What do the candle buds represent in the Lord of the Flies?

Answer 1

The discovery and description of the candle buds or candle bushes serves two purposes. Firstly it is a direct reference to a similar discovery in the book "The Coral Island" by R. M. Ballantyne which Golding references a number of times, for example two of the main character were called Ralph and Jack. In the idealised world of "The Coral Island" one of the boys, who is well read, informs the others that the nuts of the candle tree can be dried and threaded onto a string where they can be lit to serve as a candle. In the more realistic word of "Lord of the Flies" none of the boys has this knowledge. The candle buds however do serve the express purpose of revealing the different reactions of the three boys towards them, which in turn gives the reader valuable information about the personalities of each of the boys. Simon spoke first and simply said "Like candles. Candle bushes. Candle buds." This showed his artistic nature and ability to see things differently but it also revealed his thought processes and his ability to see links between things that were not perhaps immediately apparent to all of the other boys. Ralph recognised the similarity but in a pragmatic and practical manner noted that they just looked like candles and that "You couldn't light them." Jack slashed them with his knife and contemptuously dismissed them with a curt "We can't eat eat them." Revealing that he saw things only in terms of their usefulness to himself. I suppose you could say that the candle buds represented the capacity to provide light but none of the boys had sufficient knowledge to make use of this capacity. Simon and Ralph noticed the similarity to candles but didn't know how to bridge the gap between noting this similarity of appearance and turning this into a practical application.