Tyler Morgan
Bradford Nadziejko
English 101
5 December 2011
The Almighty Civilizing Conch
Visualize being stranded on a deserted island. There is no way to escape and no rules to abide by except what you decide upon. What is most necessary to survive with everyone you are trapped with? Civilization is an important part of who we are as a country. This is what happened in Sir William Golding's The Lord of the Flies when a group of boys, none of which have yet to reach their teen years, have been stranded on a deserted island during a time of war. This book symbolizes how humans can decline from civilized people to savages. At the beginning of the book Ralph, the protagonist, discovers a conch lying in the water and uses it to call all the boys together. The conch's power is effective and is revered by the boys as a symbol of order, discipline, and civilization. As the boys begin to ignore the conch they start to become more like savages. There is a direct correlation between the conch and their declining morals and behavior. Golding uses the symbol of the conch to demonstrate the theme that civilization is necessary to keep the dark side of human nature within and in control.
The conch's power in the beginning of this book represents the structure the boys try to hold. Ralph and Piggy use the conch to “Call the others” to a meeting (16). Calling everyone together to have a meeting is a civilized, grown-up thing to do. The fact that the boys respect the power of the conch shows they were raised civilized and they subliminally want to keep rules and order. The boys have not completely realized what it means to not have any adults around. The boys gathering together are necessary for them to survive and working in unity is the only way for success to come to them. They boys give whoever holding the conch authority and maintains order. The conch's authority is evident during the meetings. They make a rule that only the person holding the conch can talk. This makes their meetings run smoother. This again shows the power the conch has of being able to keep things on the island running orderly. The conch's capability is shown when Piggy stands, "cradling the great cream shell and the shouting died down"(33). Throughout the novel the boys show their hatred of Piggy. It is impressive that the conch made the shouting die down while anyone was holding it, let alone Piggy. The conch has the ability to restrain the boy's dark side from coming out and keeps everything in control. The control the conch has over the boys keeps them in civilized and their evils inside, but as their instincts take over, their refined ways of life will fade.
As the story moves along, the boys slowly become less and less civilized and more and more unruly the conch's power begins to weaken. The boys start to fight and lose their sense of order. “Piggy lost his temper. ‘I got the conch! Just you listen!’” (45) Piggy has to keep yelling and reminding the boys he is holding the conch. The fact that Piggy must raise his voice to get his point across while the conch is in his hands shows that the conch is starting to lose the power it once had. The expression in piggy’s voice demonstrates that order is beginning to slip away from them. The conch no longer holds the respect of the boys. Because of this, the boys' evils are starting to come out and they are becoming noticeably aggressive. Also, the boys’ maturity declines faster when Jack disregards the rules "Even though he had not got the conch, he spoke against the rules" (87). Jack's disrespect toward the conch generates a dispute amongst the boys. The conch's authority kept the boys under control, but once its power is challenged by one person the order of things start to decline rapidly. Although Jack not observing the conch’s power is not portrayed as a big event it still has a big impact. Small things can disrupt the flow and harmony just a little bit at a time and every step becomes exponentially worse. Several times it gives hints at Jack’s abandoning the power of the conch like when Ralph is trying to tell jack what to do. Ralph tells Jack, "You are just giving orders that don't make any sense 'Piggy's got the conch!'" (91). Jack's failure to stick to the rules of the conch is starting to show the love of power within him, along with the evilness in everyone else. Once Jack breaks the rules, there is chaos in the meeting and all the boys become hostile and disruptive. This shows that they must give the conch the power it is worthy of if they want to maintain discipline and keep hope. The boys obviously need civilization because without it, their dark sides are revealed.
Toward the end of the novel, the boys turn into complete savages and the conch’s power is dwindling. The conch's loss of power is accurately described when one of the boys calls it a "white blob" (124). The conch used to be considered "great." Now it is nothing but a "white blob." This description is given to the conch after the boys have sided with Jack and democracy has diminished. This description of the conch has major significance; the conch is meaningless now because the boys' have become savages. A little later another occurrence shows the conch's meaningless power when the boys leave and Piggy recommends to “‘…call an assembly.’ Ralph laughed sharply..." (156). Ralph knows that calling a meeting at this point would be completely ridiculous. Not even the power of the conch can hope to return order to the island. All wishes of regaining any sort of order are gone because the conch has lost its power. Many of the boys are already savages. The last thread of hope and order was crushed when "The conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist" (181). When Ralph and some other boys are fighting to stay alive and the conch explodes it symbolizes the last little bit of order has vanished along with the conch. The decline of savagery has run its full course. Roger pushing the boulder signifies the absence of the civilized instinct among most all the boys on the island. Due to their lack of upholding the rules they have learned their whole lives and not maintaining the simple rules they made, many have become wild barbarians. The boys revert to cruelty and savagery when they realize that there are no authoritative consequences to their actions. The collapse of the conch represents the fall of justice.
Declining civilization is what this book is showing. They started off in the right direction trying to make rules and establish authorities, but they had many things that went wrong. Dr. Peter Montague, the Executive Director of the Environmental Research Foundation, says there are important things that contribute to the decline of a society. Enemies were one of the main ones that he talked about along with damage to the environment. Both of these the boys had against them. They were fighting each other instead of working hand-in-hand, and they showed they had no respect for the environment when they lit the forest on fire.
Throughout the novel, the conch represents the level of society the boys are living in. It shows that as the conch loses authority, the boys’ need for civilization becomes more and more visible. With the order of the conch, the boys get along and they accomplish some civilized tasks. Without it, they are savages, trying to kill one another because the evils inside of them have become evident. There are examples of this in the world today. It is no coincidence that genocide, torture, and injustices occur in countries without democratic governments. Authoritative rulers corrupt society into making unfair decisions. With fairness, citizens have the chance to succeed. This is the only way that happiness will come to anyone. It is necessary for all forms of rule to keep order while maintaining justice.