FIRE
William Golding had brilliantly represents several ideas in his Noble Prize winning novel that is ‘Lord of The Flies’. In order to represent his ideas, he used symbol as the connection. Fire is one of the symbols shown in this novel. He described fire as a symbol of hope among the society. However, the meaning is developed as the story progresses from order to chaos. The symbol can be significantly seen in proper order at the beginning of the story. The indicator of hope becomes faded until chaos as the story progresses.
In the beginning of the novel, the fire displayed us how eager the boys wanted to be rescued. Smoke from the fire can be the used to signal to the outside community. For one thing, they stranded on the island, they decided to make a fire on the mountain together. This can be clearly seen in the novel. “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 the top of the mountain. We must make a fire.” (Golding 49) Everybody on the island including the “littluns” work together to keep the flame alight. Fire is kept luminous for whole day. Fire also set up for their hope to be survived at the island. “Life became a race with the fire and the boys scattered through the upper forest. To keep a clean flag of the flame flying on the mountain was the immediate end and no one looked further. Even the smallest boys.......” (Golding 53) So, as long as the fire keeps luminous, they can retain their hope to be rescued by someone. The fire becomes first priority in term of hope than the shelter and foods.
As the story progresses, the importance of the fire is ignored by some of the boys. In the middle of the novel, the state of fire symbolizes the turning point of progression from order to chaos. Especially in chapter 3, Ralph, the leader, had a debate with Jack, the antagonist, about the most important thing that should do first. In Ralph ideas, Jack and his...