lord of the flies final assignment, january 23, 2012

Question: The sow's head and the conch shell each wield a certain kind of power over the boys. In what ways do these objects' powers differ?
-intro
-sows head
-conch
-symbolism
-conclusion



People naturally need something to look up to in life, i.e. a god figure. The way I see it, the savages look up to the beast as the "ruler" of the island, they even went so far as to provide it with offerings, the  sow's head. The sow's head was offered to the beast just when all logic started to erode and the boys started to rely on instinct. Simon, the representation of pure human goodness, begins to get deranged  with the savagery and stress beginning to form and starts to "speak" with the rotting sow's head. The head tells him they are going to have "fun" together, this fun foreshadows his death in the next chapter. After speaking with the sow's head simon realizes that the fear of the beast actually is actually the fear of the beast within them all. When simon tries to tell the others they kill him for speaking with the beast. This is just one example of how certain things are able to wield power over the boys, here are some others.

The sow's head, the representation of an evil Satan figure who evokes savagery. The sow's head is the one who showed simon the truth, and thus got him killed. It was originally offered to the beast as an offering, which in turn solidified the belief of the beast to all of the boy who would eventually become savage. The sow's head is also responsible for transformation of the beast into a god figure. When the boys first started becoming savage on their first hunt, the sow's head symbolized a turning point from facts to instinct; civilization to savagery. There is of course other object capable of wielding power over the boys, such as piggies glasses, the beast, and the conch.

The conch, the representation of order, hope, and leadership conducted by ralph. When the boys first crash on the island the conch is discovered by piggy and ralph, After that it effectively used to keep order and govern the boys. Ralph's election to leadership is partially because of the conch as he is the one who originally called the group together with it. The conch is later used as a way to allow organized negotiation amongst the boys, again symbolizing order. Later on, as the boys unification starts to erode, so does the conch's powers of keeping order. Towards the end of the book, the conch is destroyed when piggy gets crushed by a boulder, this signifies the total loss of order and hope of civility amongst them.

Symbolism, the representation of something deeper and more abstract within something else. Among the sow's head and the conch, symbolism is represented many time in Lord Of The Flies, some say the whole book is a biblical parallel. Piggies glasses represent science and intellect within the group, this is shown when they use the glasses to focus the sunlight to make a fire, later on the glasses are stolen effectively leaving them helpless. The signal fire represents the hope of rescue amongst the boys, early on the fire is kept lit to attract planes and boats, later on the fire is only used to cook food by the savages, this shows that don't care about rescue anymore. The beast that scares the boys early on represents savagery that is within them all, later on Jack's group worships the beast as a totemic god. Unfortunately only simon comes to the realization that the beast is within then all, and he is later killed for talking to it on the mountain. Simon and Roger symbolize both pure human goodness and bloodlust at its extremes (simon wants to protect the littluns while roger wants to use them as objects of amusement). These are just a few of the many symbols represented within Lord Of The Flies.

At first when I read lord of the flies I thought it was a simple book about some boys who crashed on an island, as I read more and more the deeper it started to become and the symbolism started to become more and more apparent. The sow's head, the conch, the beast, all of these thing put together are all part of what make this book interesting. At the end, it all comes down to how William Golding represented the effect of what would happen if boys were all alone with no contact with adults.