Theme Of Fire In Lord Of The Flies

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From the beginning of time, fire provides humans a source of comfort, light, and protection. It gives warmth and protects from the unknown. Fear of the unknown is a motif in Lord of the Flies. After the fire’s initial goodness evaporates the power is used for death. Within fire there is a paradox of good and evil. Lord of the Flies depicts this as a symbol of hope and destruction. The fire is a source of many things in the novel. Ralph states how the only thing to make ships notice them is if they “make smoke on top of the mountain” (38). Therefore, the fire symbolizes rescue. When “the heart of the flame leap[s] nimbly across the gap between the trees” and then goes “swinging and flaring along the whole row of kids, the boys connection to civilization seems to be very intact (44). The first thing established when the boys are building the fire is a sense of order. Since the signal fire is meant to attract passing ships that might be able to free the boys from the…show more content…
Jack dreads surrendering power, so he controls other boys using fear to his own advantage. When in reality the only thing the boys have to fear is fear itself. Jack even states that “there’s nothing in it of course. Just a feeling. But you can feel as if you’re not hunting, but – being hunted, as if somethings behind you all the time in the jungle (53). From the beginning, the boys struggle with the fear of the unknown. When Jack realizes how to use fear to manipulate the others he starts gaining power. The only thing holding him back is Ralph, and the only way he knows how to gain complete power is by killing him. To gain total control his actions lead to the savagery fire in the end of the novel that means to destroy but, ends up being the boy’s key to rescue. Jack’s savagery actions are what save them in the end as the officer states how he “saw your smoke”
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