"A conch he called it. He used to blow into it and his mother would come. It's very precious" – Piggy, Lord of the Flies. The conch is a marine creature, its shell is revered in many cultures such as Hinduism and Buddhism for its beauty and the sound it produces. The conch is also the conch from Lord of the Flies that is blown into to collect the boys. The author, William Golding, uses the conch to demonstrate that democracy will succumb to government by force when faced with grave difficulty or necessity. In the book he is a symbol of democratic power, but he is not without enemies who ultimately prevail over him. The conch is a symbol of democratic power at the beginning of the story. First, it is used to bring kids together. Ralph blows into the conch to assemble them (Golding 12). Bringing people together so they can share their opinions, discuss and vote is essential to a functioning democracy. Accordingly, the shell meets this prerequisite. Furthermore, it granted the right to speak at meetings. Ralph explains it in the first meeting: "I will leave the conch to the next person who speaks. [...] And he will not be interrupted."(31) The conch therefore fulfills another prerequisite of democracy which is to give everyone the opportunity to express their opinions and concerns. But what is democracy without the power to support it? The conch is a symbol of power for the elected leader, Ralph. When the kids vote for the leader, one of them votes by saying "He with the conch" (19). Therefore, it is the shell that symbolizes power for boys; they vote for it and its owner. In short, gathering the people, giving them the right to speak and symbolizing power; the shell represents democracy. However, he has enemies. Jack, his tribe and his tools, like... middle of paper... To summarize, the shell slowly loses its power to Jack and his tribe who are the first to oppose it. , then ignore it and finally destroy it; and any hope of democracy on the island is destroyed by the authoritarian government. It is clear through the symbolism shown in the book that the conch represents democratic government. On the other hand, Jack's tribe and their tool, rocks, represent domination by force. By slowly removing the power from the shell and finally destroying it, we can see that democracy on the island stands no chance against government by force. In our world, an example of this would be Hitler taking advantage of the poverty and need of the German people during the Great Depression to overthrow the democratic government and establish an authoritarian government. Golding shows us the same thing through Lord of the Flies; democracy will surrender to fascism in case of serious problems or great need.