ipl-logo

What Does The Fire Symbolize In Lord Of The Flies

1073 Words5 Pages

Nicholson Camille Ms. Nguyen 7th ELA 10 March 2023 A Symbol of Society What if you were told that there was more meaning to the novel Lord of the Flies than you really knew? Although not noticed by many, Lord of the Flies is a representation of civilization. What if William Golding wanted to replicate an entire society within a few pages? In this survival novel, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack are playing the roles that build up a society in the real world. After a plane crashes onto an island, twelve boys are forced to build up a civilization to ensure survival. Although it starts off as a depiction of civilization, its symbol starts falling apart throughout the book. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding wanted to reveal the fragility of civilization …show more content…

What could be better than lighting a fire that emits smoke for someone to notice? Adding on to Ralph’s leadership, he suggests a fire so that someone could rescue them, and all the boys rush to grab branches and leaves. “There’s another thing. We can help them find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain” (Golding 35). Ralph’s suggestion supports great leadership and adds society on the island. The fire symbolizes rescue and hope that one day they will earn the opportunity to leave the island alive. Hope is very crucial in society to achieve future expectations. Nevertheless, soon the fire grows out of control when Jack lights the entire island on fire to find and kill Ralph. “Smoke was seeping through the branches in white and yellow wisps, the patch of blue sky overhead turned to the color of a storm cloud and then the smoke billowed round him” (Golding 177). The symbol significantly changed to danger and destruction. Ironically, the large fumes of smoke is what ended up in their rescue as well. In our society, many benefits may come with a price of …show more content…

After Jack leaves a severed pig head in Simon’s quiet place, Simon sees the pig and hallucinates which lead to his discovery of the pig head’s role on the island. “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?” (Golding 130) It is revealed that the pig head, also referred to as Lord of the Flies, symbolized the evil within all the boys. The pig head was responsible for what drove Jack’s tribe to go savage. Especially in society, fear can consume people to do tragic and harmful things, which is imitated in Lord of the Flies. When Ralph was on the run from Jack’s tribe who were trying to kill him, he came across the pig head. Although he didn’t understand as well as Simon, he could interpret the evil and responsibility it held to enact chaos on the island, causing him to hit the pig head out of indescribable anger. “The skull regarded Ralph like one who knows all the answers and won’t tell. A sick fear and rage swept him.” (Golding 169). Ralph realized he was one of the people responsible for the chaos and a feeling of regret washed over him. The Lord of the Flies suggests that everyone in society has a form of evil inside them and is one of the main causes for certain

Show More
Related
941 Words | 4 Pages

William Golding’s Use of Rhetorical Strategies to Illustrate Society in “Lord of the Flies” Written in the 1950’s by William Golding, Lord of the Flies is a novel that follows a group of young boys who are stranded on an island with no contact to an adult world. Throughout the novel Golding shows how savage humans can be when there is no authority controlling them, and Golding’s use of thematic vocabulary conveys how power and corruption can lead to a dismantling of order. This disruption in society in turn causes people to reveal their true savage human nature. In chapter 9 of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs repetition, diction and symbolism to convey the theme that civilization has become a shield that conceals humanity 's natural wildness and savagery.

Read More
672 Words | 3 Pages

In the first meeting Ralph says "There's another thing. We can help them to find us. 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.

Read More
502 Words | 3 Pages

The Wurzburg Witch trials started in a territory around the city in 1626. Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn (the Prince Bishop of Wurzburg) gave the consent needed for the trials to begin. They reached climax under Philipp Adolf von Ehrenbuerg; the nephew and successor of Julius. The Wurzburg Witch Trials took place during a witch hysteria that resulted in a series of trials.

Read More
653 Words | 3 Pages

This is show in Chapter 2 where Ralph decides to make a fire so they could have a smoke signal to get rescued. Ralph states “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 decision that Ralph makes could end up getting the group of boys rescued from the island.

Read More
1243 Words | 5 Pages

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding tells the story of a group of once-innocent schoolboys who flee their homes during a world war. However, the plane they traveled in crashed on a deserted island far from any civilization on the way to safety. Trapped with no adults or authority figures, the boys have to survive on their own with little or no guidance. As the boys stay on the island and try to find outside help, their humanity shifts into savagery. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he shares his belief that without the structure of society, humans are savage by a conch shell symbolizing structure and humanity on the island, as well as using juxtaposition to contrast those who represent humanity and savagery.

Read More
762 Words | 4 Pages

" Lord of the Flies" is a novel about a group of young boys who find themselves alone on a barren island. They build norms and organizational systems, but in the absence of adults to serve as a civilizing impetus, the children inevitably become violent and vicious. Through the emblem of the conch shell, William Golding shows how the loss of order/civilization and law leads to the emergence of barbaric behavior triumphing over society.

Read More
989 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
993 Words | 4 Pages

Eventually, the Pig’s head, calling itself ‘Lord of the Flies”, starts listing names, names like “Jack and Roger and Maurice and Robert and Bill and Piggy and Ralph. Do you. See?” (Golding 144). In this scene, the Lord of the Flies is threatening Simon, implying that the boys will eventually kill him, even Piggy and Ralph, because they want to have “fun” on this island.

Read More
1230 Words | 5 Pages

(Golding 116). By encouraging Ralph to hunt the pigs and the beast, Jack causes him to act in a savage way. He also leads Ralph to think that his actions may be ok, and it brings out the disorder in Ralph. Jack's actions also anger Ralph and cause him to have a short temper and fight back when challenged. While arguing with Jack the author attempts to show Ralphs anger by writing, “His temper broke.

Read More
904 Words | 4 Pages

At first the fire was used as a signal in order to try and save the boys, making it a tool for success to return them to the normal world. Ralph proclaims “We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us.” (Golding). Furthermore, in the novel, the fire becomes a source of comfort for the boys, providing them with warmth and usefulness as a source of light and method to cook food.

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

Following Jack’s raid of Ralph’s camp, Ralph says, “The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make?” Ralph’s emphasis on the importance

Read More
438 Words | 2 Pages

The fire on the mountaintop symbolizes hope and an opportunity for survival for the boys on the island. Fire is a constant theme throughout the novel, specifically for Ralph and his tribe. The boys believe that the fire will provide a chance for them to get rescued, since passing ships and planes will see the smoke as a signal. When Jack and Ralph split into two groups, Jack decides to invite Ralph’s group to a feast at his tribe. Ralph’s tribe begins to get enticed by this offer since they are all hungry and see Jack’s tribe having a better time than them.

Read More
836 Words | 4 Pages

A wise author named William Golding once tried to prove that man is essentially evil by plopping fifty plus british kids on an island due to a plane crash and writing out their turn to insanity. He used a certain literary element called symbolism, where an object is taken and put into much deeper meaning or value to the story. In the novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the symbols of Piggy’s glasses, fire, and a pig head on a stick are used to prove that man is evil through a lack of society. The first symbol used is a pair of glasses owned by a boy named Piggy, a smart yet fat child.

Read More
1077 Words | 5 Pages

The first fire is built to signal ships for their rescue; it symbolizes hope here. Once the fire is burning brightly, the boys “paused to enjoy the freshness of [the fire]... they flung themselves down in the shadows that lay among the shattered rocks,” (41). The fire comforts the young island inhabitants because it lets them relax with the hope of getting rescued. The boys on the island start to lose hope, even Ralph. Ralph tells Piggy “let the fire go then, for tonight,” (164), showing that he has stopped caring about getting home.

Read More
709 Words | 3 Pages

In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, young boys get stranded on an island with no adults in the midst of a war. The boys were orderly and civilized in the beginning but then as they began killing pigs they slowly became savages and lost their civilization. The boys began turning on each other and the evil within them became present. Golding uses a variety of literary devices including personification, symbols, metaphors, and irony, to project the theme that pure and realistic people in the world can be unheard and destroyed by evil.

Read More

More about What Does The Fire Symbolize In Lord Of The Flies

Related Topics

Open Document