Who Is The Conch In Lord Of The Flies

“It’s ever so valuable.” These words, describing the conch, from William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, exemplifies how characters and items can symbolize the forces of reality. In this novel, a group of boys land on a deserted island after their plane is shot down during a war. Although the boys are free from civilization’s rules, they try to maintain order through the conch, a significant emblem in the story. Nevertheless, the boys eventually submit into their animalistic nature. 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 or mistreat it, the more uncivilized they are.
In the beginning, the boys respect the conch …show more content…
To demonstrate, when the boys hurry off to start a fire, “Ralph was...shouting for quiet, but no one heard him” (38). Ralph respects the conch and uses it to maintain order; yet, the other boys defy Ralph’s order. This shows that they are already starting to disregard the conch as well as the authority and order it symbolizes. In another instance, the littluns start to cry out of fear, and Jack cheers them up; however “he had not got the conch and this spoke against the rules, but nobody minded” (87). This indicates that the conch is unnecessary. Ignorance of the conch and its representation of society’s rules shows that the boys are starting to not care about law and democracy. In another instance, Jack once again interrupts Piggy at the meeting. Even though Piggy says that he has the conch, Jack replies with, “Conch! Conch!...We don’t need the conch anymore” (101, 102). Jack, a natural hunter, becomes impatient with the boys’ attempt to create a civilized society. This frustration causes Jack to think that the conch is not needed to maintain order and democracy. At this point, the boys are disrespecting the conch and what it