In the first chapter of Alden Bell's The Reapers are the Angels, Temple, a young woman and the book's main character, leaves an island. There, she slept in a lighthouse. When a zombie washed up on the shore of the island, Temple left everything, including the lighthouse. If one were following the story with the structure of the Hero's Journey, this would be the inciting incident -- the event that introduces the major conflict of the story. Temple's conflict is, of course, to survive the "meatskins," but also to address the horrors in her past with a boy named Malcolm and better understand the evil she's convinced lies within her.
The lighthouse symbolizes safety and guidance. The lighthouse is used to see danger coming out in the rough waters, and it provides a safe haven in which Temple could stay on the island. When she leaves the lighthouse, Temple is entering a new world, a world of conflict. She no longer has the safety, the "light," of the tall tower that helped her survive, and so she's sent into this new world to discover and fend for herself.
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