The Conch

The conch is a shell that Ralph and Piggy find on the beach at the start of the novel. Piggy recognises its great value in calling the other boys that were on the plane together, and in this instance it represents the order and civilised society the boys knew from their former lives. The shell comes to govern the assemblies and gives its holder the right to speak. In this capacity, the shell is a literal expression of the validity of political and democratic power that has been established on the island. However, as the society breaks down and the boys become savages, the conch loses its power and respect. Ralph mourns the loss of what the conch stood for when he holds it desperately when talking about his role in Simon’s murder. When Ralph tries to invoke some of the island’s previous order by blowing the conch at Jack’s camp, Jack’s group throw stones at him, and the conch is eventually crushed by the same boulder that kills Piggy, signifying the end of civilised society on the island.

The Conch Quotes

‘I got the conch,’ said Piggy, in a hurt voice. ‘I got a right to speak.’ Chapter 2

He had to wave the conch before he could make them hear him. (Ralph) Chapter 2

‘Conch! Conch!’ shouted Jack. ‘We don’t need the conch any more.’ Chapter 6

At length Ralph got up and went to the conch. He took the shell caressingly with both hands and knelt, leaning against the trunk. Chapter 10

The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. Chapter 11

Fire

The boys agree to keep a signal fire burning so as to attract the attention of any ships that may pass by. The motivation for the fire is strong at the beginning of the novel, when the boys are still attached to their civilised upbringing, and to the their hope of being rescued. However, as the situation deteriorates on the island most of the boys, with the exception of Ralph’s group, give up hope for rescue and the motivation to maintain the signal fire drops. The new significance of fire becomes in its purpose for cooking pig meat that is consumed in increasing amounts as most of the boys begin to accept their new lives in the savage jungle.

In this way, the fire is both a symbol of hope for rescue for Ralph’s group but for the others, a measure of their connection to civilised society. Ironically, the fire that does eventually alert a passing ship at the end of the novel was a fire that was deliberately lit by Jack’s group to smoke out Ralph so that they could kill him.

Fire Quotes

‘There’s another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire.’ (Ralph) Chapter 2

To Ralph, seated, this seemed the breaking up of sanity. Fear, beasts, no general agreement that the fire was all-important: and when one tried to get the thing straight the argument sheered off, bringing up fresh, unpleasant matter. Chapter 5

Piggy was so full of delight and expanding liberty in Jack’s departure, so full of pride in his contribution to the good of society, that he helped to fetch wood. Chapter 8

Ralph tried indignantly to remember. There was something good about a fire. Something overwhelmingly good.
‘Ralph’s told you often enough,’ said Piggy moodily. ‘How else are we going to be rescued?’ Chapter 10

‘… They stole it. We’d have given them fire if they’d asked. But they stole it and the signal’s out and we can’t ever be rescued… ‘ (Ralph) Chapter 11

The officer grinned cheerfully at Ralph. ‘We saw your smoke. What have you been doing? Having a war or something?’ Ralph nodded. Chapter 12

The Beast

The beast is an imaginary entity which comes to frighten most of the boys and symbolises the primal instinct towards barbarism that is potential within all humans. As the situation deteriorates and the boys become more savage, their fear of the beast increases and, regarding it as a type of deity, they leave it an offering in the form of a severed pig’s head on top of stake. The beast is thought to exist on the land or in the water and, eventually, in the form of the dead parachutist who lands on top of the mountain. However, Simon comes to realise that the beast is located within each of the boys themselves. Ironically, it is the boys deteriorating behaviour that brings the beast to life in the form of their own savageness.

The Beast Quotes

‘There’s nothing in it of course. Just a feeling. But you can feel as if you’re not hunting, but—being hunted, as if something’s behind you all the time in the jungle.’ (Jack, to Ralph and Simon) Chapter 3

‘Life . . . is scientific. … I know there isn’t no beast . . . but I know there isn’t no fear, either ….Unless we get frightened of people.’ (Piggy to Ralph) Chapter 5

‘Maybe,’ he said hesitantly, ‘maybe there is a beast.’ … What I mean is. . . maybe it’s only us.’ (Simon) Chapter 5

The bright morning was full of threats and the circle began to change. It faced out, rather than in, and the spears of sharpened wood were like a fence. Chapter 6

Simon, walking in front of Ralph, felt a flicker of incredulity—a beast with claws that scratched, that sat on a mountain-top, that left no tracks and yet was not fast enough to catch Samneric. Chapter 6

However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick. Chapter 6

‘I’m frightened. Of us. I want to go home. Oh God, I want to go home.’ (Ralph to Piggy) Chapter 10

‘We’d better keep on the right side of him, anyhow. You can’t tell what he might do.’ (Jack about the beast) Chapter 10

Lord of the Flies

The Lord of the Flies is the severed pig’s head that Jack impales on a stake in the forest as an offering to the beast. When the head speaks, Simon comes to realise than rather than being an external entity, the true beast is the evil that resides within every human heart. It tells Simon ‘we are going to have fun on this island’ which, as well as foreshadowing Simon’s death, indicates that with civilisation broken down, the boys will be able to indulge any impulse or desire without restraint. The Lord of the Flies is a complex symbol, in that it is a physical manifestation of the imaginary beast as well as a symbol of the power of evil. As an accepted translation of the Biblical demon Beelzebub, Golding is also using the symbol to invoke a Satanic figure who has the power to unleash evil in the heart of every individual.

Lord of the Flies Quotes

‘There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast… Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! … You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?’’ (The Lord of the Flies to Simon) Chapter 8

Piggy’s Glasses

As well as assisting with Piggy’s vision impairment, Piggy’s glasses are used to refract sunlight onto kindling in order to start the fires that are significant to the boys’ goals of being rescued and to be able to cook. In this way, the glasses symbolise the power of science and intellectual pursuit within civilised society.

At the end of the novel, when Jack’s hunters steal Piggy’s glasses, and effectively leave Ralph’s group unable to start fires, the glasses come to represent the power of survival; only the group who possesses the glasses is able to start a fire, whatever the fire’s purpose.

Piggy’s Glasses Quotes

‘Here–let me go!’ His voice rose to a shriek of terror as Jack snatched the glasses off his face. ‘Mind out! Give ’em back! I can hardly see! (Piggy) Chapter 2

But I don’t ask for my glasses back, not as a favor. I don’t ask you to be a sport, I’ll say, not because you’re strong, but because what’s right’s right. Give me my glasses, I’m going to say—you got to!’ (Piggy rehearsing what he will say to Jack) Chapter 11

The Island

The island represents paradise, with lovely blue waters and a bountiful forest, an allusion to the Biblical Garden of Eden, and symbolises the boys’ chance to start again away from the warring world, to start a new society from the beginning.

The Island Quote

‘This is our island. It’s a good island. Until the grownups come to fetch us we’ll have fun.’ (Ralph) Chapter 2

The Scar

The scar is the damage to the forest left by the boys’ plane when it crashes to the earth. Together with the ensuing heavy footprint the boys have on the island, which displaces pre-existing natural ecosystems, the scar symbolises humanity’s tendency to destroy nature and, in this way, invokes the general issue of humans and their relationship with the natural environment.

The Scar Quote

All round him [Ralph] the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. Chapter 1