Conch In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Picture how it would feel to be lost and alone as young children for an unknown amount of time. Then imagine being hunted and controlled by pre-teen savages and having almost no chance of survival or rescue. This is how many of the children in the novel The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, are feeling. The children in this novel begin civilized trying to take names and create structure but they progress from refined “adults” to sadistic savages hunting and murdering each other. The conch the children find in the beginning of the novel is a representation of civilization and power and is used to summon the boys together and to keep order in meetings. Any of the structure and reason that is left is shattered as the voice of reason,

It is used to call the boys together for their first meeting and multiple meetings after that. This is one of the main reasons why Ralph is elected leader of the boys in the first place. They use the conch to maintain control as the one who possesses the conch is the only boy who obtains the right to speak at meetings. The conch is respected by all and even Jack obeys the power of the conch. There is a point in the novel where Jack has the conch and disputes a rule that Ralph is trying to create but instead of throwing the conch on the ground he gently lays it onto the grass. Though Jack does not obey the laws, he at least respects them to a point. Ralph refuses to blow the conch toward the end of the novel when Piggy urges him to because he knows something that Piggy does not. Ralph realizes that if he blows the conch and no one responds that it would be clear that any order that was left would be gone and he would come to the realization that they had all turned to savages. The point in the novel where everything erupts to chaos is the moment when Piggy is crushed by a rock that Roger pushes onto him throwing him off a cliff. The conch is shattered along with any structure that remained at this point in the novel and Ralph is left to fend for himself alone among the