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What Does The Fire Symbolize In Lord Of The Flies

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What Does The Fire Symbolize In Lord Of The Flies
William Golding 's Lord of the Flies revolves around a group of English schoolboys who get stranded on an uninhabited island after their plane crashes during the peak of World War II. With the absence of adults, chaos erupts as the boys try to survive on their own.

The story opens when a plane of English boys crashes on a deserted island in the Pacific. Two boys, Ralph and Piggy, find a conch shell on the beach and use this to call for all the other survivors of the crash. Once convened, the boys elect Ralph as their leader over another boy, Jack, who is the leader of a group of choir boys. Ralph declares to the others that they must set up a signal fire on top of the mountain to catch the attention of any ships that might be passing by. The boys effectively light a fire on the mountain using Piggy 's glasses; however, they fail to monitor the flames and the fire rapidly spreads to the forest. Piggy notes that one of the youngest boys in the group is missing, most probably having been killed in the fire. Jack volunteers himself and the choirboys to keep the signal fire going and to become the hunters of the group. One day, Ralph
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They represent what they fear the most. But what they are truly afraid of are themselves, for The Beast and the Lord of the Flies were the evil beings residing within all of them. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding exposes the true nature of man: corrupt and wicked. The text depicts how man will relapse into its primitive state of barbarism once removed from a system of laws and punishments. It portrays the defect of human nature; the overwhelming desire for power that can cause humans to forget civility and morality. That in the struggle for power and control over the society, the isolated island that represents the world, civilization loses to the evil beast that resides within

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