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Fire In Lord Of The Flies Essay

989 Words4 Pages

All things are capable of change in our world, and the symbolism of fire in Lord of the Flies is no different. In the book a group of boys land on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. They try to build a society built on the ideas of the adult society they came from. At first the boys seemed to be structured and ordered, but soon their primal instincts of savagery came out changing their system into a horrifying nightmare. Throughout Lord of the Flies, the strength and purpose of the fire created by the boys seems to be a meter of the boys connection to civilization, where towards the beginning it is strong and valiant, and then slowly loses its importance and burns out and finally it encircles the whole island due to its savage purposes …show more content…

During a hunting party, Maurice suggests that they “want a fire, I think and a drum, and you keep time to the drum” (Golding 128). The purpose behind this is to cook the pig and to chant and dance around the fire. This shows a very tribal and primitive instinct. It brings out a inhumane aspect of the boys as it clearly shows the boys moving towards savagery. Furthermore, the only way that the boys are able to make fire in the book Lord of the Flies is using Piggy’s glasses. So when Golding tells us that in Jack’s “left hand dangled Piggy’s broken glasses.” (191), it demonstrates that Jack’s savage boys now have the power to make fire. The fire symbolizes hope when on the civilized side but its inner demon is of destruction and evil. Predictably this demon does in fact come out when in the end Jack and his boys “had smoked him (Ralph) out and set the island on fire” (Golding 224), in order to kill Ralph. Ironically, the fire instead fulfills its civilized purpose, of a signal instead of killing Ralph. The purpose and the extreme strength of the fire here shows us that the boys had become brutal savages, literally killing civilization out of the their systems. To conclude, Golding shows how the fire can be just as destructive in the wrong hands as helpful in the

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