Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, once said, “Man is the cruelest animal.” This statement holds true in Lord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding. Man is the cruelest animal when there is no law and order to civilize them. In this allegory, a group of English schoolboys are stranded on an tropical island while fleeing Britain. Ralph, the protagonist, meets Piggy, the intellect of the group, and Jack, the tyrannical leader of the hunters. Struggling to survive on the island, they find a cream colored conch which becomes the symbol of law and rule in order to keep the boys civilized. If we follow the conch throughout the story, we can see that it symbolizes precious civilizing forces, such as democracy and law and order. The more the boys disregard it or mistreat it, the more uncivilized they are. At the beginning of the novel, the boys respected the conch and adhered to the rules. Soon after finding the conch on the golden beach, Piggy says to Ralph, “It’s ever so valuable… Careful! You’ll break it” (15). The word “valuable” makes the conch sound precious and very fragile. Because the conch symbolizes democracy, it shows that law and order is
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After the night of Simon’s death, Ralph and Piggy are discussing their next moves and Ralph says, “Just a smoke signal so we can be rescued. Are we savages or what?” (170). Ralph already considers the boys to be savages for their inabilities to keep order, build a fire, and hold meetings. Another instance was when the conch, or law and order, has been destroyed when a boulder was let loose and kills both the conch and Piggy, “...the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (181). After the conch is eradicated, chaos is ensued when Jack’s tribe hunts after Ralph, with the intention of slaughtering him. It is apparent that after the conch is gone from the boy’s minds, they lose control of themselves and are
After the night of Simon’s death, Ralph and Piggy are discussing their next moves and Ralph says, “Just a smoke signal so we can be rescued. Are we savages or what?” (170). Ralph already considers the boys to be savages for their inabilities to keep order, build a fire, and hold meetings. Another instance was when the conch, or law and order, has been destroyed when a boulder was let loose and kills both the conch and Piggy, “...the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (181). After the conch is eradicated, chaos is ensued when Jack’s tribe hunts after Ralph, with the intention of slaughtering him. It is apparent that after the conch is gone from the boy’s minds, they lose control of themselves and are