Can Unity be Defined by a Specific Object or Event?- Aysha Siddiquee

Imagine yourself being stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere with a group of people you’ve never met in your entire life. Trying to keep everyone alive and under control. There is no order on this island since no one listens to anyone, no authority. So what do you do, you find something that gets a hold of everyone's attention. Something that is a collective ideal bringing everyone together. In our society, we have this exact system that is in place, where we use one object or event to bring together a numerous amount of individuals where no one knows anyone. We have multiple groups of people come together in an unknown area only to cooperate with one another based off of a collective belief in the object or event. People are united by a belief, object or idea.

   Another example in the  Lord of the Flies is a story about a group of boys on their way to a choir recital whose plane crashes on an island. The boys were disconnected from civilization and had no option but to provide and take care of themselves. They were not associates of each other and were completely new to one another. So it was very hard for them to communicate with one another. Until they found the conch shell. In this scene where they find the conch shell, it states "By the time Ralph finished blowing the conch the platform was crowded. On his left were most of the choir, on his right the larger boys. Who had not known each other before the evacuation; before him small children squatted in the grass" (32). There are many ways to determine what this quote means. The conch shell was the reason that all the boys came together as one and were united. It was as well the reason they all listened to one another. The power of the conch shell is what brought all the boys together, even though they did not know each other. So the Conch shell was what brought all the boys together as a functioning community.

    The job of the conch shell was to bring the boys together, this is exactly the role that the Olympic Games have themselves, the purpose of the games is to bring everyone together from every corner of the world, every continent. The games have a major role in our world to unite all the continents. Every year we meet in a different place to indulge ourselves in different cultures as well. The Olympics Games are held every four years, with the Summer and Winter Games alternating by occurring every four years but two years apart. It is an international event in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. So thousands of people that have never met one another come together due to one event. This is what is represented by the 5 rings and 6 colors of the official symbol of the Olympics. The 5 rings are what symbolize the 5 continents and the 6 colors are what appear on all the national flags of the world at this current moment. In the Olympics,  Africa, Asia, America, Australia and Europe are all the continents that come together from all parts of the world to compete. They have no contact with each other in any way or form, yet they still cooperate with one another and make it together. The Olympics are one of the most popular symbols of unity that exist in our world today.

   Another example of a  clear representation of the impact that the Conch has on the boys is when it breaks.  In this scene, the power of the conch is portrayed through the text in another perspective. The conch plays a different role, the complete opposite of unity, it shows there being separation and chaos. It states “ I got this to say. You’re acting like a crowd of kids. The booing rose and died again as Piggy lifted the white, magic shell.”(180). In other words, when the Conch wasn’t present in the situation there was chaos and there was no unity. But once the Conch was present again, it established order amongst the boys. So the Conch was the power that made everything sane and orderly. But once the Conch broke the bond and unity between the boys was broken. Everything was in chaos due to the loss of the Conch. The flame that is lit for the Olympic games is what symbolizes the beginning of the games and the nations coming together as one. For the Olympics as the flame goes down, the unity dies down just as if there is no use for the Conch the unity dies down amongst the boys. So the Conch is what holds the boys together as a whole, keeping them all together just as the Olympics do.

   In conclusion, in Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the Conch, a symbolic representation, to express the unity of a group of individuals. The Olympics in our present day world is what was represented through the role of the Conch in the Lord of the Flies.  In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the Conch, a symbolic representation, to express the unity of a group of individuals. But then he also presents how powerful the Conch is based on how once the Conch was broken the individual's bond had broken they too were then separated, everything was in chaos. So the Conch is the symbol of unity for them and the Olympics is the symbol of unity for us. The Olympics are just on a different spectrum for us, since it is on a larger scale.

        Works Cited

William, Golding. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.

Ski Jumping: Stoch does the double, as Vogt leaps into history." International Olympic Committee. 27 Mar. 2017. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.

Olympic Games." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.