Lord of the Flies

Question:

Answers:

1. 
   bmadnick Teacher
   High School - 11th Grade

   Fire is a yardstick for measuring the savagery and loss of civilization of the boys. At the beginning, the signal fire represents the wish of the boys to return to society. The forest fire they set symbolizes the distance between the boys at the beginning of the story and the boys later in the book when they are further along their path of completely abandoning society and its rules of behavior. By the end of the book, the fire they set trying to capture Ralph represents their savagery and complete abandonment of civilization.

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/flies

   Rate answer:

    

   • Flag as inappropriate

   Posted by bmadnick on Saturday August 4, 2007 at 2:14 PM
   
   

You can now ask questions directly from Facebook, add the Ask a Teacher App from eNotes!