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Piggy's Glasses

The Fire

The Conch

The spear

Quote

Ralph

The fire symbolizes that Ralph wanted to keep the civilization alive. The fire represents civilization against savagery. When the fire is gone, so is civilization. These events make a connection to Ralph because he was the keeper of the fire or the keeper of civilization. “The fire was dead. They saw that straight away” (71). The boys, along with civilization and Ralph, knew that the fire was out.

Piggy’s glasses show the shift of power from Ralph to Jack. The glasses represent power because they can make fire. He was a chief now, in truth, and made stabbing motions with his spear. From his left hand dangled Piggy‘s broken glasses” (168). Piggy dying and the glasses breaking were the last things the boys needed to completely leave Ralph behind.

The conch represents Ralph's leadership. When it is broken, it shows how anything Ralph says or does will no longer matter to the boys. "The rock exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist" (181). The conch broke when Piggy was killed, and Ralph's leadership died with it.

The spear represents the savagery that took over the island and the boys. The spear was supposed to kill Ralph, the only piece of civilization left on the island. “Roger sharpened a stick at both ends.” The savages plan to hunt Ralph and take down the only civilization.

Ralph was a leader who got turned on. I chose a sinking crown to represent that because it shows how the crown was skinning; if you tried to wear it, no one would find you. These events happened to Ralph, but these happenings sunk into the boys' minds.

“It was a strange monster, for beneath its exterior it was frightened and sickened by its own violence. It chastised itself for its savagery. And sometimes it had no heart for violence and rebelled against it utterly.”― Kristin Cashore, Graceling The connection between this quote and The Lord of the Flies is that the boys were their beasts. She states that the monster was frightened and scared by its actions, and the boys were also. In the story, they all deny the blame for their actions out of fear. They were too scared to face what they had done, so they just made excuses for themselves. The second part of the quote, where she talks about how some have no heart for savagery, represents Ralph’s side. The primary examples of this were Simon and Piggy. They were both killed off because they would not give their hearts to savagery.