Lord Of The Flies

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 conch also represents power, the power to speak, the power to elect, and the power to organize the masses. But as the novel goes on, the power of the conch is destroyed, and the boys are gradually controlled by their savageness, to the point were Piggy is killed; the conch is smashed, signifying the total loss of order amongst the boys on the island. This savageness leads the separation of the boys and creates the Beelzebub, the sow's head.

The second of the two major symbols that represents this conflict is the sow's head. In the book it says, ["Jack held up the head and jammed the soft throat down on the pointed end of the stick which pierced through into the mouth. He stood back and the head hung there, a little blood dribbling down the stick" (Golding 136-137). The creation of the Lord of the Flies originally was meant to be an offering to the beast, symbolizing to the group that Jack would be able to take care of the beast problem. But Simon soon realizes that the beast is not real, rather it is the beast within them. Simon attempts to alert the others of his discovery,