lord of the flies

In William Golding’s novel The Lord of the Flies , he questions the nature of man and origins of evil within human beings. The plot involves a plane full of British boys, between the ages of six to twelve, crashing on an empty island. There, they are stranded without any adults and as time progresses, the upbringing of the boys regarding societal rules and morals are tested as they revert into a life of savagery. Golding proposes a shocking revelation that human nature is naturally evil. This is demonstrated through mob mentality as well as hidden symbols throughout the book.

The conch is a symbol of order, power, and democracy. The con’s power is shown early on because “one had to sit attracting all eyes to the conch, and drop.”(Golding 23) One had to do this because they made it a rule that if you had the conch you can say what you have to say and no one could say anything until they had the conch. This quote shows how much power the conch has when someone had it. Also this quote shows order because when someone has it everyone had to stop doing what they were doing and pay attention to whomever has the conch. In the second part of the novel the conch is still a symbol of order, power, and democracy because when piggy dies and the conch breaks Ralph said, “see? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for anyone anymore: the conch is gone.”(Golding 181) This shows that the boys are now noticing that their only way of having authority that they used on the island is now gone.

Piggy’s Specs are used as a sign of rational thoughts in this story, Jack pointed suddenly “His specs-use them as burning glasses!” (Golding 161) Piggy’s glasses become the boy’s one technological advancement. Who would figure that Jack is the one that is known for being a bad leader and would come up with the idea to use piggy’s specs? In the second part of the books piggy’s specs resemble intelligence within the group of boys. Piggy cried in terror, “My specs…One side is broken.” Piggy had just lost one side of his specs that have been a symbol of intellect in the group. When one side is broken everything starts to disintegrate and savagery starts to take over the group.

In the first part of the book Jack is now a symbol of a bad leader. Ralph said, “You hunters came back hours ago they’ve been swimming!” (Golding 51) This quote shows that Jack is very lazy and doesn’t want to do any work to help the group of boys survive on the island.
In the second half of the book Jack is still a symbol of a bad leader because of all of his bad decisions. When; “Jack made a rush and stabbed at Ralph’s chest…” “Who’s a thief?” Jack said. “You are!” Ralph replied (Golding 173) this shows a lot because it shows that Jack has no sense of anyone’s life. It also shows that he only thinks about himself and doesn’t deserve to be a leader at all.