Symbolism of the Conch in Lord of the Flies by William Golding :: Lord of the Flies William Golding Conch Essays

Symbolism of the Conch in Lord of the Flies by William GoldingIn William Goldings Lord of the Flies the Conch represents power and order. military force is represented by the fact that you have to be holding it to speak, and lay out is displayed by the meetings or gatherings that its used to call and hold.The Conchs power is presented in the very beginning on pg 22 as thechildren vote for Ralph to be chief just because he was the ane with the Conch. Him with the shell. Ralph Ralph Let him be chief with the trumpetthing this infusion from pg 22 shows how everybody seems to think that power,responsibility and leadership skills comes from the Conch. An opposite Example ofthe Conchs Power is the fact that through out the book the conch is the onlytool that washstand call a meeting and wherever the Conch is thats where the meetingis. No other symbol in Lord of the Flies holds so much power. This is one ofthe reasons that damn Merridew disrespects the Conch. He wants to break thespell the symbol has on everybody. He wants to prove that he is the rightfulleader.The Conch also displays order through the harness that you must have the Conchto Speak in an assembly or meeting. And another(prenominal) thing. We cant have everybodytalking at once. Well have to have hands up like at school. At firsteveryone thinks that this is the best method to maintain order and soon theyfind out how quickly the power of the conch is abused by Ralph and Jack. On pg89 While Simon is tense uping to speak Ralph and Jack try to get him to sit down. Sit down Shut up take the Conch Sod you Shut up This shows earlyon that the Order is starting to fall apart, fortunatly Ralph doesnt become acorrupt leader he keeps his head on straight which causes the others to getrestless. They want to have playing period but Ralph being the leader doesnt have a choice most things need to be done in order to stay civilized. Jack on the other handdecides to separate and build his own federation of trib es he uses catchy words like Wellhunt and have shimmer but in actuality Ralphs group which is declining is thesafer and the more fun of the two. Heres an excerpt on pg 92 that shows thatRalph is losing control of Jack and the Conch is loosing its effect on the other