For thousands of years in society, a crown has represented power. In biblical times, the kings and conquerors wore crowns to exemplify their honor and power. In medieval times, monarchs wore crowns to show their authority and royalty. In Ancient Indian tribes, the chief wore a large headress to display his control. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the conch is similar to a crown. The conch shows power and law over the boys on the island, he who held the conch is in charge. Lines began to blur and the boys began to lose this power and control around the same time the conch was deteriorating. This deterioration represents the loss of authority and rule on the island, resulting in conflict, anarchy, and death.

The conch is …show more content…
As time passed on the island, the conch shell itself began to fade and deteriorate. It is described at the beginning of the novel as “deep cream, touched here and there by a fading pink” (16). After a few months had elapsed, the shell is “bleached, the yellow and pink to near-white” (78). This shows how fast something can crumble, if exposed. The shell eventually is described as white and fragile and is shattered into thousands of little pieces. It says, “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (181). The conch’s physical appearance degraded over time on the island.
In addition to the physical appearance, the conch’s meaning and worth began to fade. By the end of the novel, no one followed the rule of the conch. After the group of boys split up and Jack’s group became inhumane savages, Piggy was the only one who had any respect left for the conch. After the conch was destroyed and Piggy died, it became clear that the boys did not care at all about the rules anymore. Over the course of the novel, the conch begins to mean less and less.

Over time, the conch, which symbolizes authority and law, detiriorates both physically and metaphorically. Similar to a crown in historical societies, the conch when taken out of a situtation causes corruption. The boys lose any humanity that they have left and show no thought or respect to the rules of civilization. This loss of benevolence results in