Analytical work. On Fire as a symbol in LOTF.

            In good literature, ordinary things become extraordinary and essential when you realize they are symbols. Symbols can be people, places, things, or ideas that represent a deeper meaning. In Lord of the Flies, as well as any other book, symbols grow, develop new meanings, and change throughout the novel. One ever-morphing symbol in Lord of the Flies is fire.

In Chapter two of Lord of the Flies, fire is a symbol of innocence and hope for the boys to be rescued. After Ralph is established as the leader, he says, “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.” The younger boys are excited and exclaim “Fire! A fire!” and go off to gather supplies. This shows unity in fire and the collective desire for rescue.

            Two chapters later, we see a definite change when one group of boys displays no effort to keep sacred the importance of the fire. When Jack and the choir boys are supposed to be minding the fire, they go off to hunt a pig and the fire rages out of control, and takes a boy’s life with it, before dying out. After twice telling Jack, “You let the fire go out,” Ralph furiously shouts, “There was a ship!” All Jack will talk about at this point in the book is their fabulous kill, because Jack and his posse of hunters are no longer concerned with the idea of rescue.

            Towards the middle of the novel, Jack says something quite intriguing to Ralph concerning this central symbol. After Ralph says there is no signal, Jack spits out, “You’re nuts on the signal.” This could be interpreted a few different ways. Either Jack is saying Ralph puts too much emphasis on having a signal fire, or he is saying Ralph is nuts for caring so much about tending to the fire because realistically, their chances of being rescued are very slim.

            As you get nearer to the end of the novel, several conflicting interests bring the large group of boys to a head, at which they face only one realistic choice: to break up into two groups. The group that sides with the novel’s antagonist, Jack Merridew, represents savagery and realism. The much smaller group that ends up with Ralph represents civilization and the fantasy that is, at this point, rescue. After the groups had split, Piggy and Ralph are attempting to figure out how they will be rescued and keep a fire going. Ralph says, “Four of us. We aren’t enough to keep the fire burning.” When this line is said, hope for rescue is as dim as ever, if even present at all. The fire is a parallel to Ralph and Piggy’s hope for survival and need for normalcy.

            At the end of the novel, we see that Jack and his hunters set a fire to the jungle in an attempt to smoke Ralph out, and in a true form of irony, ends up as the only reason they boys were rescued. Fire is used to portray the boy’s connection to civilization. In early chapters, fire is fundamental to all of the boys, meaning that being rescued is a top priority for them as a whole. As the book progresses and our group comes to a divide, we see that the signal fire becomes progressively less important. The irony in the fire that ultimately rescued them and attracted the navy cruiser was the type of fire it was. It was not a signal fire. It was not a fire over which to cook food or create clean water. It was certainly not a fire that displayed civility or refinement. This fire was a symbol of savagery, barbarism, and primitiveness. Ultimately, the savage fire was set to kill one boy, and ended up saving them all. This only proves to further establish author Sir William Golding’s point that people are inherently evil, and that one will give into those malicious and spiteful impulses if provoked or if they see that authority will not interfere. When Jack had the island’s jungle set on fire, his only care in the world was devoted to his thirst to spill Ralph’s blood. Not a thought went to the actuality that he would be setting fire to their food sources and shelters. Sir William Golding uses this book to examine the conviction about civilization versus savagery, the rejection of society, faults in society as well as in individual, and the idea that evil can overcome good. Evil can overthrow good just as the final fire, set by bloodthirstiness, inhumanity and malignity, overtook the island.