Lord of The Flies
Crystal Cordova
Ms. Thoro
Advanced 10th grade English
16 January 2013
Lord Of The Flies Essay
In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, we, as readers, learn about a group of
British boys stranded on an island facing struggles and hardships. These boys are fighting between civilization or savagery. An important symbol that relates to this would be the conch shell. These boys are just children, but they know the difference between rules and civilization rather than savagery and chaos. The conch shell provided order to the group of boys. It brings a sense of power. The conch shell controlled all the meetings the boys had. At those meetings, who ever is holding the shell had the right to speak and express their thoughts and feelings. No one can interrupt or speak until it is their turn to hold the conch. Without the conch shell, chaos would strike and the boys would speak over one another causing no rule or order to occur. Jack and his hunting tribe of savage boys paint their faces and focus on the savage life of killing animals and cooking them for meat. These boys are uncivilized and the conch shell slowly loses its meaning and power. Since Jack has separated from Ralph and creates his own tribe, everything is out of control and the main focus that Jack has is to overthrow Ralph and gain full control of everyone and everything. An example of Jack’s actions would be when Jack and his tribe had a gathering and ate meat. Ralph says, “I’m Chief. And what about the fire? And I’ve got the conch…” Jack replies, “You haven’t got it with you. You left it behind. See, clever? And the conch doesn’t count at this end of the island. Who’ll join my tribe and have fun?” Piggy is the smart and clever boy of the group. He helps Ralph stay in line with his logical ideas and intelligence. Roger, one of the boys from Jack’s tribe, completely takes Piggy out of the picture by rolling a rock on his head and killing him. As this happens, the conch shell is
Ms. Thoro
Advanced 10th grade English
16 January 2013
Lord Of The Flies Essay
In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, we, as readers, learn about a group of
British boys stranded on an island facing struggles and hardships. These boys are fighting between civilization or savagery. An important symbol that relates to this would be the conch shell. These boys are just children, but they know the difference between rules and civilization rather than savagery and chaos. The conch shell provided order to the group of boys. It brings a sense of power. The conch shell controlled all the meetings the boys had. At those meetings, who ever is holding the shell had the right to speak and express their thoughts and feelings. No one can interrupt or speak until it is their turn to hold the conch. Without the conch shell, chaos would strike and the boys would speak over one another causing no rule or order to occur. Jack and his hunting tribe of savage boys paint their faces and focus on the savage life of killing animals and cooking them for meat. These boys are uncivilized and the conch shell slowly loses its meaning and power. Since Jack has separated from Ralph and creates his own tribe, everything is out of control and the main focus that Jack has is to overthrow Ralph and gain full control of everyone and everything. An example of Jack’s actions would be when Jack and his tribe had a gathering and ate meat. Ralph says, “I’m Chief. And what about the fire? And I’ve got the conch…” Jack replies, “You haven’t got it with you. You left it behind. See, clever? And the conch doesn’t count at this end of the island. Who’ll join my tribe and have fun?” Piggy is the smart and clever boy of the group. He helps Ralph stay in line with his logical ideas and intelligence. Roger, one of the boys from Jack’s tribe, completely takes Piggy out of the picture by rolling a rock on his head and killing him. As this happens, the conch shell is