Lord Of The Flies: Man And Society

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Society is the most important part of man's life, its major components: order, rationality, and wisdom keeps man under control and prevent the primitive and evil side of man from coming out. In the novel The Lord of the Flies, the author William Golding uses symbols to illustrate that without order, rationality, and wisdom, the civilized side of man will slip away and the savageness will appear. William Golding uses the conch, the signal fire, and Piggy's glasses to symbolize a society and the possible downfall of it without the major components.

Laws and order are the boundaries of man's action, without them, a society can be in chaos. The conch symbolizes order because it the boy the right to speak and the others have to listen. In the beginning of the story, the conch is a symbol of authority, when "Piggy standing cradling the great cream shell and the shouting died down."

(33). Throughout the book, Piggy has always been the character that no one have respect for, but when he holds up the conch, which is the symbol of authority, the boys obey the rule, and whether they like Piggy or not, they have to be quiet. The conch starts to lose its authority in chapter 5, titled Beast from the Water, when the boys question Ralph's judgement and interrupt his speech numerous times. When Ralph tries to move on to another point, "[one boy says], "˜Too many things.' There came a mutter of agreement. Ralph overrode them."� (81). The boys start to disrespect the rule and the conch, which also symbolizes the freedom of speech. Despite the boys' disrespect to the conch, Ralph believes in this rule and relies on it to override the impatient boys. The conch shatters in chapter 11, titled Castle Rock, after...