The conch
Jack paused, cradling the conch
"Cradling" is linked to children, he treats the conch like a child, like something that needs to be protected.
The conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.
Here is the loss of hope and order and that the boys have gone too far. "White" suggests hope and purity. And now this is gone along with Piggy.
Piggy paused for a breath and stroked the glistening thing that lay in Ralph's hands
Piggy is interested and mesmerised with the conch which shows that science and reason are paired with democracy and order. They need each other to work. In Piggy's eyes, the conch is "glistening" which shows he believes it is special and almost magical. Also as Ralph is holding the conch, it shows he is in command.
I thought they wanted the conch
Piggy realises that the savages no longer need the conch as they don't care about civilisation. Piggy can't work out why they wouldn't want democracy.
"Something cream lay among the ferny weeds"
Ralph finds the conch; he has the power
Ralph felt a kind of affectionate reverence for the conch
Ralph respects the conch and wants to obey it. He feels affection for it.
Jack held out his hands for the conch and stood up, holding the delicate thing carefully in his sooty hands.
The boys in the beginning are careful with the conch and look after it as they believe it still holds its importance. "Sooty hands" could link to evil due to the colour and there is a contrast between black and the white.
they obeyed the summons of the conch, partly because Ralph blew it and he was big enough to be a link with the adult world of authority
The boys still hope to be rescued and the conch is used as a beacon of hope. The conch calms them and they still want to have a connection to civilisation.
Piggy, partly recovered, pointed to the conch in Ralph's hands, and Jack and Simon fell silent.
The conch has power over the boys as they obey the rules that they have made. This changes later on in the novel with Jack refusing to listen to the rules that he insisted that they put in place.
Careful you'll break it
The conch is something delicate and precious. This shows that democracy and order is something that has to be handled delicately. Golding has done this to show that it can be broken easily and this links to its eventual destruction.
Jack clamoured around them, the conch forgotten
The conch is starting to lose its power and the boys are forgetting their rules and their ties to civilisation.
"A deep, harsh note boomed under the palms, spread through the intricacies of the forest and echoed back from the pink granite of the mountain."
The power of civilisation is disrupting the island. The sound is echoing which shows it is being accepted by the boys. "Deep" and "harsh" present civilisation as negative and a corrupting force.
In colour the shell was deep cream touched here and there with fading pink.
The verb "fading" shows that democracy and order isn't that powerful. The fact that it is an ongoing verb shows that the fall of democracy will carry on happening. "Fading" links to the eventual fading belief of civilisation and rescue.