Heat In Lord Of The Flies

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

himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the

lagoon…All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat.”(7). As Ralph

makes his way through the torn up jungle, the result of their plane crash, the heat presents itself as

a prominent force on the island.

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

Piggy.

Finally, as the novel reaches its climax, heat represents the final bits of civilization on the

island slipping away. As Jack leads his clan of savages to hunt Ralph like an animal, they

use the heat of the forest fire to flush Ralph out of the forest. “He swung to the right, running

desperately fast, with the heat beating on his left side and the fire racing forward like a

tide.”(199). Ironically, though Ralph feels like the heat is pursuing him, he eventually ends

up on the beach, where a ship captain is waiting to rescue the boys. Finally escaping the heat,

Ralph regains leadership.

Throughout Lord of the Flies the English schoolboys find themselves in many diverse

situations. As the boys adapt to each circumstance, Golding adapts the meaning of heat

to represent the current situation of the boys on the island. Beginning as a constant

reminder of the boy’s helplessness on the island, and progressing to the downfall of the

boy’s rationality, heat has a strong presence in the novel.