Lord Of The Flies Conch Symbolism

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The conch in Lord of the Flies is the most important symbol in the book. The conch represents civilization and how they need to work together. It also represents order and how they need it to keep things from collapsing. But the major thing which the conch symbolizes is power which becomes a major conflict in the book. All of these things in which the conch symbolizes is what they use in order to self-govern themselves. When they are on the island, the conch becomes a big part of their civilization. Ralph and Piggy first discover the conch shell on the beach and they use it as a horn to signal all the boys because they all got separated after the plane crash. They use the conch in meetings and to show who has the right to speak. They go on to divide the boys into different groups, forming somewhat of a civilization. The conch plays a big role in the organization of their society because whoever basically had the conch at the time was the person to be listened to and to have their directions followed, and in order for it to work out, they had to work together.…show more content…
They needed the conch in order to keep their self governed civilization from collapsing. It played a big role in authority and not just order but law and order. One of the big reasons you can tell the conch represented order is because once Roger breaks the shell, all hell breaks loose on the island and the boys turn against each other and all hopes of a strong democracy gets abandoned and their society collapses into chaos which is the exact opposite of what Jack wanted when he stated that "We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages.” (Golding
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