Power In Lord Of The Flies Analysis

“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. The demand for power thrived on their souls and drove them to their breaking points. Lord of the Flies is about the role of power and control in the world and how it can enhance society or bring civilization as we know it, crumbling down. Throughout the novel, the leaders in the book, use certain symbols and objects to give them authority over the other boys and have law and order on the island. The pig’s head and the conch both wield a certain

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. When one of the boys would like to speak during one of their gatherings they had to be in possession of the conch. In chapter one Ralph is the first to be granted with the power of the conch when he holds his first assembly on the island, “But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch. The being that had blown that, had sat waiting for them on the platform with the delicate thing balanced on his knees, was set apart.” The sow’s head on the other hand, had a whole other meaning of power. It represented the power of evil and savagery. It symbolized all the evils and horrors of the world and frightened the boys a great deal. The conch gave them hope order and survival. The beast gave them anger, savagery, and death. They are the same thing: power, but they are organization and hope versus evil and bad, just like things in