Michelle Duan Mrs. MJ English 10 H, per. 3 13 February 2014 A Symbol’s Worth a Thousand

The conch a significance a powerful symbol of civilization.The shell governs the boys meetings and the respect they have with each other.For example as the novel progress the conch, “we can use this to call the others. Have a meeting, they'll come when they hear this.”(Golding 22)Piggy tells ralph that blowing the conch anyone else on the island will come when they hear it. It symbolizes the forces that brought the boys together.Later the conch becomes disrespected and cannot hold everyone together anymore. The boys become savages and lose every resource they have to survive in the island.Jack and Ralph feud “I’m chief and i've got the conch ralph says, Jack responds you don’t have it with you and the conch doesn't count at this end of the

Symbols in literary works can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Symbols can appear in a novel as an event, action, or object. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author, Zora Neale Hurston, uses the symbols of the gate to show Janie’s transitions to womanhood, independence from oppression, and realization of what love is to Janie.

In William Golding’s novel, The Lord of the Flies, a large group of privileged English schoolboys are stranded on an island in the Pacific with no adults after the plane they were on crash-landed. The boys are brought together by the Conch that is blown by Ralph in the beginning of the book. The conch is symbolic of order and authority in the book. The boys go under a transformation of these privileged schoolboys to a group of rag tag savages trying to kill each other for power throughout the course of this book. This essay will be outlining the transition from good boys that listen to authority, into boys that rely on their id of savagery, and the descent to evil, destruction and panic through the journey and

To begin, the message shown in the events leading up to the conclusion is to “Never give up”. This is the message because the boys are living fine with each other, but then Jack and his tribe become savages. Jack becomes very violent because he “hurled his spear at Ralph” and some of the other boys become very violent as well (181). Roger becomes violent when he drops a rock on Piggy, causing him to fall “forty feet and [land] on his back”, and he sends a spear towards Ralph, who is trying to get away from them (181). When Piggy gets hit by the rock, the conch does as well and it shatters. Because the conch was a symbol of civilization, with it gone, they all act savage. Never give up is the message because the

Albeit low, the tension thickens as the boys strive to hold the conch and to speak their opinions. Golding mainly portrays the beginnings of the tense environment that the island will become through the internal tension each of the boys express. This is especially evident in Piggy, when he is speaking and the silence becomes “so complete that they could hear the unevenness of [his] breathing” (34). His struggle to claim the conch so he could voice his opinion makes him anxious and nervous. The battle to display dominance while holding the right to speak only grows more difficult as the novel progresses, and the conch’s power only grows with the continuation of the novel’s plot and the emergence of the savagery within the boys.

The quote, “‘Grownups know things,’ said Piggy… ‘They’d meet and have tea and discuss. Then things ‘ud be all right-’” (94), represents Piggy’s reasoning that adults are necessarily rational, and that said rationality would lead to order and peace. In comparison, Jack, the symbol for anarchy and dictatorship, says, “‘We don’t need the conch anymore. We know who ought to say things.’” (102). This quote shows Jack’s denouncement for the conch, the symbol of democracy and law in the book, and how this loss of belief in democracy is felt by the hunters of the story, as order interferes with their thirst for savage behavior. This contrast between democracy and anarchy echoes the dynamic of society, that democracy leads to peace and logic, but is condemned by the innate human yearning for chaos. Overall, comparing Piggy and the hunters’ wishes for order versus chaos represents society’s own eventual renouncement of rules and

Jack tries to tell the entire group that Ralph is a coward who doesn't deserve to be a leader. He asks everybody to kick him out as their leader and to accept himself as the new leader. As the boys are very scared, they do not raise their hand to agree with Jack. This makes Jack very angry and he decides that he can no longer stay with Ralph, and goes to the other end of the island. As many of the boys want meat, they slowly start leaving over time to join Jack's new group. Jack and his followers create a lot of conflict because of this new group. Jack, the self-appointed leader, is the cause of the murder of two kids in the book. Jack, the self-appointed leader, is at conflict with Ralph because he enjoys having power over others, and also because he does not like the rules that Ralph has made, and instead wants to go hunting. Jack is also at conflict with Piggy, because Jack relies on instinct to make his decisions. He does not like Piggy's logical way of thinking as he feels threatened by Piggy's knowledge and wisdom. To get rid of this threat, Jack gets Roger to kill Piggy and destroy the conch at the same time. "See? See? That's what you'll get! I meant that! There isn't a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone---.".."I'm Chief." (Golding 1996, 223). Jack says this right after the murder of Piggy and the destruction of the conch. It shows that Jack really is a very savage person, who is not at al suited to be a leader.

Landra Lee Mrs. Mary Smith AP Literature 6 21 September 2017 A Symbol isn’t a Symbol unless it’s a Symbol Symbolism is a major part of every story. It’s crucial to stories for getting the point across without using the obvious signs. It also allows for the reader to interpret an object or specific situation in their own way. In the book How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, Mr. Foster walks us through the many literary techniques used in literature and how to find and analyze them as through a professor’s eyes.

Piggy urges Ralph to use what power he has left by calling a meeting: “’What’s grown-ups going to say?’ cried Piggy again…The sound of mock hunting, hysterical laughter, and real terror came from the beach. ‘Blow the conch, Ralph...You got to be tough now. Make ‘em do what you want.’ Ralph answered in the cautious voice of one who rehearses a theorem. ‘If I blow the conch and they don’t come back; then we’ve had it. We shan’t keep the fire going. We’ll be like animals. We’ll never be rescued.’” In this situation, Piggy is still worried about the punishment of his previous life. He is the closest thing to an adult on the island, and Ralph is the only one who advocates listening to him, illustrating Ralph’s connection to the rules of traditional civilization, which the other boys despise and want to escape through the island. After showing blatant disregard to their “chief’s” rules, they decide to escape the constraints of Ralph’s assemblies and embrace their inner savagery with Jack. Piggy urges Ralph to blow the conch, the symbol of his power throughout the book, but Ralph understands that his form of leadership is becoming the less desirable option to the boys: if he calls an assembly and the other boys do not respond, its power, and his civilization, will have completely disintegrated. Ralph constantly emphasizes their responsibilities on the island—specifically, tending to the signal fire.

Ralph and Piggy believe that Jack and his tribe are after the conch, and leave it behind when they go to see what is going on at the other side of the island. Jack then begins to signal to the audience and the boys that the conch is now useless. It is has no meaning to anyone on the island, specifically his tribe. He indicates this statement by saying, “ You left it behind… and the conch doesn’t count on this side of the island-”(150).This passage from the novel exemplifies how the boys have lost their sense of command and order within one another. The message from the statement made by Jack is guiding the reader to see how each boy is transforming into a more ruthless individual, not caring about any rules or individuals in their lives. With author, William Golding, having the conch’s purpose be lost and forgotten begins to exhibit the children’s loss of reason within one another.

With Jacks attempt to become the chief and win over the crowd he comes off as impulsive and childish using force to get what he wants. Because of the immaturity and age of the boys, their makeshift society began to fall apart once they began to ignore their own rules. Downplaying the need for the conch because “we know who ought to say things”(102) beginning the downfall of

The obligation of the conch within the boys’ lives is to help create a systematic society by maintaining order, authority, and sufficiency within tasks. Correspondingly, as the boys start to settle in on the island, Piggy and Ralph attempt to initiate everyone within the group accordingly. Piggy asks each of the frightened boys of their names to assemble them and “The children gave him the same simple obedience that they had given to the men with the megaphones” (Golding 18). With comparing Ralph and Piggy, when having possession of the conch, to men with megaphones resembles how the conch supplies them with a sense of dominance, allowing them to be assertive and powerful within the group of boys. Piggy and Ralph are capable of organizing the boys and creating peace due to the leadership role the conch gives them.

But this democratic society does not last very long as the children (especially Jack) have a lack of respect and interest for the conch and the rules. We can see this happen when Jack says, “We don’t need the conch anymore, and we know who should say things.” As the conch represents democracy we can see that civilization on the island is crumbling and savagery is starting to take over.

This is shown when the boys try and outline order on ‘their’ island. Jacks reaction to this is aggressive and intolerant- “bollocks to the rules! We’re strong- we hunt!”. Here we see that he seems manipulative towards the other characters trying to control them into following him as the leader. When the group of boys head up the mountain our perception as to Jack’s cruelty is further developed. This is shown when Jack is seen to “snatch the glasses from Piggy’s face”; “His specs- use them as burning glasses”. Golding uses this cruel streak in Jack so the reader feels sympathetic to lesser characters such as Piggy. The deterioration of civilization on the island first begins with the breaking of the conch, in the novel the conch symbolises rules, like a school bell when the noise sounds it enforces a sense of regulation and order. Secondly the fire symbolises a feeling of hope, it is the one thing that could save them and mean rescue. Contrastingly it represents destruction and corruption, it destroys the idyllic feel of the island first presented to us by Golding.

When the boys first start a fire on top of the mountain, Piggy holds the conch and attempts to speak. But Jack scolds him by saying, “The conch doesn’t count on top of the mountain, so you shut up” (Golding 39). Boys like Jack begin to place restrictions on the conch and lose respect for it and for one another. Then one day at an assembly, Jack places even less importance on the conch excluding more of the boys and weakening the equal order and authority that the conch provides. Jack says, “We don’t need the conch anymore. We know who ought to say things...It’s time some people knew they’ve got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us” (Golding 92). Jack’s statement here clearly connects the end of the conch to a change in the social order. Jack is slowly becoming a power-hungry dictator, and the orderly influence of the conch is replaced by man’s evil desires.