Premium Essay

Lord Of The Flies Conch Analysis

Submitted By
Words 307
Pages 2
In the book Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, the conch is used many times for certain things. The conch symbolizes a sense of power. It is used to call the boys for a meeting, it's used as a horn. During the meeting called Ralph, the conch is used to determine who has the right to speak. The one holding the conch is the one holding the power to speak in which the other boys must obey and listen, except for Ralph. Not only does the conch symbolize power, it also symbolizes order. It brings order to the boys in which they must follow. Mentioned in page 16, quote "We can use this to call the others. Have me meeting. They'll come when they hear us--" said by Piggy, tells us that they wanted to use this conch is call others. This conch brought

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Lord Of The Flies Conch Analysis

...The Conch shell symbolizes the boys losing their innocence on the island but, they also used the conch as a tool. Using the Conch as a tool starts to divide the boys and pushes them away from each other, causing a riveral for power that then leads to their fall of innocence. The shell reflects power, organization, and authority in the beginning. At the very end of the novel the shell symbolizes a loss of innocence in all the boys. After Ralph finds the shell Piggy, tries to explains that “It's a shell I see one like that before on someone's back wall. A conch he called it. He used to blow and then his mum would come. It's ever so valuable”(15). Piggy understands from the very beginning of the novel, that the conch is very valuable, and he believes...

Words: 437 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Lord Of The Flies Conch Analysis

...30 boys, ages 6 - 12, trapped on an island in the middle of the sea with no adults around for miles. What would happen? That is what happened to Ralph, Piggy, Jack, and the others. During WWII they were being transported from their boarding school to a safe location, then their plane got shot down. In his novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses the conch (civilization) and Ralph (leadership) to create symbolism in the novel in order to prove that humans must have rules in order to create a safe environment. In his novel, Golding uses items, like the conch, to symbolize things like order. To show that order must be established, Golding first establishes the conch as a symbol for order. When the boys have all gathered together for their...

Words: 639 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Lord Of The Flies Conch Analysis

...A gleaming white shell was held high above a crowd of power-hungry boys. It became a beacon, shining as the face of the newly found government. Man is always fighting for recognition and reverence from others. Ironically, this is often what causes chaos in civilizations. Humanity’s desire for power leads to their own destruction. In the novel Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the conch as a symbol of power and civilization. Arguably portraying the conch as the face of the government. The “conch” is “most power[full]” and gives authority to whoever holds it (22). When the boys create a social organization on the island the conch is what holds them together. Otherwise the leaders of society would have no authority of the civilians and order...

Words: 302 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Conch Lord Of The Flies Analysis

...highly valued thing in Western society, which is the society the boys belong to the island. If the values they previously possessed, including order, are truly a part of them, they would still possess them on the island, even without their society enforcing them. At first, the boys do attempt to set up a governing system, and decide to elect a chief. Though Jack insists he becomes chief, they ultimately choose Ralph because he was the one who called the boys by blowing the conch: “The being that had blown that, had sat waiting for them on the platform with the delicate thing balanced on his knees, was set apart”(Golding 22). The conch represents a symbol of order to the boys, and they choose their leader (one appointed to uphold the order on...

Words: 399 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Conch Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

...In the lord of the flies, the conch represents power and order. Power is represented by the fact that you have to be holding it to speak. While order is shown by the meetings and gatherings in which it is used to call and hold. The conch is powerful. The conch is power is first shown on page 22 as the children vote for ralph to be chief of the boys has he was the one to discover the conch. “him with the shelf, Ralph! Ralph!”, let him be chief with the trumpet thing”. This quote shows that all the boys believe this conch holds some sort of power, responsibility and leadership. The conch is used many times in the begging of the book, it is the conch that can only call boys to meetings. No other tool possesses such great power throughout the...

Words: 458 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Conch Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

...Prize-winning English author William Golding and his novel, Lord of the Flies depicts a group of boys stranded on an uninhabited island after their plane got shot down with the pilot dead. Stranded with no parental supervision, Ralph and Piggy, two school boys bump into each other and attempt contact the other boys using the conch which they found glistening in the sand. When the boys finally gather together as a whole, they attempt to create an organized society using the conch as a symbol of leadership. Because Ralph called them with the conch, he was thought to be heroic and noble which led to him being voted chief much to Jack’s dismay. While the conch initially appears to represent law and order, Jack’s rise to power ultimately reveals...

Words: 939 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Lord of the Flies

...Lord of the Flies Full book report 1. A person’s behaviour is determined by several causes through out his life. The phase already begins when we are born. As a child we’re taught how to behave by our parents. Later on our teachers and surroundings influence our behaviour towards a more and more civilized one. In a society we’re kept as civilized as possible by following rules and laws. If we as human beings are placed away from a society, will we be able to maintain our civilized characters, or will we become savaged barbarians? This is the theme William Golding creates in his novel The Lord of the Flies from 1954. Golding takes his readers on a journey, where he shows what mankind is capable of doing through youngsters. The question is: can the young kids maintain civilization? 2.c. The Lord of the Flies is a novel about a group of young boys who crash on an island. While they’re stuck on the island they manage to establish some order and civilization by choosing a leader and by using a conch shell to arrange meetings between the boys. The established civilization crumbles as the book goes on because some of the boys can’t control their animalistic qualities. The boys waddle between the human instinct of savagery and the civilized ways of order, which they’re taught from home. Despite the fact that they try to establish order they become more and more drawn towards savagery throughout the book. The sow’s head and the conch shell are both symbols of power, but...

Words: 1043 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Term Paper: the Analysis of Lord of the Flies by William Golding

...Analysis of the Major Characters In Lord of the Flies by William Golding In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in English 140 Submitted by: Ryan Mark L. Catanio Submitted to: Prof. Donna Alna C. Cortez September 08, 2014 A. Author’s Biography William Golding Biography Author (1911–1993) a. Synopsis William Golding was born September 19, 1911, in Saint Columb Minor, Cornwall, England. In 1935 he started teaching English and philosophy in Salisbury. He temporarily left teaching in 1940 to join the Royal Navy. In 1954 he published his first novel, Lord of the Flies. In 1983, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. On June 19, 1993, he died in Perranarworthal, Cornwall, England. b. Early Life William Golding was born on September 19, 1911, in Saint Columb Minor, Cornwall, England. He was raised in a 14th-century house next door to a graveyard. His mother, Mildred, was an active suffragette who fought for women’s right to vote. His father, Alex, worked as a schoolmaster. William received his early education at the school his father ran, Marlborough Grammar School. When William was just 12 years old, he attempted, unsuccessfully, to write a novel. A frustrated child, he found an outlet in bullying his peers. Later in life, William would describe his childhood self as a brat, even going so far as to say, “I enjoyed hurting people.” After primary school, William went on to attend Brasenose College at Oxford University. His father hoped he would become...

Words: 4218 - Pages: 17

Free Essay

Lord of the Flies

...Lord of the Flies: Literary Analysis In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a plane full of English boys was attacked and crashed onto an island when trying to evacuate a nuclear war. Now the boys must learn to survive and work together. Although they began as a civilized bunch, after conflicts between group leaders Ralph and Jack, savagery starts to emerge. Golding uses the conflict between the civilizations to show how the darkness of human nature can affect even little childrens. At the beginning of the novel, Ralph, described as “the boy with fair hair”, and Piggy a whiney, intellectual chubby boy, found a conch shell which was used to call the other boys who were lost on the island to the beach. Among the boys was a choir group led by a boy named Jack. Ralph was soon elected as leader seeing as being the one who called everyone together. Jack was in charge of the choir group to hunt for food. After countless failure of capturing a pig, Jack decided to paint his face with clay to be camouflaged from the pig. He lead the boys and finally killed his first of pig and came back to the group with the pig strapped to a stick and the boys chanting, “ Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood!”(69). We can see how excited the boys got from killing a measly pig. Jack describes his experience with Ralph explaining, “ There was lashings of blood...you should have seen it!”(69). Jacks thirst for more blood is an obvious sign of the development of savagery. Later...

Words: 760 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Essay

...A Guide to Writing the Literary Analysis Essay I. INTRODUCTION: the first paragraph in your essay. It begins creatively in order to catch your reader’s interest, provides essential background about the literary work, and prepares the reader for your major thesis. The introduction must include the author and title of the work as well as an explanation of the theme to be discussed. Other essential background may include setting, an introduction of main characters, etc. The major thesis goes in this paragraph usually at the end. Because the major thesis sometimes sounds tacked on, make special attempts to link it to the sentence that precedes it by building on a key word or idea. A) Creative Opening/Hook: the beginning sentences of the introduction that catch the reader’s interest. Ways of beginning creatively include the following: 1) A startling fact or bit of information  Example: Nearly two hundred citizens were arrested as witches during the Salem witch scare of 1692. Eventually nineteen were hanged, and another was pressed to death (Marks 65). 2) A snatch of dialogue between two characters  Example: “It is another thing. You [Frederic Henry] cannot know about it unless you have it.” “ Well,” I said. “If I ever get it I will tell you [priest].” (Hemingway 72). With these words, the priest in Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms sends the hero, Frederic, in search of the ambiguous “it” in his life. 3) A meaningful quotation (from the book you are analyzing...

Words: 2671 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Constant Gardener

...In the midst of a raging war, a plane evacuating a group of schoolboys from Britain is shot down over a deserted tropical island. Two of the boys, Ralph and Piggy, discover a conch shell on the beach, and Piggy realizes it could be used as a horn to summon the other boys. Once assembled, the boys set about electing a leader and devising a way to be rescued. They choose Ralph as their leader, and Ralph appoints another boy, Jack, to be in charge of the boys who will hunt food for the entire group. Ralph, Jack, and another boy, Simon, set off on an expedition to explore the island. When they return, Ralph declares that they must light a signal fire to attract the attention of passing ships. The boys succeed in igniting some dead wood by focusing sunlight through the lenses of Piggy’s eyeglasses. However, the boys pay more attention to playing than to monitoring the fire, and the flames quickly engulf the forest. A large swath of dead wood burns out of control, and one of the youngest boys in the group disappears, presumably having burned to death. At first, the boys enjoy their life without grown-ups and spend much of their time splashing in the water and playing games. Ralph, however, complains that they should be maintaining the signal fire and building huts for shelter. The hunters fail in their attempt to catch a wild pig, but their leader, Jack, becomes increasingly preoccupied with the act of hunting. When a ship passes by on the horizon one day, Ralph and Piggy notice...

Words: 5027 - Pages: 21

Premium Essay

Lord Of The Flies Comparison

...The essences of human nature share a respectable number of similarities, more than one may assume. Humans strive to secure, at the very least, four, primary things: food, water, shelter, and warmth. This scenario is evidently seen in both the book, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and the modern television show, “Lost”. A group of complete strangers are stranded on a mysterious island, encountering a lack of essentials, sanity, and pure, hope. Nevertheless, every character unambiguously lived in varying tactics from tribal savagery to an orderly democracy. Unsurprisingly, these two mediums demonstrate rather similar aspects in the storyline, imagery, and, most vitally, characters. Based on the analysis of Lord of the Flies and Lost, Ralph,...

Words: 798 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Wyatt Lowe

...Wyatt Lowe Period 3 10-31-12 Piggy Analysis In the story Lord of Flies, by William Golding, there are many conflicts between the characters and the island, but some of the more important come between Piggy and the group. Piggy is seen to the group as the outsider, the member who doesn’t fit in. Although they treat him as an outcast, Piggy’s smart wits and his ideas are used by the group in reluctance, but end up playing a big part in the story. For example, it was Piggy's idea to use his glasses to start the fire. Jack, the leader of the choirboys, right from the start, reveals a deep dislike for Piggy. During the very first meeting when Piggy is asking the boys for their names Jack says, "Shut up fatty you talk too much." But when the fire is allowed to go out and they miss the possible chance of getting rescued Piggy says to Jack, "You didn't ought to have let that fire out, you said you'd keep the smoke going...." And Jack punches him in the stomach. Perhaps Piggy was right when he later told Ralph that Jack hated Ralph but he knew that Ralph would hit him back so he vented his anger on Piggy, who couldn't fight back. Piggy’s outer appearance serves as a vessel for the boys to make fun of him. Little do they know that his thoughts and ideas would help better the group and create a better chance of arriving back home. At the beginning of the story, we see Piggy following Ralph everywhere he goes, babbling off ideas and thoughts in his head. After his encounters with...

Words: 446 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Getting

...International Relations Theory The new edition of International Relations Theory: A critical introduction introduces students to the main theories in international relations. It explains and analyzes each theory, allowing students to understand and critically engage with the myths and assumptions behind each theory. Key features of this textbook include: • discussion of all of the main theories: realism and (neo)realism, idealism and (neo)idealism, liberalism, constructivism, postmodernism, gender, and globalization two new chapters on the “clash of civilizations” and Hardt and Negri’s Empire innovative use of narratives from films that students will be familiar with: Lord of the Flies, Independence Day, Wag the Dog, Fatal Attraction, The Truman Show, East is East, and Memento an accessible and exciting writing style which is well-illustrated with boxed key concepts and guides to further reading. • • • This breakthrough textbook has been designed to unravel the complexities of international relations theory in a way that allows students a clearer idea of how the theories work and the myths that are associated with them. Cynthia Weber is Professor of International Studies at the University of Lancaster. She is the author of several books and numerous articles in the field of international relations. International Relations Theory A critical introduction Second edition Cynthia Weber First published 2001 by Routledge Second edition published 2005 by Routledge...

Words: 74303 - Pages: 298

Premium Essay

Reading a Novel in 1950-2000

...Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 i RTNA01 1 13/6/05, 5:28 PM READING THE NOVEL General Editor: Daniel R. Schwarz The aim of this series is to provide practical introductions to reading the novel in both the British and Irish, and the American traditions. Published Reading the Modern British and Irish Novel 1890–1930 Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Daniel R. Schwarz Brian W. Shaffer Forthcoming Reading the Eighteenth-Century Novel Paula R. Backscheider Reading the Nineteenth-Century Novel Harry E. Shaw and Alison Case Reading the American Novel 1780–1865 Shirley Samuels Reading the American Novel 1865–1914 G. R. Thompson Reading the Twentieth-Century American Novel James Phelan ii RTNA01 2 13/6/05, 5:28 PM Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Brian W. Shaffer iii RTNA01 3 13/6/05, 5:28 PM © 2006 by Brian W. Shaffer BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Brian W. Shaffer to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and...

Words: 123617 - Pages: 495