Lord Of The Flies Speech Analysis

“When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.” President Ronald Reagan’s advice rang true as he spoke for the masses at a conference in 1984. Through the power of this speech, Reagan demonstrates that people will go to extensive lengths to be heard and make change. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, this very principle is demonstrated as once innocent schoolboys turn to savages in an attempt to rule and conquer their peers. Golding parallels the state of a conch found and used by a boy with the physiological states of the many others stranded on an island with him. The protagonist of the story, Ralph, first proclaims himself leader among a group of stranded boys after assembling them with the blow of a conch shell, giving a sense of order to a chaotic situation. Slowly, the conch loses its meaning as the children turn violent and resent its meaning. …show more content…
This gradual lack of interest signifies their turn to evil and dependence on violence. In one scene, the conch is cradled in Ralph’s arms as he defends himself in the involvement of Simon’s murder. The presence of the shell in this scene represents this descent and presents the corruption of power in the society. When the boys first start a fire atop the mountain, Piggy holds the conch and attempts to speak. Jack reproaches him by saying, “The conch doesn’t count on top of the mountain, so you shut up” (39). Jack, as well as the other boys, begin to place limitations on the conch and lose respect for it and one another. Later at an assembly, Jack deems even less importance on the conch excluding more of the boys and thus diminishing the democratic order and authority that the conch provides. Jack states “We don’t need the conch any more. We know who ought to say things" (92). Here, Jack connects the uselessness of the conch shell to a drastic change in social