“We have a disharmony in our natures. We cannot live together without injuring each other.” (Golding, 1954) William Golding backs up this statement completely in his novel Lord of the Flies. We quickly see a group of young boys stranded on a desert island, lose civilisation and descent into chaos resulting in horrific tragedies. This essay will discuss the way in which Golding illustrates the movement from order to chaos through the use of symbolism in Lord of the Flies. The symbols include the conch, piggy’s glasses and the beast.
At the beginning of the novel we see Ralph and Piggy come across the conch shell on the beach. They use it as away to summon the boys together that have been separated after the plane crash. Used in this capacity, the conch shell becomes a powerful symbol of civilization and order in the novel (Spark, 2015). The shell governs the boys meetings. Anyone who holds the shell has the power to speak. As a representative of law and order the conch gets Ralph elected as leader. At the same time the conch shows that tools of power such as crowns and flags are no more as meaning full as the conch. Rules only work if people stick to and obey them. Ralph refuses to blow the conch when things start to erode on the Island "If I blow the conch and they don 't come back; then we 've had it. We shan 't keep the fire going. We 'll be like animals. We 'll never be rescued" (Golding, Lord of the Flies, 2015) Ralph himself quickly sees the symbol of the conch and