Jack And Lord Of The Flies Conch Essay

Back in the days of the Aztec empire, multiple cultures used conches in rituals, war, art, music, mythology, festivals, and even the calendar. The conch back then represented power and unity. In India, some artisans make souvenirs, deity idols and other crafts by carving conch shells by hand. Conch shells have been used as shell money in several cultures. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the conch shell is used for unity, order, power and control like they did back then. But as the story continues and as Jack and his tribe derail into madness, they slowly start ignoring the conch and severing the connection between humanity and civilization from themselves. In the end they let go of the conch shell and started completely ignoring it

Piggy tells him to blow into the conch Ralph does and then other kids hear it and go to Ralph and Piggy. They then have a meeting in which the kids vote for the leader and Ralph wins the vote due to him having the conch. So early in the book we already see the power the conch has in winning Ralph the vote to become chief. In the text it says “Let him be chief with the trumpet-thing.” It is very influential because whoever has the conch it is believed that they should speak uninterrupted. The conch was really important towards the start of the story because they cared about rules and order at the start of the story. But as they are on the island longer they start ignoring rules more and become savages. Such as when Jack said “We don't need the conch anymore. We know who ought to say things. What good did Simon do

They became savages and the boys who once followed all the rules did not listen to society’s laws. Such as Roger, who once could not even throw rocks at a child. In the text it says “the taboo of old life”. Around the squatting child was the protection of parents, school, police and the law. Roger's arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him.” As the text shows, Roger could not throw rocks because the old life of law and rules was still with him. But later in the book, as they start becoming savages, Roger doesn’t care anymore and decides to deliberately throw a boulder at Piggy, killing him. In the text it says “Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever.” This shows that Roger has abandoned his old life and all the rules the old civilization had for him. Roger has left his old life behind and left all the rules with his old life and has just become a