Gods

The many supernatural beings referenced in Flames, including the Esk God, Cloud God, Frost God, etc. serve to symbolise the corresponding element/s in nature over which they individually take dominion and custody: the Esk God rules the river, the Cloud God the rain, the Frost God the frost, and so on. Arnott’s depiction of these mythical gods makes links to the spiritual values of Aboriginal Australians which are built on a reverence for the land and a belief system known as Dreamtime. Dreamtime comprises of ancestral stories about creator gods and how they created places. Some creator gods or ancestral spirits are considered to inhabit the element in nature they created and become one with it, much like the Esk God, embodied in the water rat, becomes one with the river.

God Quotes

He had been here longer than the loud pale apes, longer even than the quieter dark ones who had arrived earlier. (the Esk God) Chapter 4

He had learned the colour and the shape of their callousness, but he could not stop them, for his power was limited to the rivers, while they swamped over everything. (the Esk God) Chapter 4

Water

Water has various manifestations in Arnott’s Flames, each symbolising something different depending upon the particular character’s relationship to it. For the Esk God, the river represents his lifeblood without which he would literally not exist, a fact which is a truism for all life form. To fire, any mass of water represented a temporary death; in Jack form, he would never go near the ocean. Conversely, for Edith and Charlotte, the ocean conveyed calm and tranquillity. For Karl, the ocean represented a place of ultimate joy and success during his prosperous hunting days with his seal but, in the end, it became ruthless and unforgiving, a place that reminded him of clicking sounds and the image of orcas using the ‘hard lid of the ocean’ to break his seal.

Rain, initially an expression of the Cloud God’s love for the river god, became a vicious and deadly attempt to wipe out the island when the Cloud God learned the river god had been killed, which is symbolic of the interconnectedness of humans and the environment.

Finally, the rich description of lakes and rivers in the novel symbolises natural beauty.

Water Quotes

Without the Cloud God where would be no Esk rivers, and without the rivers there would be no Esk God. Chapter 4

They took turns gripping its tail in their teeth and flinging their heads left to right, over and over again, using the hard lid of the ocean to break Karl’s seal into ragged chunks of brown-red meat. (the orcas) Chapter 2

Soon the clicks would stop, and he would stop hearing his seal hit the sea, and an idea or direction or purpose would swim up at him. (Karl) Chapter 2

It’s where he and Charlotte would come every day of summer, running through the heat to swim and shout, although she did most of the shouting and all of the swimming. (Levi about the beach) Chapter 11

It’s where his mother would sit quietly at the end of most days. (Levi, about the beach) Chapter 11

It’s where his father would not come, not past the gully edge, for he was afraid of the ocean. (Levi, about the beach) Chapter 11

At the sight of the sea he flickered with fear, but the water stayed where it was, and after a while he discovered that as long as nobody introduced them to each other he was safe. (Fire) Chapter 12

I am a coast person. I don’t like being hemmed by these trees. (Charlotte) Chapter 13

A cloud’s sorrow: … whenever a storm hits the world with uncommon force. When mountains crack and forests flood. When rivers surge and oceans bloat. When there is no true shelter in the world. Chapter 14