1970 Also. Choose a work of recognized literary merit in which a specific inanimate object (e.g., a seashell, a handkerchief, a painting) is important, and write an essay in which you show how two or three of the purposes the object serves are related to one another.

Golding's novel The Lord of the Flies contains disturbing illusions about the innate nature of humans, among them the idea that culture is just a gloss over savagery. Throughout the novel, the stranded boys use a conch shell to communicate. The conch shell is a symbol representing a tool of civilization, and its fall from respect is in of itself a symbol of the boys' return to savagery.

Upon first being stranded, the boys call each other together by blowing the conch. Here, the conch functions as a means of communication, as the boys cannot assemble if they do not know where the others are. When the boys do gather together, that cooperation is made possible by the conch shell. Further cooperation takes place when the boys recognize the right to speak by whoever holds the conch. Although a continuation of cooperation, this is also a tool of political power, used to hold together a loose system of rule and order.

The conch's purposes become less and less effective as the boys lose their civilized behaviors, eroding the previous cooperation, communication, and political power among them. Golding implies through those physical functions that the conch's actual purpose is that of keeping a structured order, akin to government. When the boys become savage, the conch is no longer effective, furthered symbolized when it is smashed by the boulder. Golding conveys themes of The Lord of the Flies through such symbolisms and functions-- both physical and implied--, and those of the conch shell work together to contribute to the boy's fall from grace.