Rise and Fall of a Society Gunho Park

Society is something that groups of individuals are involved in, usually for the same purpose or goal. However, societies throughout history have been founded and collapsed at the same time for various reasons. The novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, demonstrates how a little society is established and collapsed by the people who become obsessed with power. Golding tries to symbolize the society that the children have made with a shiny, big and white conch of which portray the innocence of the children. At the beginning of the story, the conch brings the children together. Later, Golding uses the conch to represent the power and rules to demonstrate how society collapses.

At the beginning of the novel, Golding uses the conch to represent the power of the leader and order. The first example that demonstrated the conch as a symbol of the leader is when the children on the island gathered by the sound of the conch decide on whom to vote as the chief. The kids shout, “Him with the shell!” “Ralph! Ralph!” “Let him be chief with the trumpet-thing”(22). Most of the children, except the choirs who voted for their own leader Jack, vote for Ralph emphasizing that he has the conch and that he used it do gather them. Considering that the children do not even know Ralph well, the result of the election strongly portrays the power of the conch. However, it was not just power that the conch symbolized at the beginning of the book. Taking advantage of the power of chief, Ralph decides on making rules to organize the society he had made. Ralph claims, “That’s what this shell’s called. I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking”(33). Having in mind that the society the children had made was nearly a chaos before Ralph came up with a rule, the conch became the only thing children have left . Therefore, it is possible to notice the conch symbolizing the rules that limit the children’s behavior and keeps the society calm. Later, the children gather around on the platform and start having a huge debate about the beast that they have found. The children didn’t seem to consider the case rationally and the debate becomes a chaos with the children shouting and not letting others speak. Piggy who couldn’t stand the chaos anymore, shouts “Let him have the conch! Let him have it”(35). This shout by the children portray the conch that limits the kids’ childish behaviors by reminding that the person who has the conch is the only one who can speak. By having the conch, Simon finally gets a chance to clarify himself and this again points out the power of the conch and the rules that follow.

As the story continues, Golding demonstrates connection between the disobeying of rules and disagreements between children with the loss of power on the conch. After Ralph made the rules of “the one who has the conch in his hands has the right to speak without interruption,” every child seemed to follow the only rule they have. However, Jack later claims “the conch doesn’t count on top of the mountain, so you shut up”(42). Recalling what Ralph said before when he was explaining the new rule of the conch, it was possible to realize that Ralph never claimed about where specifically the conch counts. This leads one to conclude that the weakness of the conch starts to weaken the society the children have made. Later on, the children start a debate about what they were going to do about the beast that they haven’t even seen. While Ralph, Piggy and Simon just ignore the existence of the beast, Jack tries to convince others to go and hunt the beast. While making his argument, Jack breaks the rule of the conch and shouts “bollocks to the rules! We’re strong ㅡ we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat ㅡ!”(91) Considering that Jack is also the children’s another kind of leader, and that his rage argument was made in front of all others on the island, this argument would have affected many others who agreed with Jack on hunting the beast. The refusal of rules by Jack then must have turned others’ mind of following the rule of the conch that leads to the destruction of the society. However, it was not just Jack who led to the loss of power on the conch but also Ralph who gave up on the rule he made. Ralph says to Piggy “if I blow the conch and they don’t come back; then we’ve had it. We shan’t keep the fire going. We’ll be like animals. We’ll never be rescued”(92). This claim portrays Ralph who gave up on both the rules and hope because he was afraid of the complete chaos of the society. It also demonstrates that not just the members of the society but also the weak leader with his rules ultimately leads the society into chaos full of disagreements and disobeying of the rules.

As the story reaches the end, Golding uses the conch to represent the collapse of society with the rationality of the children. The first example in the book was when the children were having a meeting about the beast that Samneric had found in the middle of the forest. During the assembly, Jack again breaks the rule of the conch and Ralph tries to stop him. Jack, who lost his rationality because of the disagreement against Ralph, Simon and Piggy claims, “Conch! Conch! Shouted Jack. We don’t need the conch anymore. We know who ought to say things!” (101) In the claim that Jack had made in front of everyone basically infers that Jack has decided not to follow the only rule there is in the society anymore. By just neglecting the existence of the conch, Jack leads the society to collapse by having his choir and other children follow him. Later on, Jack succeeds at overthrowing Ralph and making his own tribe. Ralph, Piggy and Samneric were the only members in the Ralph’s tribe with the conch. As the story gets to this point, Golding describes the conch slightly differently; “the green light was gentle about them and the conch lay at Ralph’s feet, fragile and white”(171). Recalling that Golding described the conch as a big, white and shiny to represent the innocence of children and the society, the description of the faded conch means that the society has lost its innocence as well as the structure itself. Finally, the last occasion Golding used to demonstrate that the society has collapsed completely was when Ralph and the last members of his society encounters Jack’s new society. The reason why they encountered each other was just because Jack’s tribe stole Piggy’s glasses. However, as Piggy and Ralph try to convince others by using the conch, Jack and his followers got angry and eventually, “the rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (181). Based on this explanation by Golding, one can notice that Piggy died with the conch broken. Considering that the conch represented the order and the rule of the society and that Piggy was almost the only one who kept being rational the whole time, both the death of Piggy and the broken conch represents the collapse of the society.

In the novel Lord of the Flies, conch is used to symbolize the various stages of society from its foundation to the collapse where power and rules take a huge part of. The conch first represented rules and orders the children have made; then slowly, the denial of the conch by the children led to the destruction of the society they have made. Throughout history many forms of society have been established and also destroyed by external and internal reasons. Golding uses conch to symbolize the society itself to demonstrate the correlation of power and rules as well as its effects on the destruction of the society.