The novel ‘Lord of the flies’ by William
Golding is amongst the well-renowned symbolical novels of all times. This novel
represents an identical kind of symbolism throughout, from the beginning till
end. Symbolism in the novel can be witnessed not just in various things being
used by the characters like conch and Piggy’s specs etc, rather the entire group of boys is represented as a civilization
which is at its beginning as the consequence of the world war. Out of all the
symbols used within, the Conch plays a crucial role for the presentation of the
symbolism and has been used for the varied places for the varied purposes.
Conch at first is used as the
totem of civilization that marks the growth of the civilization. After its discovery
by Ralph and Piggy, Ralph blows it in order to summon up all the boys present
on the island thus it’s used for beginning of the civilization. Further Ralph
being the blower of the conch is elected as their leader somewhat by default
thus conch presented as the symbol of governance for this new civilization. Later, the
conch is also used for maintaining peace and order amongst the group and such
its declared that one needs to hold the conch in order to speak and would also
not be disturbed by anyone. This shows the re-presentation of the conch as an
object of maintaining ordinance and discipline and finally its breaking
referred as the end of the civilization.
Conch which
although is represented as a totem of civilization and amongst the most
prominent thing the boys had on the island,but it is far off from the reality and
is a sheer fiction as of its highly impractical role in the real world. The
reason being, no such thing as conch did exist in the real world to guide,
control and regulate the humans,in the contemporary time of the
novel; and as such the representation of conch as a governing and guiding
force’s symbol is fictional. The whole and soul reason being the actual cause
behind the resultant crash of the plane on the solitary island i.e. the World War.
The time that the novel discusses about is the time of world war, as a
consequence of which the children ended up on that island. Now since the world
war was the cause of such a condition so if there would have been any
governing, controlling and regulatory authority or thing then surely these many
consequences wouldn’t have occurred. The absence of any guiding and controlling
force for the human beings indulged them into the world war and their lack of
control caused such a tragedy to take place. In case there would have been any
such thing as conch in the real world as conch is presented in the novel,
the humans would definitely been in proper control with no such tragic occurrence as world war . So although the
entire novel is the presentation of a civilization but one thing that was far
away from reality was the conch; a symbol of governance and control. All the
other things like fire were the symbols marking the growth of the civilization
except conch, because of the absence of any peace within the human mind and
outside. As a consequence of which the world war made a terribly remarkable
place in the history. Thus it can fairly be concluded that, in the novel the
lord of the flies, conch represents a true symbol of fiction.
