It is Piggy who discovered the conch first, but it was Ralph who was credited with its find. When it was retrieved from the lagoon, Ralph saw it as a stone in the water, but Piggy knew it was a shell and knowledgeably explained how to use it correctly to their advantage. I quote “ ‘A stone.’ ‘No. A shell.’ Suddenly Piggy was a-bubble with decorous excitement. ‘S’right. It’s a shell! I seen one like that before. On someone’s back wall. A conch he called it. He used to blow it.’ ” The shell emitted a deep harsh note that boomed and Ralph was amazed at the sound. The sheer importance of the discovery of the conch and the fact that it makes a loud and appealing noise symbolizes the unity of the group and the idea that people can speak when holding it shows the beginnings of organisation and the sharpening of skills amongst the boys.
The conch is more than just a symbol of democracy; it is actually the object that installs it. It is the act of touching the shell itself that brings democratic power and as the island erodes and savagery begins to dominate the boys, the conch looses its power and influence among them. The conch starts out “glistening” and was pure and innocent when it was first found, but later on it becomes tainted and we see this symbolically when I quote “Jack held the delicate thing in his sooty hands”. Ralph clutches it desperately when he talks about his role in murdering Simon and later he is taunted and pelted with stones when he tries to blow it in Jack’s camp at Castle Rock. Law and order in a society depends on the people in its regard for the rules. In this case as the boys ignored the rules or made up their own, the conch became useless and other sources of power took over such as a stick sharpened at both ends. This showed the boys progression into savagery and the art of hunting, the stick is twice as dangerous as it was before and is a source of power, mainly for Jack. Also the face paint allows the boys to feel in control, in particular Jack. This is because it masks their true identity and allows them to become more powerful and be free of guilt as they are in fact taking on a different persona, one that it far more savage and uncivilized. I quote “Jack looked down from behind his paint at Ralph and Piggy.”
When Jack begins to ignore the conch and all that it stands for, he scorns their whole way of life and society. By this he is saying to the other boys that the way that Ralph is leading them is corrupt and unconsciously, he makes the other boys too begin to doubt in Ralph. I quote, “ ‘Conch! Conch!’ Shouted Jack, ‘we don’t need the conch any more. We know we ought to say things. What good did Simon do speaking, or Bill, or Walter? It’s time some people knew they’ve got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us.” By this Jack means Piggy and Ralph. Jack feels that Ralph is not a proper leader, he resents him and wants the boys to see that he is a better choice than Ralph is. With past experiences in leadership and his hunting skills he manipulates the boys and promises action rather than assemblies. Piggy is singled out also because he finds action hard due to asthma. The impression that Piggy has the ideas but doesn’t carry them out is shown in other ways as well. Firstly he identified the conch as a method of calling the boys via blowing into one end. I noticed that this action seems to isolate Piggy because he has asthma and so although he was the brains behind the idea he can not himself carry it out. Also his glasses symbolize intelligence and Ralph realizes that “He could go step by step in that fat head of his, only Piggy was no chief”.
Another thing that Jack does by saying that the conch is not necessary is to limit the power that the other boys have on the island and this reduces the democracy, for now Jack does not have to listen to the boys if they hold the conch. Jack also uses the conch to turn the boys against Ralph, which is attacking him with his own power source. He takes over Ralph’s role more and more and calls his own assembly, although he detests it when Ralph does this. When the boys see that anyone can blow the conch it makes them see that anyone could be leader and the magic of the conch fades slightly. Without the rules and order the boys are lost and when the conch is neglected, disorder ensues
Piggy’s death in chapter eleven is very symbolic as he was the one that the conch seemed to be the most important to. This is because we know that he lived with his Auntie and in everything he did she was at the back of his mind with rules or guidelines. I quote “My auntie told me not to run.” This shows that Piggy needs the authority of the adults and from the start he was not as keen as the others to discover that they were alone on the island, and it took him longer to adjust to their new lives. Due to this he would cling to the rules of their old life and this means the conch, the sign of a democracy. Whenever was worried he suggested that Ralph calls a meeting and when Jack’s tribe came barging into their camp to steal fire Piggy says, “I thought they wanted the conch”. This shows the difference in priorities between Piggy and Jack as Jack doesn’t mind if his followers have the freedom to speak, he steals fire as it is practical and necessary to cook the meat he hunts and then he takes away the other’s only chance of fire-Piggy’s glasses. When Ralph and Piggy go to castle rock to reason with Jack and his hunters Ralph tries to blow the conch but the boys refuse to listen and claim that it has no power on that side of the island. This means the savage side. Stones are thrown at them but Piggy still can’t understand why any one would not want to believe in all that the conch stands for and he cried “Which is better-to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?” As his last attempt to make the boys listen, for before he had always believed that deep down the boys respected the conch, was to hold it out. I quote “Piggy still holding out the talisman, the fragile, shining beauty of the shell”. By now the shell is fragile as democracy is practically non existent and this angers Roger more than ever so he levers the rock off the cliff so that it falls onto Piggy, one of two true believers in the conch.
When Piggy and the conch are both destroyed, it signifies the complete demise of the civilized instinct among all the boys on the island and the silencing of the true and wise voice of reason. It is also obvious that it is Jack and Roger who have finally destroyed all of the rules that Ralph made, and “The conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist”. It is then the boys who are not hunters that suffer and Jack hurts a little one for no apparent reason. “He got angry and made us tie Wilford up” is all that his followers knew, and yet they did not doubt him for the boys still need some rules in their lives. It is the society members that suffer when there is no democracy; not the leaders like Jack, and at the end of the book there was nothing that prevented the boys from complete disorder. It is when this happens that we realize that even though an object can give power like a spear to Jack or the conch to Ralph, an object can never truly provide power for others can just disregard it.