Chapter ten is titled "The Shell and the Glasses" for good reason. The chapter opens with Piggy squinting to see through the one good lens in his spectacles. Ralph approaches both Piggy and the conch without any real purpose in mind and Piggy asks him to call an assembly since Ralph is still chief. Ralph laughs as he caresses the conch shell, a symbol of order and the civility that used to rule the island. Ralph, dealing with the previous night's activity, keeps hammering home to Piggy that what they did to Simon was murder.
By the end of chapter ten, Piggy's specs are gone, stolen by Jack and his hunters in a raid. The shell remains, useless, just like the civilization that it symbolized. In chapter eleven, Ralph, Piggy, and the twins take the conch to Jack in an attempt to repair the fractured group, regain some sense of order, and return the spectacles to Piggy. They attempt to appeal to the rational and orderly side of the boys:
"Let me speak." He was standing in the dust of the fight, and as the tribe saw his intention the shrill cheer changed to a steady booing. Piggy held up the conch and the booing sagged a little, then came up again to strength. "I got the conch! He shouted. "I tell you, I got the conch!" (180)
Piggy and the conch are summarily destroyed by Roger and the latent savagery within the boys. The conch, a symbol for the society and rules that once governed the boys' lives, is crushed to pieces. Ralph and Piggy's hopes that bringing the conch along would remind the others about how to behave appropriately are dashed to pieces along with it.
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