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Lord Of The Flies Sow's Head And The Conch

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The conch and the sow's head. Both objects the savage boys idolized as an attempt to survive on the solitary island. The conch representing civilization and order, while the sow’s head shows every individual's potential for evil. In the novel Lord of the Flies, W. Golding contrasts the two symbols as influences to show people need discipline to survive. “‘Shut up,’ said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. ‘Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things.’ ‘A chief! A chief!’ ’I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, ‘because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.’” From the beginning of the novel there is a constant competition for power. Which leads us to the theory Golding presents to us about human nature. We all yearn for power and control, and we may become corrupt if it is not used properly. The conch is the best example of power being properly used in this book, although it too has its flaws. Whoever has the conch has the control. This …show more content…

So many refrain from it. However, humans all have a primitive mindset that comes from our ancestors. With the boys having no supervision, there is no right or wrong. No moral set of values. No god. Savagery then becomes acceptable. The sow’s head is an example of this. The boys have a loss of innocence. Their previous education no longer has an affect on their decisions. Killing the sow gave them a taste of evil, and once tried it they could not go back. Golding, through the use of the sow's head, shows that everyone has evil inside of them. When the Lord of the Flies communicated to Simon in the forest glade, the "beast" was an internal force, that exists in every individual, and is hence incapable of being truly defeated. That the most ethical characters on the island are Simon and Ralph. Both come to recognize their own capacity for evil which reveals the novel's accent on evil's universality among

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