From the first chapter of Lord of the Flies, William Golding sets up the symbolism of the conch. When Ralph blows the large shell, the boys appear because they associate the sound with the "man with the megaphone" who evacuated them away from the war zone. Thereafter Ralph is considered chief because he wields the conch. Jack, who wants to defy the rules to usurp his own power, denigrates the conch several times, first saying it doesn't count away from the meeting place and then in chapter 5 saying, "Conch! Conch! ... We don't need the conch any more" when he tries to stifle the free speech rights rights of the other boys. In chapter 8 Jack tries to get the boys to overthrow Ralph as their chief, and he holds the conch as he makes his speech. When the group won't vote against Ralph, "He laid the conch with great care in the grass at his feet," but then announces that he will not be part of "Ralph's lot" any longer. When he lays aside the conch, he fully lays aside the rules that have been established.
When his group raids Ralph's group at night, Piggy thinks he has come for the conch, but Jack doesn't value the conch, which symbolizes rules, anymore. Instead, he has stolen Piggy's glasses, a "dirty trick" that breaks the rules of any civilized society. When Ralph and Piggy confront Jack on Castle Rock, Jack displays the ultimate disdain for rules. Roger rolls a huge boulder down the hill that kills Piggy and "the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist." Now all respect for rules has shattered, and even murder, the ultimate violation of law, is embraced by Jack's tribe. This passage describing Jack follows the death of Piggy and the destruction of the conch:
"See? See? That's what you'll get! I meant that! There isn't a tribe for you any more! The conch is gone--"
He ran forward, stooping.
"I'm chief!"
Viciously, with full intention, he hurled his spear at Ralph.
Wounded, Ralph runs. He contemplates the situation: "The breaking of the conch and the deaths of Piggy and Simon lay over the island like a vapor. These painted savages would go further and further." In a fascinating scene of great symbolic import, Ralph finds himself in a clearing where the white skull of a pig grins at him from the top of a stick. Presumably this is the same skull that spoke to Simon in his vision as the Lord of the Flies. Golding draws a parallel between the pig's head and the conch, saying it "gleamed as white as ever the conch had done and seemed to jeer at him cynically." Ralph strikes the "filthy thing" so it breaks in two pieces, but this only makes "its grin now six feet across." The conch has been obliterated, but the evil savagery that has been unleashed by the boys' rejection of rules is growing to the point where Jack's tribe hunts Ralph with murderous intent and sets the entire island on fire.
Golding clearly sets up the conch as the symbol of rules and order, and as the conch loses importance, the boys become more savage, showing that a society that rejects rules will ultimately break down and destroy itself.
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