Symbolism in Lord Of The Flies Essay

Ralph Possession of the Conch Shell and the Fire

A symbol is an element that could describe the path of the story. It can related to the real world thus gives a huge impact to the story line. Besides that, it also shows the readers of how the story jeopardizes the changes in characteristic of a character. Thus affect the pathway of the story to be more dramatic and adventurous to the readers. Both the fire and the conch from the novel, Lord of the Flies written by William Golding have strong connections with the main character, Ralph. Thus, revealing the hidden secrets of the conch that revolutionize Ralph's characters and the salvation brought by the fire that light up his hopes. So, the symbol of the conch and the fire are two vital symbols because they reveal Ralphs character in his struggle to maintain order and to be rescued.

The symbols that make the story alive are the conch and the fire and both of them have a sturdy connection with Ralph from the beginning of the story. The conch is a rare object and hard to be obtained. The prize in the market is very expensive because if want to buy it []you have to pay pounds and pounds said Piggy (Golding 22). Each element of nature is unique with its very own way. For instance, it has been described as a deep cream, touched here and there with fading pink (Golding 22). Moreover, it seems that Ralph was destined to find the conch as he is the one who sees something creamy lay [ing] among the ferny weeds (Golding 21). The function of shell is to cohesive all the boys that scattered around the island by used [it] to call the others [and] have a meeting (Golding 22) and the echoes can [be] hear[d] for miles (Golding 24). Later on, Ralph came out with an initiative to make smoke on top of the mountain (Golding 49). Besides that, Ralph and his friends, Jack and Roger used Piggys glasses as burning glasses (Golding 52) to create a fire. It was an excellent idea of Ralph because fire is a multipurpose element from nature which can be use as cooking fire [or] signal fire (Golding 219). Ralph suggests creating the fire because if a ship comes near the island they may not notice [them] (Golding) so, they need fire to attract attention of the passed-by ship. It shows that Ralph is a type of person that used the surroundings aspect as a tool-kit in attempted to stay alive. So, the discovery of the new knowledge of the nature is very helpful and easier for a person to adapt with the environment.

The complicated shape of the shell signifies the power and the democracy in society. The power of the conch is very global as it had united the boys around the island after the airplane crash separates them. At the beginning of the novel, Ralph is elected as a chief with the trumpet-thing (Golding 30) which he gets majorities vote from the members because they think the conch would civilized them. He played a great role of leader that control all the power and stayed democratic. He even proposed to his team, he will give the conch to the next person to speak (Golding 43), the boys can hold it when hes speaking (Golding 43) and everyone have to pay attention to the speakers and it should be passed around to those who wish to voice their opinion or have thought. This strategy is to forestall arguments and chaos. The breakthrough of the conch does boost Ralphs confidence and spirit to become the leader. From being a normal child, he turned to be more spiritual to continue survived in that isolated island and he also convinced sooner or later a ship will put in here [and] we shall be rescued (Golding 49) because he really determine to set off from isolated island. According to the path-goal model developed by House in 1971, the leader's main role is to help his or her followers achieve goals and to provide sufficient leadership and support to guarantee that their goals are compatible with the overall objectives of the group or organization (Medina). So Golding succeed to describe Ralph as a successful leader as Ralph is very eager to help the group to archive civilization. However, as the story progresses, the sparks from the conch is fading. It cogitates the Ralph's power also weakening. The worst part is when the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist (Golding 222) which signifies the destructive of the shell. The existence of different opinions and preferences split up the harmony group, perhaps, into two. This is because Jack has his own manifesto to cheer up his tribe by hunting and killing wild-life. From that moment, Ralph turned to lost his faith in himself and let Jack take the lead. After the corruption on Ralphs side, he started to repose his dignity and his power back by blowing the conch again at Jacks Castle Rock. Although he tried his best to withstand his law and rescue or hunting and breaking things up (Golding 222) to the hunters, yet they still didnt listen to Ralph command and Ralph does not have a tribe anymore [as] the conch is gone (Golding 223) forever, and that deep scar even become deeper by the death of his best friend, Piggy. He seems to lose vision in his life because he does not has any support from his member anymore. As a summary, the conch does signify the symbol of power and democracy throughout the novel which also affects Ralphs character from becoming a spiritual leader to a lose faith in himself.

Golding vividly clarifies the terms of hope in Lord of the Flies. He transformed the symbol of hope into a form of Fire. This is because fire would help the boys in that isolated island to be rescue and sustain alive. According to Daniel Bar-Tal from Political Psychology vol. 22 Number 3, Hope, in contrast, involves mostly cognitive activity, which requires for the search for new ideas and thus is based on creativity and flexibility. Because hope is based on thinking, it can be seriously impeded by the spontaneous and unconscious interference of fear. Both fear and hope can become collective emotional orientations that organize societys views and direct its forms of action(Daniel). So, the hope that come from fire make Ralph to be creative and sometimes the fear control his behavior when there is no flames because he scared he might stayed at the isolated island for his whole life. He also helps the boys to have their own vision on how to survive in the island by giving them hope that there will be ship come and set them free. Despite that, he also encourages the boys to work together as a group so that they would [] responsible for keeping the fire going (Golding 55). This evident show us that hope could be some kind of measurement of the strength in live when attaining something valuable. However, symbol of fire visualize a lot of conflicts to Ralph as he faced difficulty to maintain the burning of the flames when the flame, nearly invisible at first in that bright sunlight, enveloped a small twig, grew was enriched with a sharp rack (Golding 53). The conflict begin when Jack and his tribe stole Piggys glasses that used as the fire starter and they only [] playing at hunting (Golding 219) without thinking of the importance of the fire. In a sudden, Ralph tend to loss his innocent as a kid when his only hope [] the fire (Golding 219) strike by Jack and he act irrational to defend it by act violently to Jack. Unfortunely, that leads to the devastated death of Piggy, his head opened and stuff came out and turned red (Golding 223). He failed to be a great leader but he took it as his lesson for his future because at the end, he weeping for the death of Piggy and Simon. It obvious that, one symbol could revealed all the changes in Ralphs character. Besides that, the invisible of the flames discovered the loss of Ralphs hope to be rescued and also his power as a leader.

In a nutshell, it clearly stated that the shell and the fire serve as a symbol that causes Ralph to lose his senses of innocent as a boy. Furthermore, Ralph realized his truly friends that eventually always supporting him instead of been hunting. Hope could help power to become even more powerful although it is a false hope. So, Golding precise those two symbols to come out with a great moral value for future generation to stop war or fighting with each other and encourage human being live in peaceful place without corruption in power or something that would bring savaged to the world. The value of Cold War does not precious compare to the value of humans life. Besides that, hard work and encouragement do help someone to accomplish ones dream in life. There is no restriction in dreaming or hoping for the right in life.

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