Fire

“Again came the sounds of cheerfulness and better heart.

"And sooner or later a ship will put in here. It might even be Daddy's ship. So you see, sooner or later, we shall be rescued."

He paused, with the point made. The assembly was lifted toward safety by his words. They liked and now respected him.  Spontaneously they began to clap and presently the platform was loud with applause. Ralph flushed, looking sideways at Piggy's open admiration, and then the other way at Jack who was smirking and showing that he too knew how to clap. Ralph waved the conch.

"Shut up! Wait! Listen!"

He went on in the silence, borne on his triumph.

"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 top of the mountain. We must make a

fire." (p.28)

“Ralph pushed back his tangled hair and wiped the sweat out of his best eye. He spoke aloud.

"Think."

What was the sensible thing to do?

There was no Piggy to talk sense. There was no solemn assembly for debate nor dignity of the conch.

"Think."

Most, he was beginning to dread the curtain that might waver in his brain, blacking out the sense of danger, making a simpleton of him. A third idea would be to hide so well that the advancing line would pass without discovering him. He jerked his head off the ground and listened. There was another noise to attend to now, a deep grumbling noise, as though the forest itself were angry with him, a somber noise across which the ululations were scribbled excruciatingly as on slate. He knew he had heard it before somewhere, but had no time to remember.

Break the line.

A tree.

Hide, and let them pass.

A nearer cry stood him on his feet and immediately he was away again, running fast among thorns and brambles. Suddenly he blundered into the open, found himself again in that open space--and there was the fathom-wide grin of the skull, no longer ridiculing a deep blue patch of sky but jeering up into a blanket of smoke. Then Ralph was running beneath trees, with the grumble of the forest explained. They had smoked him out and set the island on fire.” (p.153)

 ANALYSIS

The fire is a symbol to destruction to many cultures, but it is also a symbol of light, heat and safety. The fire purifies and open ways to a new life be born. In Lord of the Flies, the fire had the symbolism of hope, safety, heat and to cook their meats. However, as time went by, the fire starts to lose importance in order to be seen for a ship and get rescued, and started to be just a fire to cook their meals. After Ralph loose everything and got hunted by Jack, the fire had an other use, killing. This fire was not only burning everything but even destroying their land, their fruits and food until a Navy officer appears and five them a restart in their lives.