Conch Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

William Golding once said, “Which is better-to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?” This certainly was debated in Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, where a couple of boys are stranded on an island and focused on remaining civilized with the help of a conch. However, some boys lose their sense of innocence and become savages when they begin to viciously torture and murder animals and human beings. Eventually, they are saved, but are scarred for life. 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 it or mistreat it, the more uncivilized they are.
As the story begins, we see that the conch already had a sense of importance. Upon arrival on the island, Piggy finds a conch and describes it as “valuable…” and tells Ralph,“ Careful! You’ll break it” (15). This demonstrates how the conch is a precious and fragile object, just like democracy, and is needed to maintain order. The children gather for a meeting and decide to, “... give the conch to the next person to speak” (33). This shows that the conch plays a role in remaining civilized, as it allows everybody to speak one at a time, without any commotion or chaos. Already, we see the conch helps maintain order by allowing the kids to share ideas peacefully.

Ralph argues with Jack and declares,“... haven’t got the conch...You’re breaking the rules! Who cares… Because rules are all we got… Bollocks to the rules” (91). This further shows the conch’s significance of civilization, since having no rules can lead to chaotic savages. During a meeting, Jack concludes that,“We don’t need the conch anymore. We know who ought to say things” (102). Although Jack disagrees with the use of the conch, it displays the significance of order, and it is needed to prevent the transformation to