What is the main conflict in Lord of the Flies?

The main conflict in the novel is the struggle between Ralph’s attempt to preserve civilization and Jack’s pull toward savagery, power, and violence. Ralph wants to focus on rules and practical efforts (like maintaining the signal fire) so the boys can be rescued. Jack becomes increasingly obsessed with hunting, controlling the other boys, and proving his strength.

At first, the boys try to govern themselves. Ralph uses the conch to call meetings, and the boys agree that whoever holds it may speak. The signal fire becomes Ralph’s clearest symbol of rescue and responsibility: he argues that they must make smoke so passing ships can find them. Jack’s priorities clash with Ralph's when he takes the fire-watchers hunting. They kill their first pig, but the signal fire goes out, and a ship passes without seeing them. That moment turns the tension between Jack and Ralph into open rivalry.

The conflict deepens because the boys are also fighting fear, especially fear of the “beast.” Ralph and Piggy try to deny or reason away that fear, while Jack uses it to gain power. Simon comes closest to understanding the truth: the beast is not an actual monster but something within the boys themselves. That idea is confirmed when the boys, caught up in a violent ritual, mistake Simon for the beast and kill him.

By the end of the novel, Jack’s tribe has rejected Ralph’s authority entirely. Roger kills Piggy with a boulder, the conch is destroyed, and the tribe hunts Ralph like an animal. The boys are rescued only because the fire set to kill Ralph attracts a naval ship. The conflict in Lord of the Flies therefore runs through both the plot and the underyling symbolism: order depends on fragile rules, while violence grows from desires that the boys carry inside themselves.