Lord Of The Flies Conch Symbolism

The conch is a powerful symbol of society and order in the island. At the beginning, when Ralph found the conch on the beach shore, all the kids came together for an assembly. After that, they made a rule, only the person who was holding the conch would be allowed to speak at the meetings, this worked well at the beginning. There was a point in the novel where the savage boys began to disrespect the conch and what it stood for, like a rebellion. When the boulder crushed the conch shell it signified a transition from a proper society, to a savage nightmare. The conch represented civility and organization, but soon became nothing put a broken sea shell.
The signal fire was a symbol of civilization, and the boys’ trying to be rescued. The fire’s smoke was a way to get passing ships to notice them. At the beginning the boys were all helping with letting the fire burn, but as the boys began to hunt like savages, the fire begins to die away, symbolizing their desire for rescue was low. Eventually, the signal fire does vanish when the boys joined Jack’s tribe. Ironically, a fire does save the boys, but it was not the signal fire. Instead it was Ralph’s death fire that attracted a Navy ship. The signal fire stood for a sign of rescue, but by the end none of the savage boys wanted to be saved.
Another symbol is the pig’s head on a stick, also called Lord of the Flies.
The 'Lord of the Flies' has two meanings. The first thing it represents is the beast to Simon, it says that it is “part of him” and “I am the Beast”. A second thing it represents is the other boys' desire to slack off, ignore the rules, do whatever they want and have fun. It’s a voice for Simon telling him that he should forget what needs to be done to be rescued and join Jack’s tribe and have fun. When Simon and the Lord of the Flies have the conversation it says, "We are going to have fun on this island. Understand?" The pig’s head is a sign of the wildness and “fun” on the
island.
The beast is a symbol of fear that is represented by the boys in a different way when they are in the dark. Literally the beast is a dead parachutist, but the boys fear when they see an object in the dark makes them assume it’s a beast. Simon is the one who says that the beast lives inside all of us. As the boys grow more savage, their belief in the beast grows stronger. The boys’ behavior is what brings the beast into existence, so the more savagely the boys act, the more real the beast seems to become to them. The beast is nothing but the boys’ imagination running wild by fear.
Another symbol is the masks representing a new identity. In the beginning of the book Jack didn’t kill the pig. He was still the civilized choir boy who was afraid to kill a living creature. Later in the novel Jack paints his face not just for camouflage, but for him to think that he changes his identity to become a cannibal so he can do whatever he wants to. So the mask wraps up his society identity and makes him a fearless hunter. Jack was hunting and killing pigs and humans. The mask shows the boys are becoming killing savages.
Throughout his novel, Lord of the Flies, Golding utilized objects and characters to illustrate his main theme that without rules and laws, any society will collapse into a savage one. Golding used symbolism throughout the book to represent the state of the boy’s society to how it fell apart. As objects broke so did of what it represented. The conch for order and the signal fire for rescue made the island look like a perfect society. As the novel went on the fear from the beast and the crazy imagination from the Lord of the Flies made the school boys turn into savages. All of these symbols played a key role in the novel Lord of the Flies.