Concept of Savagery Vs Civilisation: What Does the Conch Symbolize in Lord of the Flies
William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' is a thought-provoking and convincing novel in which the setting plays an important part in my interpretation of the text overall. Set in the 1950s, against the backdrop of a fictional nuclear war, when their airplane plunges on a mysterious island, a group of schoolboys are trapped. The appointed leader (Ralph), with the aid of his friends Piggy and Simon, tries to create a modern society throughout their time on the island. His attempts, though, are disrupted by the threatening Jack Merridew, who is the head of a hunters' party. Throughout the book, Golding addresses themes including civilization vs savagery and the loss of innocence. He is interested in showing the audience the potential for evil that resides inside every individual being, a weakness that he was subjected to in World War 2 during his time as a soldier. Through his use of characterization and the main event, he shared his thoughts, but it is his use of setting in time and place that is most successful.
What does the conch symbolize in Lord of the Flies? They were a group of British School boys. School during a battle and an armed force shot down their plane. For their safety, they were evacuated and plummeted in the emergency evacuation. The boys attempt to imitate the island's civilized culture. In their earlier lives, they learned these behaviors. Throughout this chapter, the writer uses the techniques of the symbolism of the conch, ‘We can’t have everybody talking at once. We'll have to have ‘hands up’ like at school...I'll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he's speaking.' The boys try to integrate laws on the island from their former lives. Ralph declares his role as a leader by granting this authority on the conch. The shell of the conch, which enables its holder to speak and is open to all, is a specific representation of the principle of democratic independence and fairness. Jack, however, easily starts to modify the conch rules: ‘The conch doesn’t count on top of the mountain.' This in turn sparks the beginning of a rivalry between Ralph and Jack, as Jack is not getting his own way. Golding portrays the island, high and low, rocky and forested, pleasant and uninviting, as a place with many contrasts. The island is beautiful, but also dangerous. The island from the book of Genesis is symbolic of the Garden of Eden. It is a place that is untouched by man, but with many temptations. The Edenic allusion is expanded by Golding as he explains how fear disturbs the peaceful nature of island life, which manifests itself as a beast depicted as 'a snake-like thing' by the boys. This recounts the presence of Satan, who masked himself as a snake, in the Garden of Eden. The Biblical references are not solely linked to the island on its own. Within the book, the key subject to explore is the differentiating concepts of culture and savagery. Throughout Golding's book, he is worried that civilized actions and ethical codes are learned behavior, but that our base, instinctual creature is a natural part of our being. Golding agrees that in order to work within civilization, we need law-based laws and regulations. He also implies, in any event, that this could be unnatural for human beings. The boys are always trying to build a world that is familiar to them when they are free of the principles of adults running the show: a majority-rule society. They pick a leader, divide the occupations and create a system of regulations. The reader is persuaded at this point in the story that the boys would be successful on the island.
One of the biggest turning points within the novel is when the ship passes by giving them hope of being rescued. The consequence of the shifting dynamics within the group is the reason why chapter four is a turning point in this novel. In this chapter, the friction between Jack and Ralph reaches a peak. Although Jack and Ralph reached a compromise with one another in the previous chapter, their rivalry is solidified in this chapter. Jack coincides himself with the hunters and prioritizes the pig hunt over the eruption, a strong sign that, in favor of life on the island, he has cut his links to the civilized world. As he is the first of the boys to completely accept his primal impulses, this is a significant chapter for Jack's character and this is reflected by his killing of the pig and the celebratory dance he performs after the deed. It is not only the first pig slaughter that gives this chapter a significant turning point, but also the direct effect of the hunting on the rescue efforts of the boys. Their dream of salvation became a reality with the passing ship for the first time since they plummeted on the island. The hunters, however, who had already ruled out the possibility, ignored their planning and arrangements, which was symbolized by them putting the pig hunt first in their list of priorities. The fire was left to die, symbolizing opportunity, and the boys' hope for being saved died with it. When discussing the main component of civilization against savagery, this is a crucial part of the novel to remember. As the little boys play on the sand by smashing their sandcastles, Roger and Maurice start to taunt them by Golding using the quote ‘Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Roger’s arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.' Intentionally, Roger attempts to ignore Henry because he is still controlled at this stage by the sense of ethics ingrained in him by the culture of civility in which he was educated. Once the fire burns away, Jack kills the pig successfully supported this quote ‘memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, the knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink’, these rules and regulations from the former lifestyle of the boys begin to lose their control over the subconscious of the boys and begin to follow their internal primitive instincts causing there only chance of being rescued to vanish as they did not catch anyone on the ships attention. This reveals to the reader more visible signs of a possible fight for dominance as the friction between Ralph and Jack rises. While Jack has been profoundly jealous of Ralph's authority since the minute Ralph was elected, until this chapter, when Jack's recklessness leads to the failure of the signal fire, the two do not come into open conflict. When the fire goes out, a sign of the relation of the boys to humanity, the first hope of the boys being saved is stopped. Ralph bursts into anger You and your blood, Jack Merridew! You and your hunting! We might have gone home'. At this point in the novel, the reader is left down and disappointed with the boys and angry with Jack, showing that the urge to do the good of the entire party still rules him. But Jack is too happy about his achievement, having just killed a pig 'Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood', to think too much about the lost opportunity to escape from the island. Indeed, his interest in humanity was overshadowed by Jack's bloodlust and greed for strength. Although he had previously defended his devotion to hunting by saying that it was for the benefit of the community, now he no longer thinks of the need to defend his actions at all. Instead, through drawing, he reveals his new orientation towards barbarity. At this point in the novel, the reader is left down and disappointed with the boys and angry with Jack.
The last vestige of civilized harmony on the island is snatched away by the barbaric, inhuman murder of Simon, and cruelty and anarchy take over. The boys in Jack's camp are all but barbaric cavemen by this point, and the few remaining friends of Ralph struggle from declining spirits and think about joining Jack. In the ceremonial dance around Jack's banquet fire, both Ralph and Piggy themselves get caught up. After Simon's death, the storm that strikes the island drives home the murder tragedy and physically represents the chaos and death that have overtaken the island. Significantly, the storm washes the bodies of Simon and the parachutist away as well, eradicating evidence that there is no beast. The dark sky was shattered by a blue-white scar. An instant later the noise was on them like a gigantic whip...'The Blue-white scar was constant, the noise unendurable.' Here the writer Uses the technique to deceive the scene, the Beast (Simon) is approaching the party and they start hitting him. During the ferocious killing, they cheer and dance. The last vestige of civilized order on the island is snatched away by the barbaric, animalistic murder of Simon, and cruelty and anarchy take over. The boys in Jack's camp are all but barbaric savages by this point, and the few remaining allies of Ralph suffer from declining hopes and think about joining Jack. In the ceremonial dance around Jack's banquet fire, both Ralph and Piggy themselves get swept up. After Simon's death, the storm that batters the island pounds home the murder tragedy and physically demonstrates the chaos and disorder that have overshadowed the island. Significantly, the storm washes the bodies of Simon and the parachutist away as well, eradicating evidence that there is no beast. The beast is transformed into a godlike image by Jack, a kind of symbol he uses to control and exploit his tribe members. He attributes immortality as well as the ability to alter shape to the beast, rendering it an adversary to be hated and an idol to be adored. The significance of the beast's figure in the novel can not be exaggerated, for it gives the tribe of Jack a common enemy (the beast), a shared belief system (their belief that the legendary beast exists), and a reason to follow Jack (beast protection), and even a developing system of primal symbolism and iconography (face paint and the Lord of the Flies). In a way, the murder of Simon is a somewhat unavoidable consequence of his Chapter 8 experience with the Lord of the Flies. The Lord of the Flies portrays Simon's death during the fight in the previous chapter by agreeing to have some 'fun' with him. While this vision of Simon shows him that the beast resides within all human beings, his battle with the beast is not complete until the beast that exists inside the other boys comes face-to-face. Indeed, when Simon is killed by the boys, they act on the feral impulse the beast portrays. Moreover, the nature of Simon's death continues the comparisons between Simon and Jesus: after learning, both die sacrificial deaths. As he was a positive character on the island and did not deserve his fate, the reader is saddened to hear of the death of Simons. In addition, Piggy and Ralph, who we assumed were beyond these forces, are surprised by their primary behavior.
The ending of Lord of the Flies is fraught with irony after Ralph's tense, thrilling stand against the hunters. The signal fire, a symbol of civilization, was thought by Ralph to be the only way to attract rescuers to the island. Ironically, while it is indeed a fire that draws a ship to the island, the haphazard forest fire Jack's hunters set solely for the purpose of killing Ralph is not an organized, controlled signal fire. As we have shown, Ralph worked hard to preserve civilization's structure and improve the likelihood of being saved by the boys. Now, when all he can do is try to remain alive as long as he can, a deus ex machina (an unlikely or unexpected device or character that unexpectedly seems to fix a situation) emerges, at the last possible moment, in the form of a naval officer who takes the boys back to the world of law, order, and civilization. In the last chapter, Golding's use of irony blurs the distinction between civilization and savagery and means that the two are more closely related than illustrated by the novel. Essentially, the terrible savagery of the boys brings in the rescue that their coordinated and purposeful actions have been unable to accomplish. At the end of the book, much of the irony derives from Golding's depiction of a naval officer. The end of Lord of the Flies is still not especially happy, while the naval officer saves Ralph, and the moment when the officer sees the boys is not one of untainted joy. The officer says he can't understand how honorable British lads with such bad form might have behaved. Ironically, however, this 'civilised' officer is himself part of an adult culture in which civilization and social order go hand in hand with aggression and war. He responds with outrage to the savage children, but this anger is tinged with hypocrisy. Likewise, the children are so surprised by the appearance of the man and are now mentally so far away from his environment that they do not rejoice at his arrival immediately. Instead, they stand puzzled and baffled before him. And Ralph, whose life was ultimately saved by the ship's arrival, weeps with tears of sorrow instead of joy. For Ralph, as for the other people, nothing will ever be as it had been before the Lord of the Flies came to the island.
In conclusion in the 'Lord of the Flies symbolism essay', William Golding's The Lord of the Flies is a novel in which the concept of savagery versus civilisation is illustrated. As he wants to follow laws and make everyone have a fair voice, Ralph reflects civilisation.Both leaders have distinct features and goals that help them lead the community in various ways. It is considered that Ralph is the elected leader and that Jack is the self-appointed leader. Such leaders have different abilities and different opinions about how to build society, leading them to many clashes. This also demonstrates that, as authority corrupts, humans should not be trusted with power. He transforms into a savage when Jack becomes the leader of his own party and does stuff without thought. The same can be said of today's world governments, which start wars with the intention of satisfying their personal needs, and do not mind hurting others in order to achieve their goals and objectives. Perhaps humans really are savages who can not live in harmony and coexist with all the animals and the environment on this planet. It may be very likely that it is not very difficult to grasp Golding's view of humans as being the worst creatures on earth, as you can relate to the problems generated by leadership that are seen around the world. Would you side with William Golding? Is human basically evil?
