The Conch
Sometimes a simple object can have great meaning. A crown in a kingdom represents leadership and royalty. In the movie Hook, the golden sword with half a coconut on the bottom symbolizes who is in charge, who is the Pan. Sometimes it is not the importance of an object but the meaning behind it that is truly valued. In the classic novel Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, the conch shell plays a significant role to the character Piggy and as the story goes on, the significance changes.
When the boys first reach the island, they find a conch shell. It soon became the gathering sound. When they blow the in the shell, it let the all the boys know that it was time to meet. Piggy first came up with this idea. We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. Theyll come when they hear us-(16). At the meeting, only the person holding the shell could speak. The shell quickly becomes a symbol of rule and organization, two things that Piggy desperately tries to hold on to. He fears change and disorder. He constantly struggles to compete with other boys and with rules and regulations; he feels they can be rescued. The conch starts off holding things together, keeping some kind of order on the island. It resembles the rules that the boys were used to before they came to the island.
After a while on the island, Piggy becomes restless. He can no longer take being pushed around and bullied. He wants to bring leadership back to the island. At this point in the story the significance of the conch changes. Instead of hoping the conch give rule to the island and the boys, Piggy now wants to enforce the conchs power. He tries to use it as a way of justifying his actions. He wants to get his glasses back and uses the conch to persuade himself to do so. I got the conch. Im going to that Jack Merridew an tell him, I am(171). Piggy believes that the conch represents a central power that rules the island. If he had the conch, he has the power and can certainly get back his glasses.
Towards the end of the book, the significance of the conch changes again. In a last moment to save any kind of authority on the island Piggy questions Jack and the savages. Which is better-to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?(180). Piggy wants more than anything in the world to be rescued. He feels that the way he and Ralph act is the correct way to go about being saved. Soon after what are Piggys last words a boulder tramples him. He and the conch are both gone. Samneric were savages like the rest; Piggy was dead, and the conch smashed to powder(186). As soon as the conch is destroyed, chaos erupts over the island. All preconceived notions of authority are history and Ralph is left stranded with savages. The conch was the only thing that was fighting total disorder over the boys and once it was gone, so was any kind of humanity the boys still had.
The conch shell plays a significant role throughout the story to Piggy that changes the longer they are on the island. The conch shell symbolizes what the boys used to know; rules, order, a type of higher authority figure. Piggy constantly is trying to clutch onto this idea, feeling it is best to stay orderly. However, as the story progresses the conch somewhat loses power, some of the boys start to ignore it. Until the conch was destroyed, some order was held but the minute it was pulverized, hell broke loose. The conch is a symbol of the boys inherent evil nature; as the conch loses power, the boys lose any sense of previous civilized instinct.
Work Cited
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York, New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 1954.
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