Lord_of_the_Flies

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies fire is one the most important symbols that convoy’s the flawed nature of humanity. The fire starts out as a symbol of hope, not only does the fire give the boys a way to cook food, but it is also their only chance for getting rescued off the island and overall for survival. However the fire’s positive message changes quickly and soon starts to represent the greediness as well as wildness that is inside every human. Ralph continuously discusses the significance of the fire, “The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going'” (Golding 74), but the boys do not share his enthusiasm. Their own selfish wants and carelessness always seem to distract them from keeping care of the fire, and causes it to grow wild. Just like the fire the boys start their descent into chaos, with the death of the first boy. “That little ‘un that had a mark on his face -where is-he now'” (Golding 42). The boys are not concerned about the safety of others and only wanted to create a fire for fun. They don’t care about what is best for the group, they only think about their own selfish wants. This leads to Jack stealing Piggy’s glasses, so he can be the only one on the island who can create fire. If Jack had just asked to use his glasses everyone could have benefited. However Jack didn’t want to share with Ralph, and wanted to be the only one to have fire, which resulted in theft. With these stolen glasses Jack decides to set the island on fire, in order to find and kill Ralph. The fire starts off to be a wonderful thing, a symbol of hope. In the end when Jack sets the island on fire to kill Ralph he turns something beautiful in to something ugly. “They have smoked him out and set the island on fire” (Golding 182). The fire was supposed to be a way for them to get rescued, but Jack turns it into a weapon of destruction, to hurt and kill with. Similar to how Jack destroyed the hope that came from the fire, humans always tend to obliterate everything significant in our world; no one can enjoy the true beauty of what is given to them. In Lord of the Flies flawed human nature is seen through the symbol of the fire, as it demonstrates human greed and the ability people have to destroy that which is best for them.