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Caroline Panoff
12 AP Literature
Ms. Smit
3 November 2014
The Power of the Conch

In Lord of the Flies by Golding, the audience is introduced to a group of boys stranded on
an island after enduring a plane crash. The boys are left with no parental guidance, so they decide
to create their own system of government based on a conch shell. Marxism is defined as, the
economic and political theory that capitalism will ultimately be superseded by communism,
(Dictionary.com). To the boys, the conch shell is a symbol of social status, if holding the conch,
that person is the leader and gets to decide what everyone does, how they do it, and when they do
it. Jack, Piggy and Ralph are constantly battling for full power over the island and its inhabitants,
making the struggle for power very evident throughout the course of the novel.
At the beginning of the novel, the audience is introduced to Piggy, a corpulent, properly
educated juvenile that is very well informed about everything that is happening in the world. As
the readers can tell, Piggy is not one of the most influential boys to this pack of pubescent boys,
solely based on his physical appearances. The Marxist criticism lens is one of the most dominant
literary theory schools that are evident in this novel. The boys are separated into groups based on
their rankings with the conch shell. Since Piggy was with Ralph when he found it initially, he
was at the top of the food chain. I got the conch! said Piggy indignantly. Ralphthey ought
to shut up, oughtnt they? You shut up, you littluns! (Golding 83). Early on in the novel, the

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conch is already a symbol for power, and none of the boys have a problem expressing that belief
to one another. Piggy and Ralph are the leaders early on in the plot development, they make it
very easy for everyone to like them because they listen to everyones ideas when they suggest
them, without any derogatory comments being made, which is key to a good, close knit society
in todays times. They make it clear, that in order for their civilization to thrive, they must remain
civil with each other, regardless of what happens.
Another main character in this novel is Jack, a young boy that is not afraid to show any
supremacy over the group of boys. Jack was a very opinionated character that would do whatever
it took to become in power of the boys, Jack was the first to make himself heard. He had not got
the conch and thus spoke against the rules, but nobody minded, (87). The power had already
gotten to Jacks head at this point, and he had not even been in possession of the esteemed conch
shell. Early on in the novel, he had made it clear that he did not want anybody there to boss him
around and that he would do whatever it took to be the one to boss everyone else around. At one
point in the novel, Jack throws all meaning of the conch out the window and becomes an
embodiment of the term evil, The forest near them burst into uproar. Demoniac figures with
faces of white and red and green rushed out howlingstark naked save for the paint and a belt,
was Jack (143). Even at this point of the novel, Piggy and Ralph have the conch, still
representative of power, and Jack knows that ultimately, everyone will listen to them as long as
they have it. They realize that all of the power relies with the idea and symbol of the conch shell
as long as it remains with Piggy and Ralph, the highest in society.
Marxism agrees with the theory of the division of power, or hegemony because at the
beginning of the novel, Jack noticed that many of the boys liked Ralph and would support him if
he was the leader of the island because he was so nice to everyone. Jack was a very aggressive

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and jealous boy and his jealousy was what eventually leads to the collapse of the society on the
island.
Since the conch shell is the only thing keeping the settlement of boys from pure madness,
anyone holding the conch is the leader. Marxism analyzes the dynamics of the capitalist system
and it shows how the working class can potentially take power and develop a very uncensored
and crazy society. Jack and his posse represent the middle class while Ralph and Piggys group
are the higher class. There is more of a struggle between Ralph and Jack than between anybody
else as they battle it out to win the power over the rest of the island. Even though the boys
thought that their society had some structure to it, the end of the novel proved that there was no
structure whatsoever. We can use a Marxist lense while reading Lord of the Flies to say
something meaningful about the novel as a whole because there was a struggle of power all
throughout the novel and the audience primarily sees that as they battle it out for the right to rule
the island.