William Goldings Lord of the Flies :: Essays Papers

Lord of the Flies In the book â€Å"The Lord of the Flies† the author uses the conch as a symbol of unity. At the beginning of the story the conch was spotted by a boy named Ralph who did not know what it was, but the other boy named Piggy sed that it was called a conch. Piggy had an idea to blow it to get other people on the island to come to them. After Ralph retrieved the conch from the lagoon Piggy showed Ralph how to blow it. His first couple of tries were weak, then he bellowed into it. The conch made a deep, harsh noise . After a few blows boys started to come out out of the jungle . The conch is what first united the stranded boys together. The author also used the conch as a sign of power, because after the boys were together they decided that they needed a chief so they chose Ralph because he used the conch to call the others to them. Ralph also used the power of the conch to quiet the boys . When he wanted their attention and for them to be quiet he would hold up the conch and wait for them to be quiet and pay attention. He also used it to call the boys back to camp. At the beginning the boys went out to look for waterbut by the time they found some Ralph had blew on the conch to call them back to camp. The conch was used by Ralph to call the boys to a meeting. During the meetings a person could only speak if they raise their hand and hold up the conch . At the meeting to discuss the fire Ralph blew on the conch to call them to the meeting . After everyone was seated Ralph lifted the conch for them to be silent then he began to explain that they were on an uninhabited island with no grownups so they would have to look after themselves . That’s when Ralph made the rules about the conch at the meetings. He tried to boost there moral by making the island sound fun. In the book when Ralph notices that the conch has been paretically bleached by the sun and had become a creamy-pink color.