In Lord of the Flies, one symbol of
power is the conch. From the very beginning of the story, the conch brought the boys
together. Then as a symbol of authority, the person holding the conch has permission to
speak. The boys continued to use the conch as a symbol of power, but toward the end,
Jack began to disrespect the conch as a symbol of authority. He disregarded anyone who
was holding the conch.
At the end of Piggy's life, he is
still holding on to the conch. Piggy is fighting for some semblance of order. Piggy
never gave up. As Roger pushes the rock over on Piggy, the conch is crushed along with
Piggy. Jack takes this opportunity to become the chief. He screams at Ralph that he will
get the same treatment. With the conch broken into pieces, and Piggy dead, that was the
last appearance of order. Jack seizes the moment to scream orders at Ralph, claiming
that he now chief:
Jack screams that that’s what Ralph will get.
The conch is gone. He is chief now. He hurls his spear at Ralph, grazing his side. The
others, including Roger, hurl their spears as well. Ralph turns and
flees...
Piggy was crushed
right along with the conch. In his death, he was trying to create a system or order.
With Jack in control, the conch means nothing.
Another
symbol of power would be the pig's head that Jack hung on a stick. The pig's head gives
Jack and his hunters authority. Jack and his hunters have no fear for the pig's head was
a sacrifice to the beast. For Simon, the pig's head represents the power of
evil:
On a
rational level, Simon knows the pig's head is just that: a "pig's head on a stick." But
on a more emotional level, Simon realizes that the pig's head represents an evil so
strong that it has the power to make him faint. When he thinks of the head as "The Lord
of the Flies," the symbol becomes even more powerful, as this title is a translation of
"Beelzebub," another name for the
Devil.
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