Ellie's Journey In The Man And The Boy

The man and the boy will survive if they stay together. They are dependent on each other because the man can teach the boy how to survive. The man is alive because he needs to look out for his son. “The father's sole remaining referent of sacred idiom is his son. In sustaining his son's breath, he sustains not only his own capacity for life but for some belief in life's continuance, in the value of life (NEED TEXT CITATION SOURCE 3).” The boy is the only thing that is pushing the man to survive in the world. There are threats on the road and the man and the boy need to protect themselves from these threats. Survival takes skill and skill can be equipped from over time. The man has learned these skills and now he must pass it down to the boy. They scavenge for food and they are limited on supplies. All they have is a shopping cart full of somethings. They are constantly moving to get to the warmer destination on the west, the beach. “As part of his caretaking, he tries to pass his values on to his son, in part through the language of "fire" he uses to justify their lives and to motivate the boy. The boy himself is drawn toward death, but the father assures him that "nothing bad is going to happen." "Because we're carrying the fire," the boy says, having been told this earlier. "Yes," the father affirms. "Because we're carrying the fire" (83) (NEED IN TEXT CITATION SOURCE 3).” The pain brought upon the young boy is

In contrast, Golding uses the color black to portray the leader of the choir boys, Jack, one of the other main characters, as an image of darkness. “Their bodies, from throat to ankle, were hidden by black cloaks which bore a long silver cross on the left breast and each neck was finished off with a hambone frill” (Golding, p 16). This contrast between Ralph and Jack, or light and dark, civilization and savagery, acts as a foreshadowing of the conflicts between the two of them. Another image for light is the signal fire. The boys decided that it was necessary to make a fire to increase their chances of being rescued. “There’s another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire” (Golding p 38). The signal fire, the light, symbolizes hope and their connection to

The fire is a symbol of the boys’ connection to civilization, as they think it’s the way people will take notice to the island and rescue them. Although there are more things that have heavy value, these three are among the most

It is clear that they only have each other’s company and that the father feels that his only job is to protect his son from any danger. However, the son’s purpose is to “carry the fire”, a metaphor that keeps readers guessing about what the fire reflects. It could be that

Finally, Fire can represent hope. Fire creates smoke, a very visual symbol for either rescue or panic. In the case of LOTF, the first is true. With the smoke that comes from the fire, the boys have a small chance of signaling a passing ship and finding their way back home. When the Naval officer comes to rescue the boys, he notices them because of the smoke that has now engulfed the island, “We saw your smoke.” With the hope of the rescue still burning as long as the fire stays lit, the boys have something to survive for. Without the fire, the boys are lost and alone in a hostile world, where it becomes kill or be killed.

The fire itself is unique in that it is associated to goodness “we’re the good guys, and we’re carrying the fire”(129). Not only is the fire an emblem of goodness it also holds a secrecy, as sometimes there is “nowhere to build a fire, nowhere safe” (86). After the father’s death, the son finally understands the intimacy,

Ellie Wiesel only thirteen years old brought into the concentration camps of the holocaust. Losing his mom and sister he becomes closer to the religious views of God and becomes apart of the jew religion. As you read more into the book you will find out the the good and bad relationship Elie has with God. Only to find out the Jews are taken to crematoriums and tortured. Elie then has a encounter with God and begins to suffer.

On page 279, the man says, “It’s inside you. It was always there. I can see it.” (McCarthy 279). What he sees is the fire inside of his son. He often tells the boy that they’re the “good guys” who “carry the fire”. It’s crucial that the boy continues to carry it, since it represents goodness and humanity. If he lets the fire die, then all hope for the world is gone. Besides, what they went through in order to survive would mean nothing if he decided to quit. The boy carries “the fire” by showing compassion towards others. He constantly thinks about them (including those who are evil), and wants to help in some way. An example is on page 162, where the man and the boy meet Ely. “The boy squatted and put a hand on his shoulder. He’s scared, Papa.

This passage occurs as the man and the boy enter into this house, scavenging for food. This passage is important to the book because it highlights the main archetype used in this novel: light versus dark. As the man and the boy are going to the basement, the man “flicked the lighter and swung the flame out over the darkness like an offering” (93). The flame, coming from the lighter, is a symbolism of hope. The motif of hope is used numerously throughout the book to indicate that hope is fuel for survival.

The symbol of salvation is represented by the conch on the island. It also stands for power, as the boys decide to “let [Ralph] be chief with the trumpet-thing.” Whoever is holding the conch has the power to be the only boy allowed to speak, which is similar to the power of a church bell ringing to bring people together for a service or an extremely important announcement. Later in the novel, salvation is associated with fire, as “life became a race with the fire. … To keep a clean flag of flame flying on the mountain was the immediate end and no one looked further.” Keeping the fire burning symbolizes the boy’s humanity, so that when it is extinguished it can no longer be contained and the evil emerges from within the boys. Fire is associated with hope, warmth and friendship but it is the cause of conflict, destruction and death in the novel. By the end of the second chapter, fire has already taken its first victim – the little boy with the mulberry mark on his skin- who disappears during the

The poem starts to narrow in on the relationship of apprentice and master with the lines, “This was his son, who sat, an apprentice, night after night, his glass of coals next to the old man’s glass of coals.” (ll 12-14). “This was his son,” is a powerful statement that gives not only a parental relationship but also of a father forging his son into a man. We all learn from our fathers and in the old days a lot of sons stayed home and

He said” we can the boy growing in to a young man and becoming more concerned with his and his father goals. In the end of the book the boy believes there is no one carrying the fire including them self we can see this when the Man tries to keep their spirits up by telling stories of goodness and compassion, but The Boy reminds him that they rarely treat other people on the

When the fire is maintained, the boys want to be rescued. However, when the fire burns low or goes out it symbolizes how the boys have lost sight of their desire to be saved, and how they have accepted savagery into their lives. The signal fire also symbolizes the measurement of the strength of the civilized instinct and hope remaining on the island.

I think there is a message about hope, too. The "fire" that the father passes on to his son to keep burning surely can be said to refer to hope in humanity, which is a hope that never dies throughout this excellent novel. It is interesting too that at various stages it is the boy that keeps his father from turning savage like the humans around them. It is his love and belief in others that prevent his father from losing his humanity. Thus I think another important message is how love and relationships keep us human and prevent us giving in to our darker, more savage and evil

Throughout the novel, the father and son talk about “carrying the fire”. When the father says “They’re carrying the fire nothing bad will happen to them” he is using fire as a symbol for goodness in people’s hearts, because they are carrying the hope and sacredness of human life with them that gives hope to him and the boy to keep walking and find others like themselves who have the same intentions—to survive and re-kindle the world.