Lord Of The Flies Conch Symbolism

Lord of the Flies continuously has the conflicts of order versus chaos, following and maintaining connection or falling victim to one's obsession to get authority, and hurting others to obtain it. There are many symbols that represent this conflict. The two major symbols that represent this conflict are the conch shell, symbolizing order and law, and the sow's head, symbolizing savagery. The first of the two major symbols that will represent this conflict is the conch shell. In the book it says, ["S'right. It's a shell! I seen one like that before. On someone's back wall. A conch he called it. He used to blow it and then his mum would come. It's ever so valuable –" (Golding 15)."] The boys grew familiar to the lifestyle of structure and laws set forth by their parents, so when they crashed on the island, Ralph attempted to try and create a similar lifestyle when Piggy and Ralph both finds the conch shell in the water. Ralph uses the advice of Piggy and attempts to use the conch to call the boys for meetings and for right of passage to speak. The conch symbolizes comfort, in the sense that for the younger children that they do not get scared. Rather, the conch helps them stay with what they know, discipline and innocence. The
Jack, once not elected full leader of the boys, he begins to become cruel, obsessive with the burning desire to be all powerful. The lack of the conch, lack of power, becomes an obsession. He abuses the idea of power by using it to hurt others. For instance, killing Simon and then also killing Piggy. However, Ralph, representing the human desire for, is able to use power wisely, for the good of the group in order to get rescued. Unlike Jack, Ralph does not give into his desire of satisfaction himself with the power, instead he attempts to use the power to help everyone by creating a fire so the smoke could signal a plane or boat for