The Conch In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there is a conch that represents power, authority, and solidarity within a group of British school boys that are stranded on an island, during world war II, without adult supervision after a plane crash. In the beginning, the conch had an immense importance for the boys because who ever held it had the power and authority to gather the group together and had the right to speak. As the book progresses the conch starts to loose it’s authority and power, while the group starts to break apart from disagreement. Finally, as the boy’s slip into complete chaos the conch brakes. Golding suggests that everyone has the potential for good or evil and without authority the events can unfold to drive a person one

way or the other.

At the start of the story, the conch brings rules, rights, and order within the group in the island.

Ralph and Piggy try their hardest to maintain order by stressing the importance of the conch. The conch is the only hope the boys have in maintaining order. It is a symbol of democracy and civilization on the island. Whenever they played the conch “they obeyed the summons of the conch” (Golding 59) because it had the authority and power to bring the boys together. The boys implement the rules, bring order, and give everyone a right to speak on the island with the use of the conch. The power of order given by the conch is clearly demonstrated by the following text, “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking… he won’t be interrupted” (Golding 33) this gives the boys equal say and

opinion.
As the story continues, it’s clear that the order and civilization created by the conch is paralleling the deterioration of their friendship.

As piggy tries to speak none of the other boys listen to his ideas, even though the rule is that they are to listen to the person with the conch in their hands. Piggy says “I got the conch” (Golding 101) but Jack got annoyed and shouted “conch! conch!’ shouted Jack. ‘We don’t need the conch anymore…It’s time some people knew they’ve got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us’” (Golding 101-102). This shows that as the chaos and discontentment within the group grows the power of the conch is unraveling. At this point in the novel, only Ralph and Piggy see it as an important item, while Jack thinks it is inane to have order established by a shell. Jack has his own views on how to be a leader. The fact that Ralph is the leader; and doesn’t accept any of Jacks ideas angers him. Therefore, he decides that he is “not going to play any longer.” (Golding 127) and creates his own group. Most of the boys on the island are not terrified of Jacks abilities to kill and they just want to have fun so they end up following Jack and become

savages.

As the story comes to an end, the conch loses so much value that it breaks. When Jack’s group raided Ralphs camp they did not even take the conch. Ralph even knows it when he says “I know. They didn’t come for the conch. They came for something else” (Golding 168) instead they take Piggy’s glasses. Jack took piggy’s glasses because he needs them to start his fires and he sees the fire as the most important thing because he needs it to cook his meat. This proves that to Jack and his group the conch means nothing and it shows that the authority established by the conch is completely nonexistent. This is also symbolized by the fact that “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.” (Golding 181) at the end of the book. Once the conch vanishes from existence, authority is also lost, which leaves nothing but chaos. The conch also acts to demonstrate that a civilization can and will fail, no matter how sturdy and strategic it is, if the citizens can’t work together.
The progression from a conch being the symbol of power, equality, authority to an unimportant common object, which leads to its eventual destruction in Lord of the Flies foreshadows the disorder and chaos that ensues amongst the boys. In conclusion, from all of the reasons and facts, it is understandable that the purpose of this novel is undeniably true. Throughout all this Golding is trying to show that as soon as the boys lost authority and order they went outrageous and became savages. William Golding demonstrates in this novel that the human’s ability to behave peacefully and civilized are not a part of human nature and without authority the true side of human behavior comes out. Therefore, when the boys in the novel Lord of the Flies are left on their own, they change into savagery despite the fact that they have been raised in a civilized way before.