"A conch called to her. She blew it and her mother came. It's really precious" – Piggy, Lord of the Flies. The novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is about an island of abandoned young boys and their acts of survival, among other events. In the book there are many objects that symbolize a certain trait or idea. The conch, first written about on page fifteen of chapter one, has a much larger symbol than most readers know. In fact, it can symbolize many things, such as power and order in Boys' Island. This shell can be classified as a character in its own right. As you read Lord of the Flies, the conch symbol may not be clear, as it actually has many symbols, as do the main characters such as Ralph and Jack. The conch is an important object in the novel Lord of the Flies. The conch is thrown into the novel right at the beginning. Ralph had stopped smiling and was pointing towards the lagoon. Something creamy lay in the weeds” is the first mention of the shell in the first chapter. “The shell is a deep cream colour, touched here and there by faded pink. Between the tip, worn into a small hole, and the pink lips of the mouth, lie eighteen inches of shell with a slight spiral twist and covered with a delicate relief pattern” is how the shell is described in the novel. It is important to remember this description for the future of the book. Piggy, one of the main characters in the novel, informed Ralph that it was a special shell called a conch and that he knew how to blow into it so that it made a sound. “He kind of spat.” says Piggy, referring to a man he met who would blow into a conch shell. “He said you blew from down here,” says Piggys, placing a hand on Ralph's abdomen. Ralph followed Piggy into... the middle of the paper... over the abandoned boys. The role of the conch in the novel is to symbolize power, authority, democracy, and order among humans. When this is destroyed, we turn into savages. Works Cited Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Coward-McCann, 1962. Print."Lord of the Flies." SparkNote. SparkNotes and Web. May 3, 2014."Lord of the Flies." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, May 5, 2014. Web. May 5, 2014."Lord of the Flies Conch Symbolism by Studymode." Study mode. Np, nd Web. May 4, 2014. Shmoop editorial team. "The conch in Lord of the Flies." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., November 11, 2008. Web. May 4 2014. .