In William Golding's Lord of the
Flies, the conch is symbolic of the order of society while the pig's head is
symbolic of Beelezebub and the chaos of demonic power. Thus, they are representative of
two different aspects of man's nature.
In the first part of
Golding's allegory, the conch is respected and responded to by the boys. They come in
an orderly way to their meetings, they do not speak unless they hold the conch; they act
civilized. But, by Chapter 5, anarchy begins when Jack ignores the conch and shouts
over Ralph's insistence on that the rules are all they
have:
"Who
cares?....Bollocks to the rules! We're strong--we
hunt!"
It is at this point
that Simon becomes "inarticulate in his effort to express mankind's essential illness."
And, Jack and the hunters steal the fire and leave the head for the beast. Simon, who
has hidden himself in the leaves, looks at the head after the others
depart:
The
half-shut eyes were dim with the infinite cynicism of adult life. They assured Simon
that everything was a bad business....the Lord ofthe Flies hung on his stick and
grinned...and his gaze was held by that ancient, inescapable
recognition.
Intuitively,
Simon recognizes the pig's head, "Lord of the Flies"/Beelezebub as the evil that is
inherent in man. Simon tries to insist that he is merely "a pig's head on a stick," but
the Beast retorts,
"You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close,
close, close! I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are what they
are?"
It is, of course, after
this incident and the theft of the fire that anarchy rules on the island, replacing the
civilization of the rules and the conch.
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