The Conch And Disorder In Lord Of The Flies

The Conch and disorder
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,

and fear gets the better of them.
In the book Lord of the Flies, the protagonist, Ralph, finds a conch shell. He uses the conch to rally all the children to his position. Because he was the one to summon all the children into one area, everyone wanted him to be chief. The conch represents law and order, as it is used to hold meetings, gives the holder the right to speak, and basically a symbol of society. The conch was used early on in the book to hold rallies and meetings whenever it deemed necessary. When the conch was blown, everyone would stop what they were doing immediately and come over to the main area- a bunch of logs to sit on and the seat for the chief. “‘Meetings. Don’t we love meetings? Every day. Twice a day. We talk.’ He got on one elbow. ‘I bet if I blew the conch this minute, they’d come running.’”(Golding 51). When the meetings started, the children usually discussed what was need or not needed, like in a real government. “‘We need an assembly. Not for fun. Not for laughing and falling off the log’- the group of littuns on the twister giggled and looked at each other- ‘not for making jokes, or for’- he lifted the conch in an effort to find the compelling word- ‘for cleverness. Not for these things. But to put things straight.’” (Golding 79). The conch was necessary for calling meetings And crucial for everyone have a turn to say. Since there was so much mayhem during the meetings due to the constant chatter of every single person, a rule was made so that whoever held the conch during a meeting had the right to speak and everyone else had to be quiet. This rule, however, was ineffective for Jack and Piggy as their hatred for each other grew.
When the children were on the island, there was a lot of talk about a beast. In their minds, the beast was at first a long snake-like creature that dwelled in the jungle. Later in the book, the beast could not be found and the littluns “claimed” they saw it coming from the ocean, from the air, and then the mountain. Even the older boys were scared at one point, as they “saw” the beast on top of the mountain. But alas, the beast was just an imaginary idea expanded immensely by fear. Piggy states that the beast was just the littlun’s fear of the unknown. “I know there isn’t no beast- not with claws and all that, I mean- but I know there isn’t no fear, either” (Golding 84). Simon views the beast as ourselves. “What I mean is… maybe it’s only us” (Golding 89). Our primal fear is very effective, and grow grow out of completely nothing.This debate on the beast creates some differences between Ralph and Jack, and they soon they argue about everything, until Jack leaves Ralph’s group for good. In the end, the beast was found to be just a dead parachuter.
During the early stages of the island, everything was peaceful and in order. As the plot progressed, the children teetered out of the path of order and into disorder. This first happens when Jack is tired of Ralph and leaves the group. This is the first step from breaking away from society. "He laid the conch with great care in the grass at his feet" (Golding 127). This quote means that even though Jack has left the group (by putting the conch down), he still respects order and abides to law (with great care). Jack's choir group follows him, so now most of the older ones are now heading towards the path of their primitive ancestors. Instead of following orders, they just do what they themselves want to do. Another thing is that when the boys left, they left behind their chances of survival by neglecting the much need fire for their rescue.
As the story progresses, Jack and Ralph's groups begin to form a rivalry with one another.

Then, one night, Jack and a small group raid Ralph's hut and steals piggy's specs (Piggy's glasses is the only tool to start a fire on the island). The is the second step from breaking away from order. "'I thought they wanted the conch'. Ralph trotted down the pale beach and jumped on to the platform. The conch still glimmered by the chief's seat. He gazed for a moment or two, then went back to Piggy. 'They didn't take the conch'" (Golding 168). Since the specs is the only thing thing that makes fire, you could say that they represent fire itself. Fire was vital to our prehistoric ancestors, so you can connect fire to our primal instincts. So when Jack stole the specs instead of the conch, he took a step back from society. After Ralph and Piggy confronts Jack and his group, the conch is smashed into pieces. When this happens, all order is completely lost. Jack and his group are now in complete control, and there is no hope of the children going back into the customs of society. When the conch is destroyed, Piggy is killed. "The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from the chin to the knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. ... the body of Piggy was gone. This time the silence was complete. Ralph's lips formed a word but no sound came. Suddenly Jack bounded out from the tribe and begun to scream wildly. 'See? See? That's what you'll get! I meant that! There isn't a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone-' He ran forward, stooping. 'I'm chief!'" (Golding 181) When the conch and Piggy disappeared, Jack claimed that he was chief. I think that even though the conch was broken, he still would have "considered" Ralph to be a chief. But now that Piggy was gone, there would be no one on Ralph's side, so Jack takes the title of chief for

himself.
In conclusion, the conch,which represents society, was working well on the island until fear itself dethroned order. EVen though the conch was used to call meetings and gives a person the right to speak, the conch became ineffective after Jack is hailed chief. The imaginary beast, which is called our own fears by Piggy and only ourselves by SImon, makes the group paranoid, until they turn against one another. Peace would have been maintained lest they had followed the path of law and order.