“Lord of the Flies” which is published in 1954, is a novel of British novelist William Golding. To talk about the plot shortly, it tells the story of a group of school boys whose plane crashed on a coral island. While the novel begins in a very peaceful, optimistic atmosphere and we wait that these school boys would experience adventures and enjoy the island, it gradually turns out to be frightening novel. It also explores through the hidden human instincts and brings these instincts to light by means of great symbolism, allegory various themes, perfect use of description and presentation of various characters.
To begin with; symbolism has a great share in the development of novel and probably is the most important device that makes the novel so significant. Golding puts many objects intelligently so as to symbolize different things. Firstly; I think that the conch shell is the most striking symbol in the entire novel. The conch shell is found on the beach by Ralph in the first day of their crash. It is initially used to call the other boys out. Later; they begin to look at the conch shell as a thing by means of which they are gathered and so that it is considered as a respectable thing. Additionally; because it is firstly used by Ralph, he is looked up and found trustworthy, therefore; he is chosen the chief. Openly; conch shell symbolizes the power, the ruling and democracy. It plays a political role and gives oneself the right to speak and express himself. Also; it stands for the term civilization in a way. If we consider democracy and systematic government as representative of civilization, it would not be wrong also to take the shell as symbol of civilization. Accordingly, if civilization disappears, regular government system disappears, too, as it happens in the novel. The more the boys turn to wild individuals, the more the conch shell loses importance and finally when it is totally destroyed, there are not anything related to democracy or rules. Another...