Essay On The Conch In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

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Homo sapiens when unfettered from humanity’s procedures and interdicts, permit their innate competence for malevolence to govern their actuality. In William Golding 's Lord of the Flies, the boys who are marooned on the isle come across several distinctive entities that symbolize ideas or concepts. Through the use of icons such as the conch, Piggy’s glasses, and the beast, Golding adds in layers of meaning to the surface text.
The conch, which had a high priority during the formation of a society, degrades as the story progresses into a ruthful situation. At the start, the boys impose the “Rule of Conch” which consolidates the team into a democratic government, "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." (Golding 1954, 29) The conch, however, reminds of the fakeness in all the tangible equipment that portrays the power of an individual such as: crowns, flags. These objects, like the conch, are unrealistic but still remind the generation of the power in history, and the rules which people signify these unrealistic objects by. Rules can only be followed if they are respected by the individuals of the society, which is the reason Ralph stops using the conch at the verge of destruction, "If I blow the conch and they don 't come back; then we 've had it. We shan 't keep …show more content…

These objects or elements in everyday lives are insignificant and are unnoticed such as a conch, a pair of glasses, or the beast inside the human race. Golding establishes that humans often allow their apparent needs to rule their lives, regardless of the other individuals in the absence of a higher