William Golding Lord Of The Flies Symbolism Analysis

Symbolism and Theme in Lord of the Flies “We saw your smoke. What have you been doing? Having a war or something?” (Golding 201). In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, is about a crash landing on an island that left a group of boys stranded far from civilization. The only thought on their mind was to be rescued. This group of boys faced many obstacles during this wild experience. Without laws and order on this isolated island, society will regress to savagery. The island symbolizes the world in the novel. On this island the boys have food, water, and shelter. This island is very tropical with lots of palm trees. It also has a vast ocean visible from the top of the mountain. As an illustration in the text on page 9 Golding says,

The fire gives the boys comfort, food, and hope. It also shows them danger and death. The first ever fire the boys made raged out of control and at first it made the boys excited but then they became scared. For instance, in the text it states “At the sight of the flames and the irresistible course of the fire the boys broke into a shrill, excited cheering” (44). After the boys came back to reality, they realized the fire was actually serious. For example on page 45, Golding states “Now you been and set the whole island on fire. Won 't we look funny if the whole islands burn up?” (45). Even though this event scared the boys they still needed the fire for light and to help them get rescued. At the end of the novel they used the fire as a weapon against Ralph. The boys basically set the whole island on fire to get Ralph out of hiding. Due to this outrage, it worked to their advantage because it brought them rescue. In this novel fire is an enemy and an ally. The fire has helped the boys through the hard times yet made some hard times. The fire shows that humans have paradoxical objects in life. Some things in life are both good and bad, it just depends how a person views