determines the future of the island.

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What the conch shell signifies to Piggy, Ralph, and Jack is a question that a reader might ask themselves and not know the answer to right off the bat. This essay explain more in detail what the conch shell signifies to Ralph, Piggy, and Jack in the “Lord of the Flies.” The conch Shell has a very unique symbol and represents different feelings for each character. This essay will help the reader understand the character and their actions better.

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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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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.

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Throughout most of the book, it is used to develop the themes of both fear and evil on the island. The conch is a shell. A shell that is used by the boys to call assemblies, and give one the authority to speak during the assemblies. The conch is used to build up the theme of civilization on the island. Finally, there is the beast.

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For instance, Ralph’s conch represents advancement and development and basically represents good and it may even represent leadership considering that it is Ralph who blows on the conch and Ralph is the leader of the boys. Also, the conch shell was used to summon the children on the island for an assembly. On the other hand, the sow’s head represents pure maliciousness and primitiveness and maybe even fear. The pig’s head even helped cause Simon’s death by conversing with him and telling him that the boys were going to slaughter him. In summary, the sow’s head represents sinfulness and viciousness and it has the power of terror over the boys while Ralph’s conch shell symbolizes civilization and good and has the power to call for civilized assemblies and represents leadership to the children on the

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“Power is dangerous. It attracts the worst and corrupts the best.” When the young boys first gathered after the crash, they were civil, mostly well behaved boys until the need for power took advantage of them. Two crucial symbols from the novel are the sow’s head and the conch shell. Each of these symbols represent power however, their powers have different meanings.

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¨Maybe there is a beast... maybe it 's only us¨. This quote was written by William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies. This quote connects to the symbolism developed throughout the book Lord of the Flies because through the story the characters learn the beast is themselves all along. This connects to the symbolism of the conch because the conch is part of what makes the boys become the ¨beasts¨. In Lord of the Flies one major symbol is the conch. The conch is a shell that Piggy and Ralph, two of the main characters, find in the beginning of the story.

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Lastly, “A stick sharpened at both ends,” conveyed to the children the danger of each other and Roger, the wielder of the stick, used this symbol of destruction to lead them on a hunt to kill the protagonist Ralph. The symbols with the greatest influence and power were mostly derived from a negative connotation. William Golding used both power and symbolism to create an Allegory novel that gives insight on how they have a deadly end result. The washed up Conch and Sow’s head had many differences, the most simplistic being that the head was evil, containing fear, while the Conch wielded order and civility. The plot of this novel shifts around power and what the result is of having it fall into the wrong hands.

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