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Essays on theme of lord of the flies
How lord of the flies relates to society
How lord of the flies relates to society
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How does a society maintain order? What does a society do to stay in line? These questions are present in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, when the boys of the island use the conch to keep order. Its condition shows the status of how the society is functioning. The boys of the island have the conch that symbolizes the stance of their society and how peaceful and well run it is going or how well it is not going.
The discovery of the shell represents the start of their society. When the boys Ralph and Piggy find the conch they blow into it in order to start their new way of life, and this is how they recruit the other boys on the island. They use this conch to call a meeting to session. Piggy says to Ralph, “‘We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us-’” (Golding 16). This is when they start their civilization. The conch as helped them to discover how they will now live from here on out. This relates to the conch symbolizing their society because right now their society is shiney and new. The conch is fresh from the lagoon so it is very nice quality. Their
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society has no conflict yet, and they get along well. This new conch represents their new society. The conch doesn’t stay new forever though, as eventually it wears down described in the quote, “The sun in [Ralph’s] eyes reminded him how time was passing, so he took the conch down from the tree and examined the surface.
Exposure to the air had bleached the yellow and pink to near-white, and transparency” (Golding 110). The conch is starting to get worn down and so are the relationships of the boys and their society. The boys get in more arguments over petty things, like stealing Piggy’s glasses, and they start yelling more at each other, like when Ralph screams, “‘That’s enough!’...and snatched back the conch [from Jack].” Piggy then starts to also get involved, complaining to Jack, “‘-then you come up here and pinch my specs-’” and Jack replies with, “‘You shut up!” (Golding 63-64). As these tensions blossom between the boys the conch slowly starts to
deteriorate. The conch is continuously getting worse by the day, but then all breaks. The conch breaks as a result of Jack’s clan starting a hatred and leading into the hunting of Ralph. The boys lose everything after the conch breaks, “The fire was a big one and the drum roll that he thought was left so far behind was nearer.” (Golding 284). This is just one of the horrible events that happens after the conch breaks, when they lose their society. The entire island is set to flames and the boys of Jack’s clan go full out savage and hunt Ralph. The boys had lost everything they once had when the conch was shattered, when the conch goes so does the sanity of the boys. The boys of the island used the conch in order to keep their society together, and it represented how well they were succeeding at doing so. As the conch wears down and breaks, so does their society. So, if left in this position, how do you think society today could handle this? Would society turn savage like Jack’s clan or be able to remain civil?
In our society, law is what keeps our country in wraps. Order is key to running a steady and organized nation. In Lord of the Flies, the children manage to maintain a peaceful civilization with a conch shell. The conch rallies groups and gives people a chance to speak out. The conch represents order, but the beast brings out the fear and dysfunction of the children. The group is torn apart as the beast wreakes paranoia on the members, but it is merely a figment of their imagination. Jack breaking from the group, the stealing of Piggy’s specs, and the breaking of the conch all lead to the demise of society itself on the island. While the conch represents ordinance and harmony, the beast symbolizes fear and disorganization,
Piggy first finds the conch shell, being the most intelligent of the boys on the island, Piggy knows what the conch is after stumbling upon it and how to use it. Piggy, being physically larger than the other boys and having asthma, is unable to use the conch himself. Piggy hands the shell over to Ralph who, “…grasped the idea and hit the shell with air from his diaphragm. Immediately the thing sounded. A deep, harsh note boomed under the palms…” (Golding 17) Despite the fact Piggy was the one to find the shell, Ralph becomes its main possessor after being the only one to conjure a sound from the shell. Along with being the first to use the shell, Ralph is much more courageous, physically fit, and charismatic than Piggy, qualities shown in a natural-born leader. Ralph indirectly asserts his authority and power over Piggy by being able to blow the conch, in which Piggy cannot. From this point on, Ralph has ownership over the conch, this associates the idea of authority with Ralph’s character altogether. Shortly after the conch shell is blown, young boys of varying ages begin to appear among the palms, as more boys appeared Ralph made it clear that they are in the process of a meeting. The main purpose of the meeting is to find the
Ralph is losing control of Jack and the Conch is loosing its effect on the other
Everybody respected the conch and what it stood for. There was a point in the book where Jack “laid the conch with great care in the grass at his feet,” (Page 127). Jack could have thrown the conch on the ground, but instead he laid it down with great care showing that although he may not want to follow all of the rules, he still respects all of the rules that have been put into place. The conch shell represents the idea that a civilization is able to and most likely in the end will fail, if everybody in the civilization is working together. Towards the end of the book, the conch shell shatters. In the scene, “the rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist,” (Page 181). The rock falling off of the cliff and shattering the conch closely represents every small insignificant issue within their civilization. Essentially, the kids morphed the tiny issues into huge issues which eventually tore their civilization
Generally speaking, the conch has represented democracy and collectiveness throughout the novel. Golding uses the conch to highlight many different ideas in the book by setting the story on an island, which is a microcosm of the entire world and the world that the boys lived in before encountering the fateful crash of the plane. The group of boys encounter problems which, even on this island, they are unable to escape from. It is important to remember that at the same time, there is a nuclear war taking place. The ‘long scar’ that ‘smashed into the jungle’ implies that the island has already been ruined permanently. It seems as though the attempt to remove the boys from a war-filled world has failed because the island is already contaminated by the crash of the plane, which was shot down by an enemy plane, this is somewhat related to warfare. The boys now need to survive on the island and this causes problems revolving around social order, as there are no adults present. In that case, some of the problems are attempted to be resolved by using the conch.
The conch shell represents democracy, power and stability. When Ralph first discovers the conch shell, Piggy proposes to Ralph that they, “…can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come, when they hear us” (16) and that was the birth of the conch shell. Throughout meetings that are held at the beach, the conch is used as a “speaking stick”. After Jack separates himself from the rest of the tribe, Ralph barges into the camp and attempts to use the conch shell to gather up his former tribe mates. The boys say that th...
At the beginning of the novel, Ralph and Piggy discover a conch shell on the beach and use it to summon the boys together after the crash separates them. The conch shell becomes a symbol of civilization and order in the novel. The shell initially is a successful way of governing the boys’ meetings, following simple etiquette—whoever is holding the shell has the right to speak. The shell acts as more than a symbol, it is a tool...
They thought their society was stable; they thought it would last. It all started with the conch shell that gathered them. In the book The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of boys became nomads on an island causing them to take on the biggest challenge of their lives, survival. The traits for a successful survivalist would include cooperation, maturity and responsibility. But if they can’t achieve those traits they will crash, causing chaos on the island.
When the boys arrive at the island after a plane crash, they are forced to find a way to keep everything in order and under control. “At first they delight in their freedom and in their pleasure of the island”( Saidi, Hasan1). Then the boys begin to explore, Ralph and Piggy find a conch shell on the beach. When Ralph and Piggy first see the shell Piggy says "S'right. It's a shell! I seen one like that before. On someone's back wall. A conch he called it. He used to blow it and then his mum would come. It's ever so valuable--" (Golding15). They use this shell as a symbol of how fragile order and democracy is. The sound from the shell gathers all the boys together after the plane crash. The plane crash seperated them in th...
civilization can be see through many different forms of symbolism. One of the main forms of symbolism that can represent the theme is the conch shell. The conch shell was found in the very first pages of the novel by Ralph. After he found it, he decided to use it as a form of order and power on the island, almost like a form of government. Ralph’s leadership was determined when the group of boys had a meeting about who should lead them. In the novel, Piggy says, “We can use this to call others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us —” (Golding 16). From this quote, it can be shown that the shell is the main source that brings the boys together, ultimately showing the authority that the shell has and the order that it brings to the civilization of the boys. However, when Jack and Ralph begin to clash heads it slowly bring the power and authority of the shell to an end. “You haven’t got it with you,” said Jack, sneering. “You left it behind. See, clever? And the conch doesn’t count at this end of the island—” (Golding 150). From this quote, one could tell that the conch shell is losing its authority and order that it brings to the island. Not only that, but the shell also portrays how the island is no longer
In society rules and government restrain man’s inherent evil, but without rules evil is left with no adversary and can wreak havoc. In William Golding’s book Lord of the Flies important objects, like the conch and glasses are used as symbols that represent rules and government in society. These symbols are shown how they restrict and provide a barrier between man’s inherent evil and conforming to society and its rules.
Golding uses the conch shell to display the idea that without rules in society, there will be lots of chaos. The conch is a symbol of authority and lack of communication. When holding the conch shell, Ralph decides: “Ill give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking” (Golding 33). The boys knew that they needed to have some sense of authority and structure within themselves so they used the conch shell to portray who had authority at the time. It is used as a speaking tool; whichever boy was in possession of the conch in that particular moment was the one who was allowed to speak. This system of individualistic decision-making did not turn out to be something that worked out for the best. The conch was not the only semi-controlling decision they made; they also wanted to have one selected person to be in charge. When discovering early chaos and a sense of disorganization, Ralph says: “Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things” (Golding 32). The boys need to figure out a way to be organized and try to create in a sense, a government to run things smoothly on the island. They decide to elect a “chief” to be in charge of things. The conch shell symbolizes a sense of authority in the group and helps the boys decide ...
In the beginning, the conch symbolized a way of holding onto the boys’ school life. When the conch was blown and the powerful sound echoed throughout the island, Piggy claimed, “I bet you can hear this for miles” (17). Just as Piggy said this, children started to appear among the palms in the forest. The conch that called them together portrayed the kids’ school bell. It made most of them feel safe when they were confused about what was might happen to them.
The conch was used and discovered by Ralph who is a character in the book to call a meeting in order for the boys that are on the island to join and work together to get rescued from the island. It is a symbol which had a power that leads the group of boys to civilization that will rescue them from the island. The conch makes a loud noise when anyone blows it, and everyone that is on the island is able to hear it. When Ralph discovers the conch, Piggy who is another character in the book tells Ralph to blow the conch to call the others “We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us” (Golding. 17).
This conch is the only connection to the order and rules of the boys’ past lives, as there is no other influence on them in the isolated natural state of the island. Golding’s readers are able to see the boys’ return to their innate savagery as they increasingly reject all that the conch represents. When the shell finally ceases to exist, cruel savagery and terrorizing fear take over the island. Their inherently savage selves are finally