What Does The Fire Symbolize In Lord Of The Flies

Every good thing has a dark side, and this book is the perfect example. Lord of the Flies is a 1954 novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of boys stranded on an abandoned island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves. The symbolism the fire, Ralph, and the beast, to illustrates how hope, leadership, and evil can bring out the dark side in humanity and lead to destruction.
First, Golding uses the fire to symbolize hope among the boys. However, the purpose of it changes as their savage instincts spin out of control. When the boys end up on the island, they begin looking for a way out. After coming to the conclusion that there should be people looking for them, Ralph, elected leader

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” (Golding 38). Ralph shows this increasing the boy's chance of escape, making the fire the reason the boys have hope about his plan. However, as Ralph and Jack's friendship changes, so does the fire. Due to his savage instinct to kill and hunt, Jack lets the fire go out. This selfish act shows Ralph his greedy nature, and his trust in Jack begins to break. When confronted Jack gets angry. He runs away, stealing a boy named Piggy's glasses as revenge. This is a message that peace between them is over. Piggy loses it and tells Ralph “They got our fire. Rage shrilled his voice. They stole it” (Golding 169) -The fire became the first step to a war between the boys. The fire was no longer a symbol of hope, it was a way of Jack letting everyone know peace was over. This continues and by the

This evil appears as the “lord of the flies”, aka the literal devil. The devil takes on the form of animals, matching the snakes seen by littluns in the start of the book. It also showed by the severed sow’s head that Jack impaled on a stake that Simon spoke too in the forest. This was the indirect cause of his death. The beast claims it is not just something you could kill, but something, some force, hidden inside all of them. The beast told Simon that with this force, “we are going to have fun on this island” (Golding 114). The “fun” foreshadows Simon’s death in the following chapter, where the boys stabbed him to death for no apparent reason beyond satisfaction, proving the beast to be connected. This evil brought out the boy's savage side and turned their society to a mindless death