Lord Of The Flies Conch Shell Symbolism

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses items and people to symbolize many different things. These symbolic things include Piggy’s glasses, Simon’s epilepsy, the Lord of the Flies, and arguably the most important symbol, the conch shell. The conch shell was first found in the water by Piggy, who then comes up with the idea of using the conch as a blow horn to call for meetings. Throughout Lord of the Flies, the conch shell becomes not only associated with Ralph and his leadership, but with Piggy and his intuitive and wise ideas and Jack and his dictator-like, irresponsible authority. The conch shell, representing law and order, assisted in the election of Ralph as chief and ultimately determines the future of the island. However, as time progresses, the conch shell loses its power, when which allows Jack to rise as chief of his tribe. The conch eventually becomes only a reminder of how rational the boys used to be. Once the conch shell shatters and Piggy dies due to Roger’s illogical decision of triggering the lever and releasing the boulder, the era of rationality completely ends, marking the beginning of a complete savage takeover. At first, the conch represents democracy, power, and civilized behaviors, but in the end, the destruction of the conch shell illustrates the innate evil in human beings and the abrupt end of a civilization.

From the very beginning of the novel, more specifically Chapter 1, the conch shell is used as a blow horn to symbolize order, control,