Lord Of The Flies Fire Analysis

Beast From Fire Fire aids humans and helps them survive by providing important benefits. By producing heat and light, fire offers protection and the ability to prepare safe food and water. The gift from Prometheus, fire symbolizes raw power and offers proof of the human ability to shape the world. Although fire has no subconscious, it has a will of its own, and can therefore be considered human. In Lord of the Flies, Golding personifies fire as a figure of authority in order to demonstrate how power can be used to create chaos or achieve order. Fire transforms from a tool and emerges as a character with the authority to restore the boys to civility as well as the destructive capability to force the boys to regress to a savage state. Whether
The fire also engages the boys, driving them to become pliable to Jack’s leadership and follow his actions. In the light of the fire, the boys chant “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (152) while attacking Simon. This signifies the boys’ energy that, without a proper outlet, leads them to blind violence. As with the boys, the flames behave “as though they were a kind of wild life,” (41) which inspires passion and energy but encourages a chaotic state which the boys revert to. The red colors emitting from the flames entices the boys to make irrational decisions. The scarlet light washes away their humanity, pushing it into the shadows, leaving only the most depraved reactions. This imperious behavior puts the fire into the position of being seen as the master of the island. By stealing Piggy’s glasses, and by extension the womb of the fire, Jack and his tribe effectively shift the power from one end of the island to the other. When he gains possession of the fire, Jack reveals a tyrannical state of fire. Under Jack’s influence, the fire and the boys become insatiable and vicious, as opposed to Ralph’s more domesticated and beneficial fire and group. Ralph realizes the fire’s overwhelming control and