Lord of the Flies :: English Literature

Lord of the Flies - review. The book Lord of the Flies is about a plane full of boys crashing on a deserted island. On the island the boys try to build a civilized colony but soon fail. Within the novel, objects that the boys find or make, turn into symbols. William Golding uses symbols in the beginning of the book, the conch is a good example of this. The conch is a powerful symbol that develops as the book progresses. The author puts a lot of detail into this one symbol. The conch is a very important symbol that at the beginning of the book is invested with power and at the end this power is destroyed. The conch during the beginning of the novel shows leadership, power, and order. During the beginning Ralph finds the conch and blows it to assemble all the survivors of the plane crash. At this time the author tells us a little about the conch."Yet most powerful, there was the conch. The being that had blown that ... was set apart"(11). Right after the conch was discovered it is portrayed as being powerful and whoever has it, is special, showing leadership. The boys pick Ralph because he has the conch, which proves its significance and leadership. Another example of its power is when Ralph speaks on pages 31 and 32 saying people can only talk if they have the conch and that this person will not be interrupted. When the children obey this rule about the conch it tells how this conch has power, creates order and symbolizes rules. It is clear that the conch is invested with power during the beginning and that it is already an important symbol. The power from the conch develops further on in the middle book, and soon holds a civilizing force over the boys, which can be interrupted as an important symbol for civilization. The power from the conch in the beginning of the book is strong but further on the power degrades. Ralph proves that the conch has a force over the boys. "Ralph had to wave the conch once more" (85). Ralph waves it to make silence to prove the power of the conch and everyone obeys this gesture. However he has to wave it again proving the power is degrading because at first he only had to wave the conch once. Just this alone shows the force the conch has over the boys. When the boys obey the conch and when the conch is around, the boys act civilized and obey rules. This proves the conch can be interpreted as a symbol for civilization.