Fire In William Goulding's Lord Of The Flies

220 Words1 Pages
Goulding’s novel suggests that the symbol of fire primarily signifies that within man, there is good and evil but it is up to the individual to choose which part of themselves they wish to harness. At the start of the novel, the boys are all completely civilized and therefore they decide to use the fire to exercise the good and civilized part of human nature. The boys choose Ralph as their leader and the one of the first tasks he sets upon the them is make orderly use of fire, announcing to the boys that "If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire." This is a clear indication that the way the fire is manipulated would help them achieve their long term goal of rescue