The Lord of the Flies: How The Conch Is Used To Highlight Ideas In the

Generally speaking, the conch has represented democracy and collectiveness throughout the novel. Golding uses the conch to highlight many different ideas in the book by setting the story on an island, which is a microcosm of the entire world and the world that the boys lived in before encountering the fateful crash of the plane. The group of boys encounter problems which, even on this island, they are unable to escape from. It is important to remember that at the same time, there is a nuclear war taking place. The ‘long scar’ that ‘smashed into the jungle’ implies that the island has already been ruined permanently. It seems as though the attempt to remove the boys from a war-filled world has failed because the island is already contaminated by the crash of the plane, which was shot down by an enemy plane, this is somewhat related to warfare. The boys now need to survive on the island and this causes problems revolving around social order, as t here are no adults present. In that case, some of the problems are attempted to be resolved by using the conch. Soon after Ralph discovers the conch, it becomes a symbol of unity and collectivity, because it is used to gather any survivors for an assembly. The assembly itself at the beginning of the novel shows that the children still have the civil codes and rules of society engraved within them. This means that the boys were at that time, behaving within the acceptable boundaries of society. However, the fact that they are still boys imply that the civil codes have not yet been fully engraved and developed inside them. During the first assembly, ‘it seems to [Ralph] that [they] ought to have a chief to decide things.’ Even though this is a sensible idea, there is st... ...We begin to notice this when Ralph himself, begins realizing that Jack is using more power than he should by arranging a hunting party and abandoning the fire which could have gained the attention of a passing ship to rescue them. Consequently, Ralph decides to hold a ‘meeting’ that ‘must not be fun, but business.’ Another important message is that sometimes one loses the ability to control the evil within them. This is evident during the time when the group of boys ‘were all jabbing at Robert’ who was imitating the sow. At first, this is taken light-heartedly, but as the ‘game’ proceeds, Ralph feels that ‘the desire to squeeze and hurt is over-mastering’ and Robert starts to squeal in ‘real pain,’ ‘’Ow! Stop it! You’re hurting.’’ In a way, this illustrates great corruption in society as Ralph, who is the chief, has the craving of hurting people.