The novel ‘Lord of the flies’ by William Golding uses a creamy pink conch shell as an important and symbolic object. At the start of the book two boys meet on a beach and find a conch shell in the water. The pink conch in the book lord of the flies represents power and leadership and the frugalness that comes with being in a position of power. They realise they can blow on the conch to signal the other boys around the island. This already shows the the conch is a powerful object in the book as it is the only thing that can do this.

In the book they use the conch as a ‘talking stick’ and who ever is holding the shell is aloud to talk and is looked up to by the younger children or ‘littlins’ Ralph was elected as he leader of the group and immediately challenged by jack, This is where things start to fall apart. As things begin to come close to the breaking point and piggy convinces ralph to blow the conch to call another meeting, But Ralph says ‘If I blow the conch and they don’t come back; then we’ve had it. We shan’t keep the fire going. We’ll be like animals. We’ll never be rescued.’ He realises that rules only have power when people follow them.