The Fire Symbol in Girl One: Destruction and Concealment

What Fire Literally Is in Girl One

Fire in Sara Flannery Murphy's Girl One operates on two levels: as a physical event that recurs at pivotal moments in the plot, and as a supernatural ability possessed by one of the Homestead's "Miracle Babies." Literally, fires break out at the 1977 Homestead commune in Vermont; at Margaret Morrow's house in Coeur du Lac, Illinois, around the time of her disappearance; at Cate Bower's house in Goulding, Arkansas; in a clearing of burned trees near Kithira, where the Strouds' bloodstained dress is found; and in the final conflagration at Bellanger's desert compound. Fire also manifests as Fiona's pyrokinesis—she can ignite objects and people with her mind—and as a sign, as when a bird catches fire mid-flight as Josephine's group approaches Bellanger's compound. Across these recurrences, fire's meaning shifts from destruction to concealment to, finally, renewal.

The 1977 Homestead Fire: Destruction as Origin

The novel's foundational fire is the one that supposedly ends the Homestead experiment. According to the New York Times article reproduced in Chapter 9, on June 22, 1977, a fire destroyed the remote Vermont commune, and two bodies were found: Fiona, the youngest subject, and Dr. Joseph Bellanger himself. State medical examiner Leland Henley stated that the injuries suggested an intentionally set fire "meant to cause grave harm." Ricky Peters, the prominent critic who had said Bellanger should "burn in hell," was eventually convicted of arson and two counts of first-degree murder.

For Josephine, this fire is the defining catastrophe of her childhood. As she reflects in Chapter 2, the fire "managed to take everything important from me, cutting short Dr. Bellanger's life, leaving his eight living creations abandoned and bereft." The fire also consumed Bellanger's research: "The secrets of parthenogenesis went with him, his research consumed in the flames." Here, fire functions as total destruction—of knowledge, of community, of possibility. It is the event that fractures the Homestead families and forces Josephine to reconstruct her history from fragments: her mother's hidden scrapbook, Bellanger's birthday letters, and the scattered memories of the other Girls.

But the novel progressively reveals that the 1977 fire was also a concealment. In Chapter 44, Junior (Bellanger's son) discovers that his father sold Utah land to medical examiner Leland Henley for one dollar months before the fire—an implausible transaction that suggests a prearranged escape. In Chapter 47, Bellanger himself explains that he fled the fire with Fiona, and that the two bodies found were actually Angela and Gina Grassi. The fire that seemed to end the story was actually the mechanism by which Bellanger faked his death and Fiona's, hiding the Grassis' bodies as their own. Fire, then, is not merely destructive—it is a tool for rewriting history and controlling what the world believes.

Fire as Concealment: Margaret's House and Cate's House

The pattern of fire-as-concealment repeats in the novel's present-day timeline. Margaret Morrow's house fire, which Josephine learns about in Chapter 2, coincides with her mother's disappearance. Josephine immediately suspects arson: "I know they'll try to pass this off as an accident, but it wasn't." She notes the fire's unusual geometry—"it's like it started everywhere at once"—which suggests something beyond an ordinary accident. Later, in Chapter 27, Dr. McCarter reports that investigators found no accelerants but multiple points of origin, a pattern consistent with insurance fraud. The fire at Margaret's house serves to obscure the circumstances of her disappearance, destroying evidence and creating a narrative of accident or instability that the authorities are willing to accept.

Similarly, the fire at Cate's house in Chapter 16 is attributed by firefighters to a dish towel left near the stove, but Morrow spots a silhouette watching from the street—the same man in the maroon sedan who had been following her since Coeur du Lac. The fire is an act of intimidation and erasure, an attempt to destroy evidence or warn the women away. Cate later connects these fires explicitly: "Just like there was a fire that killed Bellanger and Fiona... Just like the one at Cate's house." The recurrence of fire as a method of attack and concealment creates a pattern that Josephine must learn to read—each fire is a story being told, and the story is always incomplete.

Fire as Inherited Power: Fiona's Pyrokinesis

Fire also operates as a literal supernatural ability. In Chapter 22, Patricia shows Josephine and Cate a Super 8 film from 1977 in which a young Fiona, distressed and asking for her mother, causes a candleholder to lift and shatter, levitates in a corner, and triggers a ceiling bulb to explode. Patricia recorded the events as proof and kept the film secret to protect the girls from men. Fiona's power is confirmed in the present day: in Chapter 48, she levitates Mathias and sets him on fire, though she cannot extinguish the flames—Josephine must smother them with a tarp. In Chapter 46, a bird catches fire mid-flight as the group approaches Bellanger's compound, a sign of Fiona's destructive reach.

Fiona's pyrokinesis connects fire to the theme of inherited power and the burden of exceptionalism. The Homestead experiment was supposed to produce "Miracle Babies," but only Fiona (and, it emerges, Cate and Josephine) manifested abilities. Fire here is the most dramatic and dangerous manifestation of the power that Bellanger's experiment unleashed—a power that Bellanger seeks to control and exploit, as when he gives Fiona red capsules to manage her condition. Fire is thus both the Girls' inheritance and their curse, a gift that marks them as extraordinary and as targets.

Fire as Persecution: Kithira and the "Witches"

The clearing in the woods near Kithira, where the Strouds' bloodstained dress hangs from a branch amid burned trees, connects fire to the persecution of women. The trees surrounding the clearing are carved with the word "WITCHES" in a dozen variations. The townspeople, as Josephine learns in Chapter 29, blamed Vera and Delilah Stroud for the illnesses of local young men and warned them to leave; after the Strouds disappeared, the young men recovered. The implication is that the townspeople killed the Strouds and used fire to destroy the evidence. The "WITCHES" carving links the Homestead women to a long history of women accused of witchcraft and punished by fire—the traditional method of executing supposed witches. Fire here is the instrument of patriarchal violence against women who are perceived as unnatural or threatening, connecting to the theme of secrecy, surveillance, and the cost of public scrutiny.

The Final Conflagration: Fire as Rebirth

The novel's final fire, at Bellanger's desert compound, transforms the symbol's meaning. In Chapter 49, Cate and Isabelle start a fire in the shed as a distraction while Josephine frees her mother. In Chapter 50, as the fire consumes the compound, Josephine watches it with fascination: "All those times I'd seen footage of the Homestead fire on the news and felt the sharp echo of that long-ago loss. Here it was. Happening right in front of me." But this fire is described differently: "the hectic flames like a sunset. Like a sunrise. Like the world was remaking itself, right here, just awaiting our arrival." The fire that once destroyed the Homestead and concealed Bellanger's survival now becomes a force of liberation—it destroys Bellanger's compound and his plans, and it brings the five women (Josephine, Margaret, Cate, Isabelle, and Fiona) together. The final fire is not concealment but revelation, not destruction but renewal.

Character and Theme Connections

Fire binds the novel's central characters. For Josephine Morrow, fire is the catastrophe that shaped her life and the mystery she must unravel; her story begins with the 1977 fire and ends with the compound fire. For Margaret Morrow, fire is both accusation and alibi—Patricia claims she planned the Homestead fire, and her own house fire obscures her disappearance. For Dr. Joseph Bellanger, fire is the instrument of his faked death and his continued control; he uses fire to erase his past and to conceal Fiona's existence. For Cate Bower, fire is both threat (her house burns) and tool (she helps start the final fire). For Fiona, fire is her power—destructive, uncontrollable, and exploited by Bellanger.

Thematically, fire connects to scientific legacy and the ownership of creation: the Homestead fire destroyed Bellanger's research, but it also allowed him to control the narrative of his legacy from hiding. Fire also connects to mother-daughter estrangement and hidden maternal histories: Margaret's house fire destroys evidence of her investigation into Fiona's fate, and the Homestead fire concealed the truth about who really died. Finally, fire connects to reproductive autonomy and bodily control: Bellanger uses fire to control the narrative of his experiment, and Fiona's pregnancy—the next generation of "Miracle Babies"—is guarded within a compound that is ultimately consumed by fire.

Study Questions

1. How does the 1977 Homestead fire function differently from the fires that occur later in the novel?

The 1977 fire appears initially to be an ending—the destruction of the Homestead, the death of Bellanger and Fiona, the end of the parthenogenesis experiment. It functions as a catastrophe that scatters the surviving mothers and daughters and forces Josephine to piece together her history from fragments. However, the novel reveals that this fire was also a concealment: Bellanger and Fiona survived, and the bodies found were the Grassis. The later fires—at Margaret's house and Cate's house—repeat this pattern of concealment, obscuring evidence and creating false narratives of accident. The key difference is that the 1977 fire conceals a deliberate escape, while the later fires conceal ongoing violence and intimidation. The 1977 fire is also the only one that is publicly investigated and prosecuted (Ricky Peters is convicted), whereas the later fires are dismissed as accidents by local authorities.

2. What does Fiona's pyrokinesis reveal about the nature of the Homestead experiment?

Fiona's ability to ignite objects and people with her mind reveals that the Homestead experiment produced not just children but children with extraordinary powers. The Super 8 film in Chapter 22 shows Fiona's abilities manifesting at a young age—levitation, telekinesis, and the explosion of a ceiling bulb. Bellanger knew about these abilities and sought to control them, as evidenced by the red capsules he gives Fiona. Fiona's power is both the most dramatic proof of the experiment's success and its most dangerous outcome; it is a power that Bellanger cannot fully control, as when Fiona sets Mathias on fire and cannot extinguish it. Her pyrokinesis suggests that the "Miracle Babies" were not merely scientific achievements but bearers of unpredictable, potentially destructive gifts—a theme that connects to the burden of exceptionalism that Josephine, Cate, and Isabelle each grapple with in different ways.

3. How does the "WITCHES" carving in the Kithira woods connect fire to the persecution of women?

The word "WITCHES" carved repeatedly into the trees surrounding the burned clearing links the Homestead women to the historical persecution of women accused of witchcraft. Fire is the traditional method of executing supposed witches, and the townspeople of Kithira used fire to destroy evidence of the Strouds' murder. The carving suggests that the Homestead women are perceived as unnatural—as witches—by the communities that fear them. This connects to the broader theme of public scrutiny and persecution: the Homestead women were picketed, threatened, and attacked throughout their lives, and fire is the recurring instrument of that persecution. The "WITCHES" carving makes explicit the novel's argument that the fear of female reproductive autonomy is ancient and persistent, linking the 1970s experiment to a longer history of violence against women.

4. Why is the final fire at Bellanger's compound described as "like a sunrise"?

The final fire is described in Chapter 50 as "like a sunset. Like a sunrise. Like the world was remaking itself." This language transforms fire from a symbol of destruction to a symbol of renewal. The fire destroys Bellanger's compound, his plans for a new generation of parthenogenetic children, and his control over the women. It brings the five women together—Josephine, Margaret, Cate, Isabelle, and Fiona—in a moment of collective witness. Unlike the 1977 fire, which concealed the truth, the final fire reveals it: Bellanger's deception is exposed, Margaret is freed, and the women stand together as the compound burns. The sunrise imagery suggests that the fire clears the way for a new beginning, one in which the women are no longer controlled by Bellanger's legacy. The fire that once destroyed the Homestead and scattered the families now gathers them, transforming destruction into the possibility of a future they choose for themselves.