"Revision"

Throughout revising this essay, I focused on my ideas and sentence fluency. I focused on these things because I felt that I have grown the most in those two areas, and I found the most need for corrections in those two areas. I chose this paper because I enjoyed doing it the most, but I also felt like I could improve it the most. I think that my revisions made to this paper made it easier for the reader to understand and helped convey my ideas more clearly.

Hell on the Island

            In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses symbolism throughout the novel by using objects or situations to represent something more than what it actually is. One of the things Golding repeatedly uses as a symbol is fire. Through the events that happen with the fire, Golding shows more about the boys’ personalities. When the boys set fire to parts of the island, it shows the immaturity and destruction of their personalities to reveal the hell-like presence, violence, and savagery that the boys bring to the island. Not only do the fires on the island represent the boys’ ferocious personality, but it also shows a sense of hope for the boys.  

The fires that the boys set brings a sense of hope for rescue to the boys who are stranded on this island. When Ralph realizes that all of their first priorities should be getting rescued off the island, he proposes to build a signal fire. The hope is that a passing ship may see the smoke from atop the mountain. Since they make this decision quickly, because this idea sounds logical, they do not think of the possible consequences. Ralph states his idea by saying, “‘we must make a fire.’ The boys [reply], ‘A fire! Make a fire!’ At once, half of the boys [are] on their feet. Jack [clamors] among them, the conch forgotten” (38). This quote shows a lot about the boys’ personalities. The boys are so excited to make a fire because they know of the danger and violence that goes along with it. Also, because the conch symbolizes order, the way the boys left it behind is very significant. The boys are showing they would rather contribute to the destruction of the island and have fun in their twisted way than to have rules and structure. This shows the turning point where the boys’ order is first lost. The way the boys ran excitedly to start this fire reveals the inhumanity that the island and these fires had brought to the boys’ personalities. This also shows the immaturity of these young boys.

Since the boys are still young and immature, they believe the fire to be fun at first, but things become amplified when they light a fire for the first time together. It is shown to be out of proportions when “The boys [start] dancing. The pile was so rotten, and now so tinder-dry, that whole limbs [yield] passionately upwards and [shake] a great beard of flame twenty feet in the air” (41). After the fire is lit, the boys thought that it was a fitting accomplishment, but they did not contemplate the consequences entirely. Then, the fire gets blown out of proportions and causes this large fire on the island which in a way,  changes the island from a good island to an island full of chaos where the boys that wreak havoc. Even though this causes a substantial amount of damage to the island, some of the boys still enjoy this sense of danger and violence. This is almost foreshadowing some future events with the fire and the boys’ continuous hunt for annihilation. It also shows the boys’ violent nature since they seem to enjoy causing destruction on the island.

            One of the terrible things the boys do with fire is committing murder. When the boys make a fire as an attempt to be rescued, they are reckless in their actions. This caused for a part of the island they were on to be burned. Once they distinguished the fire, the boys looked around and saw all of the destruction they caused to the island they once called “good.” They also noticed one of the boys, the boy with the mulberry birthmark, was missing. Since no one was speaking, Piggy said, “The little ‘un with-him with the mark on his face, I don’t see him. Where is he now?” (46). Not one of the boys responded, so as a reader, we can conclude that the boys killed them in the fire. In some way, all the boys are hoping that’s someone will respond, saying they know where he is. None of them want to believe they killed someone, but the silence that arises is all the boys need to realize what their careless actions caused. This shows the destruction and chaos that the boys bring to the island.

            The fire for the boys is also used as a way of terror and almost weaponized. When the boys in Jack’s tribe are hunting for Ralph, they use the fire to corner him and try to kill him. As Ralph was attempting to avoid the other boys and the fire, “He [sees] a shelter burst into flames and the fire [flapping] at his right shoulder and there [is] the glitter of water. Then, he [is] down, rolling over and over in the warm sand, crouching with arm to ward off, trying to cry for mercy” (200).  When Jack and the other boys are hunting Ralph, they feel as if it is all a game and that they are truly having fun. They believe the destruction that the fire brings is a good thing even though they are using it to kill their once friend. On one side, Ralph sees the shelter burn into flames, which represents his hope of safety is gone, yet on the other hand, he sees the glitter of water which shows Ralph there is still hope of escape. Before, they accidentally used the fire in a barbaric way, but now they are purposefully using it as a terror tactic to murder someone else. This precisely shows how much they have changed while being on this island from innocent little boys to ruthless murderers. The use of the fire in this way brings a hell-like presence to the island because of the death that seems to go along with it.  

            From the beginning of the novel, Ralph wants and believes in a signal or rescue fire for hope of rescue, so he convinces the other boys in the importance of a fire. When they think of the idea of fire and destruction, they are very excited by this idea, but Piggy realizes the real consequence this wreckage that is occurring before them. Piggy sarcastically tells Jack, “you got your small fire all right” (44). The fire thus becomes a symbol of hope, rescue, and destruction. This symbolization of the fire becomes an ironic situation because when the boys do get rescued, the fire was being used as demolition, but ended up the thing that rescued them.

            In this novel by Golding, the boys set several fires to the island that represent their immature and destructive personalities that symbolize the hell-like presence, violence, and savagery the boys bring to the island. Travesties on the island were mostly caused by the multiple fires the boys set. After the first fire is set, each fire after becomes a worse and worse consequence for them all. Each fire could represent a different boy’s personality by the way it occurs and the repercussions that come out of it.