Who Is The Conch In Lord Of The Flies

William Golding’s use of symbolism in The Lord of the Flies creates an allegory in which the conch represents democratic rule and order. At the beginning of the novel, the conch is respected and helps keep order. As Jack gains more power, the conch loses its effect. When the conch is ultimately destroyed, the boys’ descent to savagery is complete. The conch shell’s power and loss of power represent the conflict of civilization versus savagery in the novel. When the conch is broken, savagery and the innate human capacity for evil win out.
At the beginning of the novel, the boys respect the conch. Immediately, before it even had any power, Piggy is protective of it. He tells Ralph to be “careful [or he’ll] break it” (11). Piggy has no savage

feelings and is drawn towards democracy. Piggy is also the one to suggest a use for the conch: “‘We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us.’” (12) This connects Piggy to the conch in the same way it’s connected to Ralph—the conch may have authority but only because of them. However, the conch does assist Ralph in becoming the chief. It sets him apart and gives him the power to call the boys to a meeting. The rule of the conch is set: only the boy holding the conch has the right to speak. The boys happily agree to this—it would be like they were back at school. Their meeting goes smoothly and civilization is still present. At this point in the novel, the conch is not only a symbol of order; it actually has the power to keep order on its own.
At the meeting regarding the fire going out, the conch starts to lose its power.

Ralph needs to repeat the phrase “I’ve got the conch” (87), in order to be heard over Jack. This phrase is also used frequently by Piggy, who is not as respected as Ralph. The conch, at this point in the novel, still has some power, but Jack starts to disobey the rule of the conch and tries to talk when Ralph is still holding it. When the conch is verbally acknowledged to be in Ralph’s hands, however, Jack “[sits] down, grumbling” (87). Jack was originally in favour of the rules, and he helps Ralph establish order by saying that “we’ve got to have rules and obey them” (42). As the meeting draws on, however, and the topic shifts to the beast, the conch is no longer sufficient to preserve the order. The conch gets fought over: “There was a sound of a brief tussle and the conch moved to and fro.” (97). Order is only restored when Ralph takes the conch back. By the meeting’s end, the conch only has as much authority as the boy holding it—Ralph. When Piggy, the outsider, has the conch, he has to fight to speak. The assembly turns into a shouting match, and Jack yells his contempt for the rules. All signs of civilization have faded away along with the daylight, and the assembly “[becomes] a discursive and random scatter from the palms to the water” (99). The sound of the conch can now longer bring order back. The civilization on the island has begun to erode and the descent into savagery

begins.
By the time the conch is destroyed, it has already lost all its power, and civilization has completely eroded away.

When Jack forms his tribe, he tells Ralph that “the conch doesn’t count at this end of the island” (166). He becomes a dictator as well as a savage, because he rules without the conch, without democracy. There is still some respect for the conch on Ralph’s end of the island as they desperately cling to the last remaining threads of civilization. Ralph “cradle[s] the conch” (173), like it has been injured. When their hut gets raided by Jack’s tribe, Piggy thinks they came for the conch. The conch, to civilized Piggy, is something of value, something worth stealing, but to the tribe it no longer has meaning. Piggy remains protective of the conch until they both get destroyed. In his hands, the conch is described as a “white, magic shell” (200), and he lifts it one last time to try to convince the tribe of the importance of law and rescue. The boulder that kills Piggy also shatters the conch shell. The boulder that kills the boy of reason also shatters the representation of democracy and order. Piggy’s death and the shell’s destruction signify the end of the civilized instinct on the island. In doing so, the innate human capacity for evil is no longer contained by civilization, and Jack and his tribe have truly become

savages.
The conch shell’s fall from power imply that the savagery within all humans will eventually emerge without the constraints of civilization. Initially, the conch is respected and the boys are civilized. As Jack and the fear of the beast became stronger, the conch’s authority lessened. When the conch is ultimately destroyed, the boys have become true savages. The innate human evil is no longer constrained by the fragile democracy of the island. The conch’s gradual fall from power shows how easy it is for civilization to be abandoned without proper authority. There was no one on the island with the authority to enforce the rules, and no consequences when a crime was committed. Evil, Golding believes, will easily prevail under these circumstances. It is in our nature, buried and waiting to be dug up.