What Does The Conch Represent In Lord Of The Flies

Thud! Jack and his savages surround and stab the beast that comes out of the woods. Change into savagery is a large theme in the novel Lord of the Flies. The novel follows a group of boys who crash-land on an uninhabited island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. They attempt to govern themselves and have rules to try to go about life like the grown ups would. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding describes how the characters change from civilized boys to savages using symbols to represent how the grown ups would act versus how beasts would act, such as the conch shell and painted faces.

William Golding uses many symbols throughout Lord of the Flies. One of the first and most important symbols is the conch shell.

The boys use it to call a meeting with all the other boys who were on the plane. Golding illustrates, “Ralph found his breath and blew a series of short blasts. Piggy exclaimed: ‘There's one!’” (Golding 17). The conch represents unity and communication. Piggy and Ralph call the assembly to decide with all the other kids on ways to find food, survive, and most importantly, get rescued. A second example of the symbolism of the conch throughout the book is when the appearance of the conch is described. Golding portrays how the conch goes from a yellow and pink coloring to a nearly transparent white the longer the boys are on the island (Golding 78). The changing color of the shell represents the slow deterioration of order, unity, and communication that the boys share. Since the boys are on an island and away from civilization, they lose what is considered normal, and civilized, and they become more like animals. A final example of the conch is closer to the end of the story when Roger unleashes a rock from

Jack and his tribe begin to paint their faces after leaving Ralph and Piggy. Their painted faces represent how the boys are changing to be more beast-like than human. Jack always seems excited about hunting, punishing those who break the rules, and tormenting the littluns because there aren’t any grown ups there to stop him. Jack is the leader of the hunters, and he is the first to start painting his face. Originally, he does this as a hunting strategy, which works and he kills a pig (Golding 74). This represents the beginning of their descent into savagery, because this is the point where the boys stop feeling uneasy about killing and they become excited by the idea. Shortly after they eat, the boys start dancing and chanting “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in.” This chant comes up often later, whenever the tribe is fake killing a pig or the beast or when the savages attack and murder Simon, thinking he is the beast (Golding 152). During the dance, only Ralph and Piggy don’t have their faces painted. They are the only two who aren’t considered to be apart of the savages, and the only two who aren’t participating in the dancing or the chanting. When Jack and his tribe move to castle rock, they begin a watch process to watch out for the beast or Ralph and Piggy. Ralph and Piggy go to the tribe to ask for Piggy’s glasses back. Golding illustrates, “Savages appeared, painted out of recognition, edging round the