How does Golding use foreshadowing in Lord of the Flies to build tension and suggest the boys’ decent into savagery?

Golding uses the conch in the novel to symbolise democracy and civilisation. Golding wrote the novel as a parody to R.M Ballantyne’s novel “Coral Island” in which a number of boys are placed on an island, their behaviour is civilised and Ballantyne suggests though out his novel that the Pirates and savages are the only people on the island that had the potential for evil. Golding contradicts this as he wrote Lord of the Flies after WW2 and the ‘Cold War’ he was horrified at mans capacity for evil and the stereotype that British people did not have the potential for evil. In the novel Ralph is a democratic leader and creates the idea of the conch; “Conch? That’s what this shell is called. I’ll give the conch to the next person speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking (…) And he won’t be interrupted” he tries to teach them to be respectful and listen. At the beginning of the novel the conch is important to the way the boys act on the island as they are trying to recreate society and order. The conch is an important factor at the beginning of the novel; “I’ve got the conch said Piggy indignantly ‘Let me speak” yet at the end when the conch is broken in to a thousand pieces; “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” Jack runs forward screaming that now he can be chief. Therefore the meaning at the end of the novel is the end of democracy and civilisation.

Golding introduces Ralph as; “the boy with fair hair “ this shows that he has light and goodness the quote then continues; “…lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way towards…” here Golding shows that Ralph is cautious. In the first sentence of the novel Golding wants you to prefer Ralph as he says “his eyes proclaimed no devil” he introduces Ralph as the good, kind character, this relates to Golding’s purpose as he wants democracy to be elected over dictatorship. When Jack is introduced he isn’t described as a person straight away "Within the diamond