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 abandon island. On the island the boys try to build a civilizedcolony but soon fail. Within the novel, objects that the boys find ormake, turn into symbols. William Golding uses symbols in the beginningof the book, the conch is a good example of this. The conch is apowerful symbol that develops as the book progresses. The author putsa lot of detail into this one symbol. The conch is a very greatsymbol that at the beginning of the book is invested with power and atthe 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 toassemble all the survivors of the plane crash. At this time the authortells us a little about the conch.Yet most powerful, there was theconch. The being that had blown that ... was set apart(11). Right afterward the conch was discovered it is portrayed as being powerful andwhoever has it, is special, showing leadership. The boys pick Ralphbecause he has the conch, which proves its significance andleadership. Another example of its power is when Ralph speaks on pages31 and 32 saying people can only talk if they have the conch and thatthis person will not be interrupted. When the children obey this ruleabout the conch it tells how this conch has power, creates order andsymbolizes rules. It is heart-to-heart that the conch is invested with powerduring the beginning and that it is already an important symbol.The power from the conch develops further on in the middle book, andsoon holds a civilizing lunge over the boys, which can be interruptedas an important symbol for civilization. The power from the conch inthe 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 towave the conch once more (85). Ralph waves it to make silence toprove the power of the conch and ev eryone obeys this gesture. Howeverhe has to wave it again proving the power is degrading because atfirst he only had to wave the conch once. Just this alone shows theforce the conch has over the boys. When the boys obey the conch andwhen the conch is around, the boys act civilized and obey rules. Thisproves the conch can be interpreted as a symbol for civilization.