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Outline for lord of the flies essay
Essay about the conch shell in lord of the flies
Essay about the conch shell in lord of the flies
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The Conch
Vince Lombardi once said,” Individual commitment to a group effort- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. Full cooperation and effort are needed to have order and civilization in a society. Golding uses the symbolism of order and civilization through the conch shell found by Ralph and Piggy in the beginning of the novel to reveal the deterioration of civilization/structure on the island. Golding shows the deterioration of civilization on the island beginning with order through the conch, then the conch shell held together whatever civilization was left in the boys, and then finally the conch was destroyed along with Piggy letting savagery run freely on the island. The conch’s main purpose
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in the book, Lord of the Flies, was to symbolize order for the civilization. The declination of civilization on the island was achieved by the role of the conch throughout the story.
This declination began with order. In Chapter 2, as the children first came together on the island, they established firm standards in rules and order. Golding states,” “That’s what this shell’s called. I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking.” … Jack was on his feet. “We’ll have rules!” he cried excitedly. “Lots of rules! Then when anyone breaks ‘em-“ In this short excerpt from Lord of the Flies, Ralph is describing how the conch system works and Jack is describing an orderly and civilized society that they would live by. The conch was metaphorically the backbone of the society on the …show more content…
island. The deterioration of order on the island was accomplished by the activeness of the conch shell throughout the story. Throughout the body of “Lord of the Flies”, the conch shell was symbolizing the thin strand that was still holding onto civilization and order. While on the top of the mountain Ralph exclaimed how they needed to keep the fire going,” Ralph spoke. “You let the fire go out.” … “I cut the pig’s throat,” said Jack, proudly, and yet twitched as he said it…. “There was lashings of blood,” said Jack, laughing and shuddering, “you should have seen it!” In this short excerpt from the book, Ralph was angry at Jack and his gang for not following Ralph’s orders to get them rescued. They let the fire go out to go, instead, hunting for meat. Also in this excerpt, Jack shows traits of a dynamic character. In the beginning of the novel, Jack was pro rules and regulations, but now, about midway through the story, Jack is showing changes in his values. He made the decision to go hunt for meat almost like a savage would. All society and civilization breaks down when the symbol for civilization and order breaks. The declination of civilization on the island occurred along with the role of the conch throughout the novel The Lord of the Flies.
When the conch shell was destroyed along with Piggy on Castle Rock, savagery was finally set free on the island. Ralph was the only one left who had not given into savagery. On page 181 Golding says,” The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee: the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. Piggy, saying nothing, with no time for even a grunt, traveled through the air sideways from the rock, turning over as he went. Piggy fell 40 feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea.” In this short excerpt, it is shown that savagery led the boys to kill Piggy. The conch was destroyed along with Piggy signifying the absolute end of civilization and order on the island. All the stages of the role of the conch shell in the story contribute to the ending result of the deterioration of the civilization and order on the
island. The author of the book, The Lord of the Flies, William Golding, uses the symbolism of civilization and order through the conch shell found by Ralph and Piggy in the beginning of the novel to reveal the deterioration of structure/civilization on the island. First, the declination of civilization on the island began with order through the conch with its rules and regulations. Second, the declination of civilization on the island continued with the conch shell holding onto civilization by a thread while Jack and his gang turned into savages. Last, the civilization on the island ended with the conch being destroyed along with Piggy on Castle Rock. As you can see, individual commitment to a group effort is key to making a society or civilization work properly, as shown by the downfall of the society in Lord of the Flies.
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
Authority plays a vital role in the modern world through contrasting forms of government and the struggle for power between leaders. The leader of a society asserts power over its citizens with the aim to create the laws, which hold the society together. Once authority is demolished within a community, the power spreads to its citizens in which total chaos collectively overtakes the society. The process of law-making and a struggle for power takes precedence in William Golding’s allegorical novel, Lord of the Flies, through the conch shell found upon the shore. The conch grants superiority to one member of the group over the others, it is used to call assemblies and assists in choosing the speakers during important meetings. When the conch
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
Soon after Ralph discovers the conch, it becomes a symbol of unity and collectivity, because it is used to gather any survivors for an assembly. The assembly itself at the beginning of the novel shows that the children still have the civil codes and rules of society engraved within them. This means that the boys were at that time, behaving within the acceptable boundaries of society. However, the fact that they are still boys imply that the civil codes have not yet been fully engraved and developed inside them. During the first assembly, ‘it seems to [Ralph] that [they] ought to have a chief to decide things.’ Even though this is a sensible idea, there is st...
Golding uses the conch shell, which Ralph and Piggy find, to demonstrate a source of leadership and order within the civilization. As the conch becomes a source of authority and assembly, it “becomes no less than the basic challenge to the Tribe to choose between democracy and anarchy, civilization and savagery” (Gregor). As order decreases within the civilization the boys are forced to choose between Ralph, who symbolizes order, and Jack, who symbolizes savagery and chaos. The boys quickly join forces with Jack, which is their first step of their decline into savagery. One of their final falls into savagery was when Roger rolled the boulder into Piggy and “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (Golding 181). By the conch breaking, order on the island was completely gone and the physical violence began to increase as chaos started to occur. In Kathleen Woodward’s article, “On Aggression: William Golding’s Lord of the Flies,” Woodward says that “children require strict supervision and constant discipline, for without these, they pose a serious threat to the adult world” (Woodward). As the rules for the adult world were made to keep order so were the rules and tasks that Ralph had assigned. Rules are cru...
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...
William Golding made it clear that one of the first things the boys did once they came together was establishing the meaning of the conch. Within the first chapter, the boys began to use the conch to call order the group. Holding the conch was like raising your hand at school, at first it works but after a while it loses its effectiveness. Ralph begins to say “‘shut up,’ said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. ‘Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things’” (Golding 22). So the boys took a vote on who they wanted to make chief, it was between Jack and Ralph. After labeling Ralph as chief, he goes on to make rules for the time being on the island. These rules included when being in an assembly only the person that could speak was the one holding the conch or having assembles only take place on the platform. Ralph made it clear how it would be decided who could speak, “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking. And he won’t be interrupted. Except by me” (Golding 33). To the boys this seemed like an efficient way of running things on the island however it was far from right.
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...
The conch was the final representation of society, and with its destruction it shows the final transformation from a well-mannered group of boys into a group of savages. The conch shell was found by Ralph and Piggy in the first chapter of the book and was instantly used as a horn to call an “assembly”. Ever since the conch was used the first time it was always a vital role in the book, bringing together the boys in many situations Up until the very end of the book the conch shell serves as a glue for their civilization, being a vital part not only in calling all of the boys’ meetings, but also during them with it acting as a “hot seat” where if whoever had the conch shell was the one doing the talking. Despite all of this the conch was still destroyed by a member of Jack’s following,Roger. Roger had been very sadistic during the entire book, and this was at the peak of savagery in the book. “See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you any more! The conch is gone—” . With the conch being destroyed the boys’ ties to civilization are completely gone revealing the truth that Golding attempted to communicate in his book; True human nature is
When they are first stranded on the island, the boys use the conch to symbolize order and democracy. The boys use the conch to call assemblies and meetings and only the boy with the conch is allowed to speak. The conch comes to represent the boys’ civilization. As the book goes on, the boys begin to disobey the “conch rules”, and this leads to most of the boys becoming savages. They disobeyed the conch rules by speaking
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 ...
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
In the first chapter of Lord of the Flies, Ralph calls together all of the boys using the conch for the first time. Their first rule of action is to elect a leader because
The conch shell is an image of civilization painted by the boys who followed its rule on the island. In times of need people will look for anything to represent the things that are hard to find, and in this case it was a creamy conch shell. The meaningless object gave order and rule over everyone and once it was destroyed total chaos conquered the boys hearts. The conch is an important symbol put into the book Golding to truly represent