ipl-logo

Lord Of The Flies Civilization Essay

1108 Words5 Pages

Lord of the Flies is a novel about a bunch of british boys who get caught on an island and have no adults so they are left to fend for themselves. They have to go through many hardships and sometimes struggle to agree but they need to learn to maintain and create civilization. They need to find a way to get out and stay alive. William Golding shows civilization is a struggle to build through Jack and the conch.

To begin with, in Lord of the Flies Jack proves many times how hard it is to create and maintain society. You need to be able to agree, not fight too often and be ok losing in a vote sometimes but if civilization is created it helps everyone much more. One example would be, Jack within the day of being on the island already decides …show more content…

Near the beginning of the book Piggy and Ralph have the idea to almost start having a way of things and one of those things is when people hear the conch the other comes and whoever has the conch gets to speak. “We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us—” (Golding 16). Piggy is saying that when the conch sounds all the boys will gather and come to meet, giving the conch lots of power. This gives the boys a small start to what civilization is like. This helps them because they all have something they all know and listen to too. This shows a start to civilization and power to the conch. “We don’t need the conch any more. We know who ought to say things” (Golding 101-102). Jack believes the conch isn’t that important and that the boys just need to listen to whoever is talking. He’s starting to think the conch is unneeded. The conch has already lost so much power in Jack's eyes. This starts an argument between Jack and Ralph meaning once the conch loses the slightest bit of power it already affects civilization. In the end the conch got destroyed. “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” ( Golding ) The conch exploded and of course people cared they just couldn’t do anything about it making the conch much less powerful as it was broken into many pieces. The conch had absolutely nothing once it was broken and then people started talking over each other and there was not much of a way of civilization as the conch provided. The conch's power decreased majorly as civilization fell. Although the conch was always powerful it lost a little power in a lot of people's minds. While the conch lost power civilization slowly fell

Show More
Related
777 Words | 4 Pages

“The conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (Golding 181). It symbolized how savagery prevailed. The start of absolute chaos and destruction in the boy’s society was when the boulder crushed piggy and the conch shell. Piggy's death was the breaking point where all civility was lost. Towards the closing of the novel, Ralph is alone and on the run, hiding from Jack's tribe of savages who intend to kill him.

Read More
774 Words | 4 Pages

Jack is challenging the authority of the conch

Read More
206 Words | 1 Pages

Why? “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.” (Golding 181) In chapter 11 the conch shatters and Piggy is run over by a rock. These events symbolize all hopes of civilization ending.

Read More
235 Words | 1 Pages

Have a meeting. They'll come when they hear us--’ He beamed at Ralph.(16)” Without the presence of the conch and the idea of how to use it, Ralph and Piggy would most likely have been alone and would not have found the other boys. Therefore, it is justifiable to say that Piggy is the cause of the evolution of the society. The conch to them signifies society and civilization and the absence of Piggy’s idea, would have resulted in further loss of civilization.

Read More
1438 Words | 6 Pages

Ralph now has lost Sam, Eric, and Piggy, and has no one left from his tribe. There is no hope for him to rebuild or start a new tribe, or join Jack’s tribe. Even the conch, which was a symbol for the power that Ralph had, has been completely destroyed, symbolizing how Ralph’s power is gone forever. He is now all alone, and being hunted by Jack and his tribe. Ralph has lost all the authority he started with, while Jack now has gained all of the power of the island and defeated Ralph in the battle for

Read More
786 Words | 4 Pages

Even though it is very well taken care of, the conch begins to decrease in value as the lack of civilization is shown. Among useful objects such as the conch, “They didn’t come for the conch. They came for something else” (168). This leads the reader to believe that Piggy’s specs are much more important than the conch, just as well as a survival is more essential than authority and

Read More
762 Words | 4 Pages

" Lord of the Flies" is a novel about a group of young boys who find themselves alone on a barren island. They build norms and organizational systems, but in the absence of adults to serve as a civilizing impetus, the children inevitably become violent and vicious. Through the emblem of the conch shell, William Golding shows how the loss of order/civilization and law leads to the emergence of barbaric behavior triumphing over society.

Read More
384 Words | 2 Pages

The conch is used to regulate the children and assure that they are not becoming too rambunctious. If the group is unorganized and rowdy, the team as a whole will not be able to complete their tasks, such as maintaining the fire and building their huts. Piggy reminds the group the authority the conch has over them, stating that, “‘I got the conch,’” and stressing to the others of “‘[his] right to speak’” (P.44). Piggy reiterates how important the conch is, or should be, to the group, and that the symbol should be respected in order to ensure their meetings are more

Read More
808 Words | 4 Pages

The conch’s symbolism of order and balance represents all that Piggy stands for, yet paradoxically, he is rarely able to bring about change in the

Read More
827 Words | 4 Pages

Moreover, as some of the boys stop clamoring for unity they begin to lose hope “If I blow the conch and they don't come back; then we've had it” (p. 92). In this quote, Ralph who was previously an honorable leader is now tolerating the savagery and squandering the idea of a fire assisting their rescue. Furthermore, Jack who seems to be the most popular leader, is the first to condemn the conch as seen in his quote “We don't need the conch anymore” (p.102). Jack emphasizes how the conch is ineffectual, symbolizing his aspiration to achieve all

Read More
1193 Words | 5 Pages

1. Shortly after arriving on the island, Ralph and Piggy discover a conch in the water. Ralph blows the conch to announce his location so the boys can gather. From the first use of the conch, it signifies the unity of the boys because it is what brought them together. The conch is also used to maintain organization.

Read More
444 Words | 2 Pages

Another scene with the conch exhibiting its importance is when Ralph was upset at the hunters. Jack and his hunters went out to go and kill a pig, however they left their signal fire unattended, eventually burning out. When Ralph found out about this, he announced to them he would “‘[call] a meeting even if [they had] to go on into the dark.” (Golding 106) This shows the amount of authority the conch is believed to have.

Read More
870 Words | 4 Pages

Jack says that he is unwilling to be a part of Ralph’s group any longer. This goes to show that he has left the civilized part of him behind in favor of his savage side. If Jack had stayed with the civilized boys, then the two groups would still be as one and the conflict between the Jack and Ralph would not have reached the high peaking point of which it

Read More
147 Words | 1 Pages

Jazz is a notably diverse genre of music, which is why so many people have trouble truly identifying it as well as defining it. The two components that almost every sub-genre of jazz share are the inclusion of improvisation and the sense of a general swing. Much of what a good amount of people understand to be jazz is either “swing”, “smooth jazz”, or “elevator music.” However, there are many specific sub-genres of jazz that can be very different from one another. Two of these are “early jazz” and “swing.”

Read More
758 Words | 4 Pages

William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies is about a group of British kids who survive a plane crash and form their own civilization on an island to survive. There are many quotes about civilization, one being a famous quote from Werner Herzog, a German film director, screenwriter, actor and author. Herzog said, “Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness.” This quote is saying that beneath every community is a sense of madness and insanity, but it is covered by a very small layer of controlling people or people with power. But this layer can be broken and then all hell breaks loose.

Read More

More about Lord Of The Flies Civilization Essay

Related Topics

Open Document