Heat In Lord Of The Flies

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Heat in Lord of the Flies

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a highly symbolic novel. From chapter to chapter,

it is easy to identify recurring ideas, objects, and emotions. Among these is the symbol of heat.

Introduced in the first paragraph and reappearing throughout the novel, the heat that comes with

the island makes its presence known not only to the boys on the island, but to the reader as well.

Though it’s meaning changes from beginning to end, the symbol of heat represents the current

situation of the island.

Golding begins the novel with Ralph exploring the island for the first time. Immediately

heat is used to represent the overwhelming circumstances that the schoolboys face. “The boy with

the fair hair lowered …show more content…

As the boys find each other and have their first meeting, Piggy brings them to a frightening

realization. “His lips quivered and his spectacles were dimmed with mist. ’We may stay here till

we die.’ With that word the heat seemed to increase until it became a threatening weight and the

lagoon attacked them with a blinding effulgence.” In this circumstance heat acts as a constant

reminder that the boys are completely stranded on the island. While some of the boys can rise to

the occasion and carry extra weight, other crumble under the pressure.

Later on in the novel, heat foreshadows the coming division between Ralph’s logical

leadership and Jacks chaotic savagery. After the boys light their first fire, the wind picks up and

carries the heat of the burning wood to one side of the mountain, leaving the other side without

warmth. “On one side the air was cool, but on the other the fire thrust out a savage arm of

heat.”(41). Just as the wind carries away the heat, Jack lures many of the boys away from civility

And reason he creates a clan of savages, separate from Ralph and

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