Lord Of The Flies Fire Essay

Golding’s novel suggests that the fire primarily signifies the power that the boys have to remain connected to civilization. At the start of the novel, the boys are all completely civilized and therefore their primary instinct is to manipulate the fire in a civilized fashion. The boys select Ralph as their chief and the one of the first tasks he sets upon the them is to 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" 38. This is a clear indication that the way the fire is utilized would help them achieve their long term goal of the rescue. One can infer that the power of the fire, at this point in the novel, symbolizes
Fire demonstrates its power by turning civilized or savage depending on the character who controls it. Ralph, for example, is constantly exercising the better side of human nature in emphesizing rescue and civilization as the two most important things to maintain on the island and therfore fire is able to unite the boys under this notion. Specifically, He is constantly using the fire to remind the boys that “the smoke’s a signal and we can't be rescued if we don’t have smoke (79).” Because of Ralph's ability to exercise that part of himself with use of the fire, that quality is intensified within all the boys, proving that that power will overcome the evil. However, when Jack decides he wants to be the most dominant leader on the island, he steals the fire and in this action means that Jack chooses to accept a much darker side of himself. In the eyes of the boys, Jack is a ‘chief now in truth’ 68 signifying not only that the fire has given him power, but that the evil has won that power and therefore all hope of rescue is lost. Fire exemplifies the theme that humans have both evil and good, civilization and savagery, within them, but the one they choose to accept is the one one which holds the ultimate