Symbolic Objects

My reading focus is symbolic objects. There are many symbolic objects that repetitively come up in the story. One main symbolic object is the conch shell. The conch shell was dragged out of the lagoon by Ralph and since then, it has been used at assemblies. This conch shell symbolizes authority because they use the shell as the speaking device. Whoever is holding the shell would be the person to speak during assemblies or meetings. It also symbolizes leadership. Ralph was chosen as chief because he had the shell that made noise when you blow into it, and when he blew into it, the shell made an incredibly loud sound. Another symbolic object is all the pink on the island. Everything seems to be pink; pink mountains, pink sand, pink pigs, Piggy's pink cheeks. Pink is very feminine color, so it's a little odd that the author might use pink in a very masculine book. One reason is that since it's an all boys book, the pink adds the feminine quality in LOTF. Another reason is, maybe, the author wanted to give you the illusion that this island was pink and pretty and beautiful when the island may be a little darker than it seems. Since we are talking about pink, pigs seem to be an important symbolic object as well. Jack is constantly talking about them, and they seem to be the best food they have on the island. Pigs symbolize something a bit more than that. When we had the group close readings, one group who had the close reading of Piggy (I think that's what it was), had said that they thought the pig could be parallel to Piggy. By that I mean Piggy and the pig may have the same life or future. So with that conclusion, since they killed the pig, maybe Piggy also gets killed. (This is just a conclusion, I don't know how accurate that is.) The last symbolic object I am going to talk about is Piggy's glasses. It seems that on almost every page, Piggy's glasses seem to be brought up. So as a symbolic object, they symbolize (maybe) the civilization. They were once shiny and clean and helped Piggy see, which is like the civilization of the boys before they came on the island. Then, his glasses would constantly get dirty, and Piggy would have to clean them, which may represent the civilization after living on the island for a few days. Then, the boys fought over the glasses and eventually, broke one lens, which beginning in chapter four and mostly in chapter five, the civilization was broken maybe not two lenses, but one lens. Then, on the cover, both lenses are broken, so does that mean that the civilization is completely broken farther into the book?

The symbolic objects in this book continues to add up. There are more and more throughout the chapters, but the ones that have already been mentioned are still brought up. I find that the objects that are repetitively brought up are the important objects, making them symbolic in different ways, shapes, and forms.