Lord of the Flies According to William Golding, the theme of the Lord of the Flies is: "The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable. The whole book is symbolic in nature except the rescue in …showed first 75 words of 602 total…

…showed last 75 words of 602 total…right. The signal fire was set up on the mountain and later moved to the beach to attract attention from any ships that might be passing by. The boys maintain the fire at the beginning because they want to be rescued and to go back to civilization. Later as they allow the fire to burn low or burn out we realize they don't care anymore. They have lost sight of their desire to be rescued.