Lord of the Flies: Journal #2

Chapter: Fire on the Mountain

Perspective: Simon

The Fire

It all started when Ralph said a specific word: fire. It was that single word that induced all the boys here on this island to run off and build a fire without any instruction or anything. Some of the boys, like Jack and Ralph, tried to give some direction, however they were all very errant. The idea at first was to make a large fire so that if any boat or ship, or airplane passed by the island, they would see the smoke and come to rescue us. All the boys on the island (except for Piggy) rushed around trying to find wood that would make a good addition to the massive pile. The children were full of ebullience when they were throwing- or rather, capering and throwing all their collected wood onto the pile.
After we had collected enough wood, we ran into a problem. We had nothing to light the fire. After a moment of thinking, Jack said that we should try to use Piggy’s specks like you could use a magnifying glass on a leaf or an ant. Jack pinched the specks right off of Piggy’s face and gave them to Ralph. Ralph focused them on a piece of rotted wood and it smoked, then sparked. Eventually, the whole pile was on fire. It smelled like a bonfire back home on Independence Day, or on someone’s birthday. It made me sort of sad smelling it, but then my mind was somewhere else…
Unfortunately, no one thought about the consequences of having a huge fire right in the middle of a very tree-filled forest. The fire got out of hand very quickly, and the fire went wildly across the island. After a minute in awe, I realized that the little ones, all the 5 and 6 year olds, were gone. I hadn't seen them since everyone was gathering wood for the monstrous fire. Then it hit me that they were probably still looking for more wood, unaware of the huge fire that was burning the whole island. Immediately, I thought, they were going to die, so young, so kind, so innocent. I felt so terrible that they were going to martyr in a huge, uncontrollable fire that we had started. I couldn't believe it. I was so fond of the little ones, they were all so adorable and angelic. I tried to talk to some of them, try to make them feel less scared and shy. Most of them had very nice personalities. Well, I guess it doesn't matter now.