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'Lord Of The Flies' By William Golding: Character Analysis

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People that have power can make detrimental things happen. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is about how a plane full of young boys crashes on a deserted island, and they have to survive together. They struggle to work cooperatively together. Unfortunately, they are unable to create a sustainable society and it does not end well. Having power and authority while trying to resolve an encountered conflict is symbolized by the conch shell. “Suddenly Piggy was a-bubble with decorous excitement. S’right. It’s a shell! I seen one like that before. On someone’s back wall. A conch he called it. He used to blow it and then his mum would come.”(15) What is happening here is Piggy finds the conch shell in the shallow water after him and Ralph crash on the island. This shows that the symbol is connected to the theme because it is foreshadowing. When Piggy says “He used to blow it and then his mum would come.” that is foreshadowing because Ralph or whoever would blow on the conch to call everyone up to have a meeting. “The rock struck …show more content…

Ralph escaped and he is now examining all of the wounds he got from when he was fighting Jack. He is thinking about everything that has happened and all the deaths that have occurred. This quote symbolizes the theme because Ralph is thinking about how everything is corrupt and bad things have gone because there are no rules, because the conch got destroyed. As you can see, people that have power can make detrimental things happen. This proves that the conch shell is truly the symbol of Lord of the Flies. It’s very clear that having power and authority while trying to resolve an encountered conflict is symbolized by the conch shell. The conch shell signals that everyone will get together and have a meeting to talk about a conflict that they have

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Lord of the Flies Double Entry Journal #1 Conch “But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out; there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely there, yet most powerfully there was the conch” (22). While voting for a leader, Ralph is singled out and chosen due to the presence of the conch. The conch is a symbol of power—as well as a representation of law and democracy. When Ralph is found blowing the conch by the other boys, he is seen as the most capable and right leader.

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The conch symbolizes the role of leadership showing they have some source of civilization, once the conch is broken a descent into savagery leads to a dangerous turn for the boys. The one thing that the boys all had that could bring them together was the conch. “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking.” Ralph says and later on says “We’ll have rules!”

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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 was the origin of Piggy's innovation with ideas on how to save the boys and help them survive on the island. Piggy and Ralph find the conch shell while they are walking along the beach. Even though Ralph found

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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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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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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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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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In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the conch is a primary symbol, which represents civility and order. Throughout the book it served as a power tool that the boys highly respected, in fact, the symbolism of the conch begins before it is even blown. Ralph is the one who originally discovers and posses the shell, but it’s Piggy who explains it’s significance. Piggy has to teach Ralph how to blow it; this shows how from the beginning the conch is linked with both Piggy and Ralph.

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Later the shell was used to decide who could talk during a meeting on the island. The shell represents the law and order and how it brings us together and keeps things organized in society. During the first half of the book nearly everyone respects the rules regarding the conch, but as the book goes on, the group rejects the conch and therefore rejects law and order

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The conch and the sow’s head both wield a specific type of power over the juvenile boys in Lord of the Flies. The conch, used to call assemblies, represents progress and civilization while the sow’s head represents terror, barbarity, and malevolence and is partly to blame for Simon’s demise. Lord of the Flies is a novel about power because throughout the book Jack and Ralph quarrel over who should be the chieftain of the children and the novel uses the conch and the sow’s head to represent divergent forms of power and authority. Also, the book shows the reader the power of symbols such as the conch and the pig’s head and even the island that the children remain inevitably imprisoned on until their liberation at the conclusion of the novel. Just about everything within this novel is a representation of something that is considerably greater.

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Well, the conch portrays power and authority. When a meeting needed to be held the conch was blown to round up all of the boys.

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In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, young boys get stranded on an island with no adults in the midst of a war. The boys were orderly and civilized in the beginning but then as they began killing pigs they slowly became savages and lost their civilization. The boys began turning on each other and the evil within them became present. Golding uses a variety of literary devices including personification, symbols, metaphors, and irony, to project the theme that pure and realistic people in the world can be unheard and destroyed by evil.

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The conch has more than one symbolic meaning to it which helps the reader to better understand the theme of power, civilization, and rules. In the story the author uses the conch as a symbol

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Chapter 2: 1) Smart: to feel a stinging pain. “The afternoon sun slanted in from the other side of the platform and most of the children, feeling too late the smart of sunburn, had put their clothes on” (Golding 32). Hindering: slowing down someone’s or something’s progress. “You’re hindering Ralph” (Golding 34).

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