Conch And Fire Symbolism Essay

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The savagery of mankind is inevitable as we still see it occurring today. In her novel, Golding proves that we are all capable of becoming Nazis by using symbolism to prove that the defects of society trace back to the defects of human nature. Some of the symbols she used to portray this theme are the conch, the fire, the lord of the flies, and the scar each representing a certain aspect of society. Two symbols which Golding used to prove his theme were The Conch and Fire. Ralph and Piggy come across the conch shell when they first arrive on the island and use it to keep order and summon the boys together. The conch shell represents and soon becomes a powerful symbol of civilization representing political legitimacy and democratic power amongst…show more content…
The signal fire represents the boy’s connection to civilization, symbolizing the measurement of strength of the civilized instinct on the island which is their desire to keep the fire going to get saved. Towards the end of the novel, you see that the boys don’t care to keep the fire going to get rescued, thus representing there slow acceptance into the savage life on the island. Both of these symbols represent the destruction of order, peace, civilization, that was once a part of the island proving that the inevitable savagery of man and their desire to kill leads to destruction of power and order. Other symbols used to identify his theme is the Lord of The Flies, and the Scar. The Lord of the Flies is the severed sow’s head that Jack put on a stake in the forest as an offering to the beast, representing the power of evil. This symbol is important because when Simon confronted the Lord of the flies, this is when it informs him that evil lies within everyone’s heart and even foreshadows his soon to be death. The Lord of the Flies became a physical manifestation of the beast, representing the Pure Evil that can overtake any man. The Lord of the Flies is perhaps the most important symbol throughout the book, as it represents both a symbol of the power of evil and the symbol of Satan proving that the beast

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