William Golding's Lord of the Flies is filled with numerous symbols. The literary definition of a symbol is a person, place or object that represents more than what it is physically. The author uses a variety of these to assist the reader in relating aspects of the narrative to places or ideas in modern day society, as well as infusing the story with greater depth and meaning. Throughout the novel, Golding effectively implements three distinct politically related symbols; the conch, Jack and Ralph.

On the island, the conch represents law and order as well as the freedom to speak one's mind. Whoever possesses the conch is the only person permitted to talk at the time,"'Let him have the conch!' [shouts] Piggy. `Let him have it!'"(pg.39). Piggy is admonishing one of the older boys to let a younger...