Your ultimate guide to Flames by Robbie Arnott for VCE English

Robbie Arnott’s Flames combines the emotional realism of grief, family conflict and loneliness with the fantastical possibilities of myth, magic realism and transformation. Set across the striking landscapes of Tasmania, the novel explores what happens when human beings fail one another, attempt to control one another, or learn to heal through love, sacrifice and connection. While Flames is often surreal and strange, its concerns are deeply human. This guide will take you through the plot, context, characters, themes, literary devices and essay strategies you need to excel in your next SAC or exam response. As always, make sure you take note of any new vocabulary throughout the post.

Table of Contents

• Plot: What is 'Flames' about?
• Context: Why did Robbie Arnott write Fames?
• Major Characters
• Key Themes in Flames by Robbie Arnott
• Literary Devices in the Flames by Robbie Arnott
• Sample Essay Prompt Breakdown

Published in 2018, Flames is Arnott’s debut novel and is structured as an interconnected series of narratives that gradually converge. The novel blends realism with mythological and supernatural elements - women return briefly after cremation, a man transforms into a bird-like creature, fire becomes human, and a grieving cloud attempts to drown the world. Yet beneath this magical surface lies a serious exploration of trauma, ecological fragility and compassion. Arnott uses the capricious symbols of fire and water to examine the passions that destroy and the forces that heal. Tasmania is not merely the setting of the novel, but a living presence that shapes every character and event.

Plot: What is 'Flames' about?

The novel begins after the death of Edith McAllister, whose cremated body, like other women in her family, returns briefly to life before burning again. Her children, Levi and Charlotte, are left fractured by grief. Levi becomes increasingly obsessed with building Charlotte a coffin so she may avoid the same fiery fate, while Charlotte flees home, determined to escape both her brother and the destructive inheritance within her.

As Charlotte journeys across Tasmania, multiple storylines emerge. A detective searches for her, Nicola, a veterinary student, falls in love with her, Karl, Nicola’s fisherman father, becomes an unexpected mentor, Allen Gibson descends into violent madness, and Thurston Hough pursues grotesque coffin-making schemes. Gradually, the novel reveals that Charlotte and Levi’s estranged father Jack is not an ordinary man, but the embodiment of fire itself.

These narratives converge at Notley Fern Gorge, where familial tensions erupt into literal and symbolic flames before being subdued by rain and reconciliation. By the conclusion, Levi and Charlotte begin to heal, Charlotte commits to Nicola, and Levi finds emotional renewal at sea. Arnott ultimately concludes the novel with the possibility of recovery through connection.

Context: Why did Robbie Arnott write Flames?

A distinguishing characteristic of high-scoring English students is their familiarity with a text’s context; that is, the historical, environmental, literary and social world in which the author composed the work. Thus, understanding Arnott’s context is non-negotiable, and you should be able to integrate discussions of Arnott’s context and views and values into your response.

Tasmania as place and identity

Arnott is Tasmanian, and the novel reflects an intimate love for the island’s landscapes, coastlines, rivers, forests and towns. Tasmania is portrayed as both beautiful and brutal, serene and dangerous. Its separateness from mainland Australia creates a sense of distinct identity, while its wilderness becomes central to the novel’s emotional and symbolic power. Arnott effectively transforms Tasmania into a character in its own right.

Environmental anxieties

Published in the era of increasing climate concern, Flames reflects anxieties surrounding bushfires, floods, ecological destruction and human exploitation of nature. Fire and water become symbols of environmental power, reminding readers that nature can nourish humanity but also retaliate when abused. Arnott critiques greed, mining, habitat destruction and human arrogance.

Magical realism

The novel belongs to the tradition of magic realism, where supernatural events occur within otherwise ordinary worlds and are treated as natural. This allows Arnott to explore emotional truths symbolically. Characters turning animalistic, returning from death, or embodying elemental forces externalise grief, rage, desire and loneliness in ways realism alone may not capture.

Contemporary Australian Values

The novel also reflects modern Australian concerns with resilience, mental health, environmental stewardship and emotional authenticity. Arnott values kindness, loyalty, responsibility and healing, while condemning selfishness, control and destruction.

Major Characters

Levi McAllister

Levi is one of the novel’s most psychologically fractured characters, whose grief after Edith’s death manifests as obsession and collapse. Initially defined by a “love of purpose” and “strength of resolve,” Levi attempts to respond to death through order, seeking to build Charlotte a coffin so that she may avoid the family’s tradition of flames. Yet what appears protective is deeply controlling, as Charlotte recognises his plans as “too much death.” Arnott reveals that Levi’s desire to preserve others is inseparable from his inability to process loss himself. He becomes increasingly unstable, later admitting he had been “erratic, selfish and weak,” a tricolon that conveys painful moral clarity and self-reproval. His confession that he failed Charlotte “when she needed [him] most” marks a critical turning point from denial to accountability. By the conclusion, Levi is “afloat ever since” in the sea with Karl’s seal, symbolising catharsis and the possibility that identity can be rebuilt through humility.

Charlotte McAllister

Charlotte is volatile, wounded and fiercely independent, embodying both destructive passion and the yearning to be understood. Arnott describes that “behind her pale face there lurks a curious ferocity,” suggesting that beneath outward composure lies accumulated rage and pain. Her inherited flames emerge whenever emotion overwhelms her, so that “my flames … are pouring out my ears now,” rendering inner turmoil literal and uncontrollable. Yet Charlotte is not simply dangerous; rather, she is profoundly lonely. She identifies with the detective because both carry “flames of rage and loneliness … that can’t be put out,” revealing that anger is often the external symptom of emotional abandonment. Her admission that there is “love” between herself and Levi, despite them having “never understood each other,” captures the tragedy of familial affection without communication. Through Charlotte’s gradual trust in Nicola and reconciliation with Levi, Arnott suggests that vulnerability can temper inherited wounds.

Nicola

Nicola functions as one of the novel’s clearest embodiments of steadiness, compassion and restorative love. In contrast to Charlotte’s volatility, she is described as “so measured, so thoughtful, so full of plans and logic and duty,” with the cumulative listing emphasising emotional discipline and practical care. Arnott repeatedly presents Nicola as someone who lives “by putting others first,” distinguishing her from the selfishness and destructiveness of characters such as Jack, Gibson and Hough. Her most symbolic role lies in her ability to calm Charlotte, as “Her touch had travelled through Charlotte’s heat. She had quenched the rage; she had stopped the fire.” The repeated clauses imbue Nicola’s tenderness with a healing capacity, extinguishing inherited trauma. Even when Charlotte contemplates abandoning her, Nicola remains loyal and protective, seeking to take her “somewhere fire-proof.” Arnott therefore presents Nicola as evidence that love need not be possessive or dramatic to be transformative.

Karl

Karl is one of the novel’s most admirable masculine figures, representing quiet competence, generosity and harmony with nature. His “victories in the water” establish his physical capability, yet Arnott ensures these achievements are matched by humility and care rather than dominance. Karl’s relationship with his magical seal demonstrates trust rather than exploitation, while his grief when it is killed reveals emotional depth beneath stoicism. Unlike Jack, whose love seeks control, Karl’s influence over others is gentle and paternal. He listens to Levi out of “small-town courtesy,” later guiding him toward healing through the sea. By bringing Levi into the water and helping him become “afloat ever since,” Karl offers a model of masculinity grounded in patience, mentorship and emotional generosity. Arnott uses Karl to suggest that strength is most valuable when married to kindness.

Jack McAllister

Jack is one of the novel’s most symbolic characters, as both Charlotte and Levi’s father and the literal embodiment of fire. He is passionate and volatile, described as a “crackling god” who learns to “walk among them.” Arnott thereby personifies the fiery element in order to examine destructive human desire. Though Jack claims to love Edith, he manipulates her by throwing “a spark” to “burn out the ill feeling she’d formed of him,” exposing how he confuses affection with domination. Even his family relationships are corrupted by control, as he intervenes in Charlotte and Levi’s lives with only “half of his flaming heart.” Yet Jack is not wholly monstrous; when he smiles at Charlotte with a “sadness that touches despair,” Arnott grants him tragic emotional complexity. Ultimately, Jack represents passion severed from ethics. He is capable of love, yet too selfish and possessive to sustain it.

The Detective

The detective initially appears cynical and emotionally detached, yet Arnott gradually reveals her reliability, competence and concealed vulnerability. She is introduced as a “thirty-something woman with hard eyes, dark lips and short hair,” a description that projects toughness and guardedness. She claims to have no feelings, living on black coffee, unhealthy food and gin, yet this performative hardness masks disappointment and loneliness. Charlotte senses that she is “not as tough as she would have us believe,” recognising the gap between exterior persona and interior pain. Despite her cynicism, the detective repeatedly acts with courage and moral purpose, pursuing Charlotte across Tasmania and protecting vulnerable people. Her supernatural “twinges” also suggest intuitive sensitivity beneath rational scepticism. Arnott uses the detective to demonstrate that wounded people may still become sources of care.

Key Themes in Flames by Robbie Arnott

Grief and Healing

At its core, Flames is a novel about grief and the varied ways individuals are deformed or remade by loss. Edith’s death leaves Levi and Charlotte “fumbling for a way to be and talk and stay together,” capturing how bereavement fractures identity, language and relationships simultaneously. Levi responds by becoming obsessive, while Charlotte flees from a house filled with “too much death.” Arnott suggests that grief often manifests indirectly through control, rage or withdrawal. Charlotte’s flames have “been burning ever since our mother had,” linking unresolved sorrow to destructive emotional intensity. Yet the novel does not portray grief as terminal. Levi eventually confesses he had been “erratic, selfish and weak,” while both siblings seek forgiveness from one another. His final tears in the hospital room and renewed life “afloat ever since” suggest that healing begins through humility and confession.

Family and Inheritance

Arnott explores family as both source of love and transmission of damage. The McAllisters inherit not only land and tradition, but instability, grief and elemental violence. Charlotte carries literal fire within her after ingesting “a drop of fire” at birth, while Levi inherits his father’s “love of purpose” and “strength of resolve.” What might otherwise appear virtues become dangerous when distorted into rigidity and obsession. Even the women of the family return after cremation, indicating that the past refuses to remain buried. Yet Arnott resists fatalism. Charlotte rejects her father, insisting “We do not need him; we do not want him,” while Levi and Charlotte attempt to form identities separate from inherited dysfunction. The novel therefore suggests that while trauma may be inherited, it need not be destiny.

Love and Sacrifice

The novel sharply distinguishes selfish love from healing love. Jack seeks to “make [Edith] love him,” revealing a possessive conception of affection underpinned by manipulation. By contrast, Nicola’s love is patient and sacrificial. She repeatedly protects Charlotte, calming her flames so that “She had quenched the rage; she had stopped the fire.” Karl likewise cares for Levi without judgment, guiding him gently toward recovery. Even the Cloud God’s grief for the rakali, whose pelt “belonged to the other half of the cloud’s heart,” imbues love with a cosmic quality.

Nature and Interconnectedness

Humans in Flames exist within an ecological web where animals, rivers, storms and forests profoundly shape emotional and material life. Karl’s livelihood depends upon the sea; the ranger devotes himself to wilderness; Charlotte bonds with wombats and the rakali. The death of the Esk God provokes catastrophic sorrow, as the cloud’s grief “tried to drown” Tasmania itself. Arnott thereby collapses the boundary between human feeling and natural force. Tasmania is described as “spectacular … in the way that nature often is,” capturing both beauty and indifference. Characters who exploit nature—such as Hough trapping water rats or Gibson murdering wombats—are associated with moral corruption and violence. Arnott suggests that human flourishing depends upon reverence for, rather than domination over, the natural world.

Identity and Transformation

Transformation pervades the novel, implying that identity is unstable and deeply shaped by emotional states. Jack is both man and fire; Gibson becomes inhabited by a “glorious cormorant”; the cremated women return altered by the landscapes where their ashes were scattered. Levi claims some memories felt as though they “were someone else’s,” reflecting the disorienting way grief can estrange one from oneself. Charlotte oscillates between tenderness and fury, her flames externalising her emotions. Yet transformation is not solely destructive, as Levi goes from obsession to accountability, while Charlotte shifts from flight to intimacy. Arnott therefore suggests identity is something continually remade through suffering and connection.

Destruction and Regeneration

Throughout Flames, destruction and renewal exist in paradoxical partnership. Fire devastates landscapes and relationships, yet the ranger knows that after the blaze “everything would regenerate,” including wombats and buttongrass. Charlotte’s flames destroy, but also force confrontation and truth. Rain appears first as welcome relief, before it “tries to drown us,” demonstrating that restorative forces can also become violent extremes. Arnott’s symbolism therefore resists simplistic binaries: fire is both warmth and ruin, water both healing and wrath. Likewise, emotional collapse often precedes renewal. Levi and Charlotte must endure familial infernos before reconciliation becomes possible. Arnott ultimately suggests that devastation may clear the conditions necessary for growth, both ecologically and psychologically.

Literary Devices in the Flames by Robbie Arnott

Magic Realism

Arnott’s most striking literary technique is his sustained use of magic realism, in which supernatural events are woven seamlessly into an otherwise recognisable world. Rather than presenting the fantastical as shocking anomaly, the novel treats women returning after cremation, a cloud grieving like a lover, or fire learning to “walk among them” as part of emotional reality. This allows Arnott to externalise inner states that realism alone may struggle to capture. Charlotte’s inherited flames literalise rage and loneliness, while the McAllister women who briefly return after death embody the way grief refuses final closure. Jack, described as a “crackling god,” transforms destructive passion into human form, and the Cloud God whose sorrow “tried to drown” Tasmania elevates mourning into cosmic scale. Through magic realism, Arnott suggests that emotional truths are often too vast, irrational or painful to be expressed through realism alone.

Symbolism

Arnott repeatedly employs symbolism to give physical form to abstract emotional and ethical concerns. Fire symbolises passion, inheritance, desire, violence and uncontrollable emotion, most clearly through Charlotte’s body, where “my flames … are pouring out my ears now.” Water, by contrast, often symbolises cleansing, surrender and healing, as Levi ultimately becomes “afloat ever since” after entering the sea with Karl. Coffins symbolise Levi’s futile desire to control mortality and preserve those he loves from change. The rakali pelt, “always warm to the touch,” symbolises false confidence and borrowed power, temporarily granting Levi certainty that later disappears. Even rain is dual in symbolism: initially welcome, yet later it “tries to drown us,” reminding readers that restorative forces can become destructive when intensified. Arnott’s symbols are therefore dynamic rather than fixed, shifting meaning according to emotional and narrative context.

Motifs of Fire and Water

The recurring motifs of fire and water create the novel’s central symbolic dialectic. Fire appears in Charlotte’s emotions, Jack’s identity, Edith’s cremation, bushland destruction and the title itself, making it inseparable from passion and volatility. Jack’s existence as flame reveals fire as hungry, restless and difficult to contain. Water recurs through rivers, storms, the ocean, Karl’s fishing life and the Cloud God’s grief. Where fire surges upward in aggression, water often surrounds, cools or submerges. Yet Arnott complicates this opposition: water can nurture, but also flood; fire can destroy, but also warm and regenerate land. The final storm in which “the rain starts falling” and “tries to drown us” while flames rage nearby dramatises these elemental forces in direct conflict. Through these motifs, Arnott explores the tension between destruction and healing, rage and calm, domination and surrender.

Shifting Perspectives

The novel’s fragmented structure relies on shifting perspectives, with chapters moving across first-person, third-person limited and omniscient narration. Arnott uses this multiplicity of voices to reveal that truth is partial, subjective and emotionally contingent. Levi’s narration grants intimate access to grief and instability, while Charlotte’s sections expose the loneliness beneath her volatility. The detective’s perspective introduces scepticism and procedural realism, whereas chapters centred on the Esk God or Cloud God widen the novel into mythic scale. This constant movement between consciousnesses mirrors the interconnected web of lives in Tasmania, where seemingly separate individuals influence one another profoundly. It also prevents simplistic moral judgments; characters who initially appear harsh, unstable or absurd become more sympathetic once granted narrative voice. Arnott therefore uses perspective shifts to cultivate empathy and demonstrate that no single viewpoint can contain reality.

Fragmented Structure

Arnott constructs Flames as a mosaic of interlinked stories rather than a linear narrative, with chapters named after elements or materials such as “Ash,” “Salt,” “Sky,” “Iron,” “Fur,” “Coal” and “Cloud.” This fragmented structure initially appears disjointed, yet gradually reveals hidden patterns of connection. Events are non-sequential, forcing readers to actively piece together chronology and causation, much as characters must piece together their fractured identities after grief. The chapter titles themselves function symbolically, foregrounding the material and elemental world that governs human life. By withholding straightforward continuity, Arnott mirrors the emotional reality of trauma, where experience is often remembered in fragments rather than orderly sequence. As disparate storylines converge at Notley Fern Gorge, the structure enacts the movement from fragmentation toward reconciliation.

Setting as Character

Arnott animates the landscape so vividly that it functions as a character in its own right. The island’s beaches, estuaries, rainforests, mines, plains and mountains shape not only plot movement but emotional atmosphere and moral meaning. Nature is described as “spectacular … in the way that nature often is,” capturing grandeur tinged with indifference. Hawley Beach becomes a site of mentorship and healing, while Notley Fern Gorge becomes the emotional crucible of the siblings’ confrontation. Cradle Mountain offers temporary refuge through “soft-falling snow,” whereas Melaleuca is associated with isolation and menace. Tasmania’s beauty coexists with histories of violence, mining and exploitation, which mirrors the novel’s broader insistence that creation and destruction coexist. Arnott’s rendering of place suggests human identity is inseparable from the environments we inhabit.

Sensory Imagery

Arnott’s prose is often cinematic in its use of sensory imagery, immersing readers in elemental textures, sounds and atmospheres. Fire “crackles,” rain arrives in “huge swamping sheets,” and blue tears fall from Charlotte’s eyes. Such imagery transforms emotion into bodily sensation. The repeated warmth of the rakali pelt, “always warm to the touch,” gives psychological comfort a tactile form. The olfactory imagery of the smell of smoke, the violence of storms, and the tactile softness of snow all create a richly immersive reading experience. Wilderness scenes feel sublime, while scenes of flame or decay feel claustrophobic and threatening.

Personification

Arnott frequently personifies natural forces in order to collapse distinctions between human emotion and the environment. Fire becomes Jack, a being who desires, manipulates and grieves. The cloud experiences heartbreak, with its “tantrums and wind-screams” anthropomorphising weather to create pathetic fallacy. Rivers house gods, while landscapes appear capable of memory and response. This personification elevates environmental processes into moral and emotional agents, suggesting nature is not passive matter to be exploited. Instead, Arnott frames the natural world as responsive, wounded and powerful. Human selfishness therefore appears as cosmically disruptive.

Sample Essay Prompt Breakdown

Sample prompt: ‘Flames suggests that people are most damaged when they try to control what cannot be controlled.’ Discuss.

Below is my four step guide to planning out an essay topic.

1. Identify key terms

These are the words that heavily influence your response, as they determine the scope and direction of your argument. Here, the key terms are: “suggests,” “most damaged,” “try,” “control,” and “cannot be controlled.”

Most damaged is a limiting phrase that requires comparison. You must consider whether attempts at control are the primary source of harm, or whether other forces such as grief, trauma or loneliness are equally destructive.

• Try is significant because intention matters. Characters may fail in their attempts, but the very desire to dominate can still cause damage.
• Control invites discussion of attempts to dominate death, nature, emotion or other people.
• Cannot be controlled points toward forces beyond mortal control, such as grief, mortality, natural forces, love and the autonomy of others.

Strong students begin by unpacking these terms before writing anything else, as doing so ensures the essay remains precise and responsive to the wording of the prompt.

2. Interrogate the question

This means asking questions of the topic to help you determine its complexities, and answering them with dot-point pieces of evidence from the text. For example, a few questions I may ask of this topic, along with dot-point answers are:

Which characters try to control what cannot be controlled?

• Levi tries to control death by building Charlotte a coffin and preventing her cremation.
• Levi tries to control Charlotte’s future rather than understand her grief.
• Jack tries to control Edith’s feelings by throwing “a spark” to alter her emotions.
• Jack tries to control his family despite years of estrangement.
• Hough tries to exploit nature for profit through coffin-making and trapping animals.
• Gibson attempts to dominate animals and people through violence.

Are these characters damaged by their attempts at control?

• Levi becomes unstable, obsessive and later admits he had been “erratic, selfish and weak.”
• Charlotte flees Levi because his plans represent “too much death.”
• Jack loses Edith and remains isolated and unfulfilled.
• Hough dies grotesquely after exploiting the natural world.
• Gibson descends into madness and brutality.

What things in the novel cannot be controlled?

• Death and grief after Edith’s passing.
• Charlotte’s inherited flames and emotional pain.
• Natural forces such as fire, storms and oceans.
• Other people’s autonomy and feelings.
• The past and family inheritance.

Is control ever presented positively?

• Nicola uses calm planning and responsibility to protect Charlotte.
• Karl demonstrates disciplined skill as a fisherman.
• The detective is organised and competent in crisis.
• Self-control is often constructive; domination of others is destructive.

If not control, what heals individuals?

• Levi heals when he admits fault and seeks forgiveness.
• Charlotte heals through trust and intimacy with Nicola.
• Karl guides Levi through patience rather than force.
• Emotional honesty replaces obsession.
• Human connection and humility create renewal.

Does the novel suggest other causes of damage besides control?

• Grief deeply fractures Levi and Charlotte.
• Loneliness fuels Charlotte’s anger.
• Family trauma and inheritance shape behaviour.
• Ecological destruction reflects greed and selfishness.

Does the ending support the prompt?

• Characters who relinquish control begin healing.
• Levi stops trying to dictate Charlotte’s fate.
• Jack is defeated by forces larger than himself.
• Reconciliation comes through surrender instead of control

3. Group ideas into three paragraphs, and write out conceptual/idea-based topic sentences

During this phase, you want to find patterns in your answers to the questions in Phase 2 and group these into body paragraphs. One of the most common pitfalls of text response essays is when students base their topic sentences off of specific characters or events in the text. Your topic sentences MUST be idea-based!

BP1: Arnott portrays the desire to control death, grief and pain as cataclysmic, revealing that attempts to suppress suf ering often intensify it.

BP2: The novel suggests that ef orts to dominate other people or malleate them to one’s will corrupt relationships and isolate individuals.

BP3: However, Flames proposes that healing begins through humility, acceptance and compassionate connection with others and the natural world.

4. Develop your contention

Finally, develop your contention, which is basically all of your three body paragraphs put into ONE sentence.

Contention: Arnott suggests that people are most damaged when they attempt to control death, grief, nature or other people, as such impulses breed isolation and destruction, whereas healing emerges through humility, acceptance and connection.

Note how this process forces you to work backwards! Of course, this is not the only way to plan out a topic, but I have always found that starting from the evidence, then finding my ideas for each paragraph, and then ending with the contention allows me to better ground my essay in textual evidence.

Further Tips

• Ensure that you master integrating evidence into your sentences, and using quotes as a ‘jumping off’ point for analysis – note how I have integrated evidence throughout each ‘character’ and ‘theme’ paragraph as an example.
• Make sure every single paragraph of your essay is boosted by a discussion of the author’s views and values.
• Integrate contextual details (e.g. Tasmania’s environmental identity, contemporary anxieties surrounding bushfires and climate change)
• Analyse the how as much as the what. Discuss Arnott’s symbolism, shifting perspectives, motifs of fire and water, setting, imagery and structure to show how meaning is constructed.
• Always consider complexity! High-scoring essays rarely present characters or ideas as wholly good or bad but instead, explore contradictions and ambiguities.
• Finally, maintain a clear line of argument throughout the essay. Each paragraph should build upon the last so that your contention feels progressively proven rather than repeatedly restated. A good rule of thumb is that each paragraph should feel increasingly ‘complex’ throughout the essay.

For more study resources, see our collection of VCE English guides:

FAQs

Want more personalised guidance to ensure top marks? Explore our collection of high-performing tutors.

Written by KIS Academics Tutor for VCE English, Kartiya Gunarathna. Kartiya is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Laws/Commerce at Monash University and has been tutoring VCE English for 2+ years. You can view Kartiya’s profile here and request her as a tutor.