Conch Shell And Lord Of The Flies Analysis

A world of order turns into corruption when weakness triggers the defects of human nature. In The Lord of the Flies, William Golding illustrates the effect weakness has on the actions of humankind. He gives readers two symbols, the conch shell and The Lord of the Flies, in order to communicate how authority and order can be broken when the evil in all of humanity is stirred. The boys on the island do not see a correlation between the conch shell and the The Lord of the Flies, rather they only see a loss of order by a desire to stay alive. Golding wants readers to see much more, creating an image of how the world changes because of the evil inside each person. The Lord of the Flies is a microcosm of the larger world. The symbols of the conch shell and The Lord of the Flies illustrate order, evil, and how the two subjects relate and create a reason for the larger world’s corruption.

When the boys were stranded on the island in the Pacific Ocean, they were left to fend for themselves without parental guidance. The fair boy, Ralph, found a conch shell and used it to summon meetings and provide a sense of control. This shell was a powerful symbol of civilization and order. The inhabited land that the boys took over had no form of government or set of rules to keep the civilization functioning properly. Without advice or guidance, this shell provided a way of keeping the island organized distributing roles to each person. Without the conch shell, there was no order, and chaos prevailed. To the boys, the shell was an object that maintained control. To the rest of the world, this shell represents the need for authority and the disasters that can rule over that control if it is