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The uses of symbolism in the novel Lord of the Flies
The uses of symbolism in the novel Lord of the Flies
Lord of the flies characterization and symbolism
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Authority is what controls our life, but what happens when our only sound source of authority is no longer respected? The conch in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies represents leadership and authority, it brings the boys together, and really develops the fundamentals for their government, and life on the island. The boys use the conch to govern their assemblies, and keep order throughout their stay on the island. Jack, however, in all his efforts to oppose Ralph and become the leader, never tries to take the conch from anyone. Initially, the conch is well-respected; however, throughout the book, the conch loses respect, as do the boys who lose respect for each other. Ironically enough, when some of the boys begin to turn completely barbaric …show more content…
and kill Piggy, the conch is destroyed, and chaos ensues. Throughout the book, the conch represents authority, destruction, and ultimately the downfall of the boys, resulting in chaos and death. In the novel, the conch represents authority, and the beginning of the boys’ civilization.
Ralph initially blows on the conch in an attempt to find other survivors on the island, which is the start of the authority held within the conch. Boys responding to the conch gather in a group, and upon realizing that there are no adults, recognize the need for leadership, a chief. Jack leads the choir boys, and suggests that he should be chief.“‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, ‘because I’m chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.’”(22) However, Ralph seems to be the obvious choice for the position, considering “his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch.” (22) In the first chapter, there is an obvious amount of respect for the conch. Though Jack seemed to be unsupportive of the idea of Ralph being chief, he moved on and went exploring along with Piggy and …show more content…
Ralph. Interestingly enough, the boys’ success is very short lived. Within days, disagreements are quickly arising and tension builds. Ralph recognizes that Jack has a strong level of distaste for him, and others. However, he is still abiding by the rules, and following the rule of the conch, which decides that no one can speak unless they are the one holding the conch. In chapter five, Jack and Ralph get into a major dispute, as a result of the fear of the beast, as well as poor teamwork and a bad demeanor. Ralph exclaims, “‘Jack! Jack! The rules! You're breaking the rules!’” (91) And Jack, who has little care shouts, “Bollocks to the rules!” (91) So early in the book, Jack is already discounting the usefulness for the rules and conch. Throughout the book, the conch is mentioned less and less, and accordingly is less respected.
Jack has now created his own tribe in which the conch has no significance, because he is the omnipotent leader. The final straw for Ralph's remaining tribe is when Samneric are kidnapped and forced to join Jack’s tribe, and consequently Jack intends to kill Ralph’s existing tribe. The entire island is in an uproar with Jack as a leader and bloodthirsty Roger as his accomplice. Following this new leadership, Roger pushes a boulder down a mountain, which results in the conch shattering into a thousand pieces, killing Piggy at the same time. (181) From here on out, the conch is not mentioned again. Golding may lead the reader to believe that the conch shattering represents the last piece of civilization that existed, and the boys now are complete savages, evidenced by how Jack lights the island on fire in an attempt to smoke out
Ralph. In conclusion, the conch is initially used as a respected symbol of governing and respect. However, Jack begins to discount it in the belief that it should be a dictatorship, with him in the power position; and his choir boys start to follow. Piggy clings to the conch, both figuratively and literally, keeping the boys anchored in civilization. When Piggy dies he is holding the conch, which is no coincidence. As a final thought, I think the conch represents the boys’ progression from civilization to complete savagery.
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,
William Golding communicates the idea through Ralph that all the order and goodness of the island is gone when the Conch breaks and how the rest of the boys turned into savages. Golding shows in the novel that, “Samneric were savages like the rest; Piggy was dead, and the conch smashed to powder.” This quote it demonstrates how the other boys took everything from Ralph who was the only person still somewhat civilized. The rest of the boys just follow and let the evil inside consume them. The other boys broke the conch to show how they turned on the only person not evil. The conch broke because they forgot how authority works and the do not listen to anybody and more. Samneric turned to evil also and the only person that wasn’t changed was
In Lord of the Flies, there is a theme that runs throughout the book that relates to a historical instance that changed society. Throughout the book there is a power struggle between Jack and his hunters and Ralph, the Littluns and Piggy. Jack represents a dictatorship and Ralph and the others want a democracy where everyone’s opinion and vote matters. This correlates with the civil war times, when the North wanted freedoms and equality for all people and the south wanted to dictate how others lived. Jack represents the oppressive southern states that wanted to rule over the black Americans. Ralph represents the northern states that wanted a democracy where everyone’s ideas mattered.
Jack, William Golding’s antagonist in Lord of the Flies, reveals through his experience on the island that it is an individual’s assertiveness, manipulative abilities, and charisma which dictate who commandeers power and privilege over others, and that possessing these traits often negatively impacts the lives of the people leaders seek to control.
tool that can call a meeting and wherever the Conch is thats where the meeting
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.
Jack’s disregard for the conch shows his growing distaste for laws and civilization. He also challenges Ralph's authority by implying he should be in charge of decisions taken for the group. After some time, Ralph is only left with Piggy, Samneric, and some littles on his side of the island.
Ralph shows that he has a better understanding of the boys than Jack. He knows that the boys need some sort of order on the island in order for them to survive. He starts a simple form of government and sets a few rules for them. Even though they don’t last very long, the fact that he tried to help the group is what makes him a better leader. Ralph’s wisdom and ability to look toward the future also has an advantage over Jack. He has a sense to keep his focus on getting off the island. When the fire goes out, Ralph gets upset because the chance to be rescued was gone as well. Ralph enforces his role of leadership as he gives the boys a sense of stability of an authority figure. He keeps the boys in pretty good order at the meeting by making a rule that they can only speak if they have the conch. Ralph knows that the littleuns are afraid and they need shelter to feel more secure. They work together for a while, but as the time goes on the smaller boys want to go play. They slowly lose all their help until Simon and Ralph are the only ones left to work on them. Ralph knows that this is a necessity and keeps bringing it up at the meetings. Jack, on the other hand, is doing nothing but causing chaos.
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.
The conch was the only thing that held the boys with a moral glue that they knew what their limit was. Golding states the power the conch once had with the boys, "Conch! Conch!" shouted Jack. "We don’t need the conch any more. We know who ought to say things. What good did Simon do speaking, or Bill, or Walter? It 's time some people knew they 've got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us" (139). The order that they had before diminished to little pieces the conch had no meaning for the rest of boys and they could do whatever they wanted. The conch kept the order it had power the boys needed to hear one another out; also it meant as together when the conch is destroyed was is left with the boys? The boys are no longer had order and become savages To add to their downfall, the death of Piggy he was the voice of reasoning that he was trying to reason with everyone what would be the right thing to do; even though nobody paid attention to what he had to say but they did listen. As a consequence, without the voice of reasoning on the island there is a no hold bars of what could happen next to the boys is a free for
Ralph was introduced as a fair and likeable boy. His interaction with Piggy demonstrated his kind nature as he did not call him names with hateful intentions as Jack had. His good looks allowed him to be well accepted among his peers, and this gave him enough confidence. His handsome features and the conch as a symbol of power and order made him stand out from the crowd of boys and led to his being proclaimed Chief: "There was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerful, there was the conch" (p. 24). From the quick decisions he made as Chief near the beginning of the novel, it could be seen that Ralph was well-organized. Gradually, Ralph became confused and began to lose realness in his thoughts and speeches: "Ralph was puzzled by the shutter that flickered in his brain. There was something he wanted to say; then the shutter had come down." (p. 156) He started to feel lost as the boys, with the exception of Piggy, began to change and adapt to their freedom.. He was more influenced by Piggy than by Jack.
The conch is first discovered on the beach by Piggy and Ralph, and it is used to summon all of the children together on the island. Also, the conch helps to create order within their meetings, and the only person who could speak would be the one to hold the conch. However, as civilization on the island starts to become lost, the conch shell starts to lose its power and influence. As Jack gains more power, he begins to destruct the boy’s civilization, and become savage. This is portrayed when Roger rolls a stone, ultimately killing Piggy and shattering the conch shell, an important representation of civilization. Once again, high power within a civilization can eventually end up depriving a fragile
In his novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding presents a conch shell representing the order of civilization. He uses this symbol to effectively portray the theme that humans are inherently evil and have savage desires, shown through the decline from discipline and peace among the boys on the deserted island. In the novel, civilization directly correlates to the boys’ past lives in England. Before coming to the island, there were adults present who maintained order by enforcing rules and punishing those who did not follow them. However on the island, the conch, representing this society, is a powerful object that demands the respect of the boys in a similar way that the adults do. As time passes, the conch’s influence over the boys weakens and ultimately all forms of civilization are rejected.
A conch, a head, and a need for power. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the sow’s head and the conch shell each hold a different power over the boys on the deserted Island. Golding’s book is a novel about leadership, loss of innocence, and power. Ralph and Piggy found the conch buried on the beach by the oceans edge, while Ralph picked on Piggy about Piggy’s asthma. When Jack was hunting with his team, the boys caught, killed, and tortured the sow.