Destruction In Lord Of The Flies

635 Words2 Pages

Destruction of the Old Life Who knew a regular day of school would lead to crashing down on an unknown island with no supervision? Lord of the Flies stars a group of boys thrown into an uncharted, uncivilized, island where they have to do anything to survive. Anything. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the fire, Jack, and the conch to represent hope, change and savagery, and order and civilization. The fire symbolizes the hope the boys have while on the island: the hope that died, came back, and died again. The fire, when bright and high symbolizes high hopes. For example, at the beginning, the boys were hopeful that they were going to be rescued, yet excited that they lived on an island with no adults. "The flame flapped higher and the boys broke into a cheer... The boys were dancing. The pile was so rotten, and now so tinder-dry, that whole limbs yielded passionately to the yellow flames that poured upwards and shook a …show more content…

“I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak” (33). In the beginning of the book, Ralph, the chief, made a short list of rules the boys needed to abide by, only speaking in assemblies with the conch is one. This shows that without the conch, there was nothing to stop others from taking over during their assemblies. The conch is used to silence others as well. “Ralph smiled and held up the conch for silence” (23). This shows the power the conch has over the group of boys, as well as the power Ralph has over the boys. As the book came to an end, Jack got tired of Ralph being chief and the conch telling him what to do. "We don't need the conch anymore. We know who ought to say things. It's time some people knew they've got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us" (101-102). Here, Jack is trying to overrule the conch, Jack is attempting to overrule their old ways of civilization. Which he succeeds in

Open Document