Baker
Honors English 10
7 December 2015 The Conch, the Fire, and the Beast
A symbol is a thing, person, or place that is presented as a representation of a larger mean. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, as the story unravels, the objects which the boys encounter are decoded to provide a deeper meaning. Golding uses symbolism to expose that an item is more powerful than it first seems.
A central symbol at the beginning of the novel is the conch shell. It is Piggy who has “seen one like that before… on someone’s back wall...” (18), that gets the idea to give the shell a more valuable purpose. Rather than using it to make a sound, the conch gives whoever is holding it their meetings the ability to speak. The power