Ego Examples In Lord Of The Flies

Running through the human race is an evil snake, slithering around, ready to snatch its next prey. One should not, however, feel pity for the victim because he will not disappear into the snake’s belly, although he might be replaced by the snake. Resting upon his shoulders, the snake will simply pressure him to submit to the heinous inclinations present in every man. If his principles are strong enough,it will not be his downfall. William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, presents an exhibition where impressionable children are quick to yield to this “beast,” wreaking havoc on a peaceful island. On the home-front, feelings of hatred erupt in Ella Leffland’s Rumors of Peace. At 10-years old, Suse fantasizes of being in the field and disposing of those who kill. As the authors

Sigmund Freud created the structural model of personality that describes the id, ego, and superego parts of a person. Id is represented as the devil and based on the pleasure and benefiting themselves. Ego is the angel and devil together, where there is balance of good and bad. Lastly, superego is shown as the angel with good behavior and morals. In Golding’s book Lord of the Flies, he uses Jack, Ralph, and Piggy to represent Sigmund Freud’s theory of the three personalities: id, ego, and superego.

Simon is the one boy who never participates in destructive behaviors and always contributes to the well being of the boys. He continues to work even after everyone stops, gives Piggy food when no one else will, and speaks his mind about the beast. He is also the only one to realize that the true beast is inside the boys. Simon’s moral compass, much like the superego, allows him to see the evil of mankind. Simon is whole-heartedly good. The superego attempts to lead a person to the morally right pathway, much like Simon aims to show Ralph how he can do what’s best for the tribe. The primitive nature of the others overpowers Simon’s internal good nature. Even after his death, Simon’s moral nature lives on through the boys similar to how the superego can continue to shine after a person follows the desires of the id.

People show who they really are when there are no rules and chaos takes over. A man named Sigmund Freud creates the idea that all people are made up three main characteristics. The fist characteristic is the Id, wanting anything that will bring it immediate happiness. The Ego is the second characteristic, feeding the Id in socially acceptable ways to continue getting what it wants. The final characteristic is the Superego. The Superego is developed last and is the part of all humans that does things for the greater good. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Golding uses three characters to represent the idea of Id, Ego, and Superego. William Golding uses a character named Jack to represent the Id, doing anything to get what he wants. Golding uses Ralph to represent the Ego, trying to get what he wants in socially acceptable ways. Finally, a boy named Piggy is used to represent the Superego, doing things for the greater good of the group. The three characters represent the three main characteristics that every human has, Jack is the Id, Ralph is the Ego, and Piggy is the Superego.

Simon shows his individuality and cravings for tranquility and cognizance also through his participation with others. One instance when he truly displays this is when he was picking fruit from the “littluns”. The “littluns” and “lugged them towards the trees” and “Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach” (Golding,56). He feeds them alone and “when he had satisfied them”he “turned away from them and went where the just perceptible path led him” (Golding,56). This shows how through his clarity with nature and himself, he helps others and continues to portray that he prefers to think, act, and help others by himself. He also shows his individualism when he reacted to the death of the pig. With the chaos going around him, Simon isolates himself and “lowered his head, carefully keeping his eyes shut, then sheltered them with his hands” next to the pile of guts Jack and Roger left after penetrating the pig’s head with a stick (Golding,138). He ignores everything around him and tries his best to hide away from the monstrous actions the other boys are committing. This also supports the idea that he favors time alone in his own thoughts in peace rather than facing his fear. In

Leadership takes notice, responsibility, self-development, and experience. Thoughts pop up when one thinks of a leader, perhaps a captain of a team, the president, maybe even the bigger brother. These people are mostly responsible and developed, they take notice into what is happening in any situation, but the experience is where a leader and a follower have things in common in most situations. Lord of the Flies is a book where children are trapped on a deserted island and have to create their own small world. Jack is one of the chosen leaders in the book, he came with most of the children from the plane crash. They soon meet Ralph, who is another chosen leader throughout the book. So called “leaders” in the book are very important characters

When Jack slaps Piggy and purposely breaks his glasses, Ralph calls it "A dirty trick." (p. 76) This shows Jack's selfishness and his failure to respect other people, while at the same time Ralph's concern is understand others. Ralph manages to treat each boy equally with his own form of control while Jack treats the boys, especially Piggy lower. After hunting, the group sits down to eat and Jack gives everyone a share except for Piggy. When Piggy asks for some, Jack says, "You didn't hunt." (p. 78) Neither Ralph or many of the littluns hunted but they still got their portion of meat. This was only being directed to Piggy. Jack's behavior towards Piggy shows that he is unable to understand other people. A good leader would have taken care of all his/her group. Ralph understands that he must treat everyone equal or he will not be respected and is a better leader than Jack because of this knowledge.

The quote, “‘Grownups know things,’ said Piggy… ‘They’d meet and have tea and discuss. Then things ‘ud be all right-’” (94), represents Piggy’s reasoning that adults are necessarily rational, and that said rationality would lead to order and peace. In comparison, Jack, the symbol for anarchy and dictatorship, says, “‘We don’t need the conch anymore. We know who ought to say things.’” (102). This quote shows Jack’s denouncement for the conch, the symbol of democracy and law in the book, and how this loss of belief in democracy is felt by the hunters of the story, as order interferes with their thirst for savage behavior. This contrast between democracy and anarchy echoes the dynamic of society, that democracy leads to peace and logic, but is condemned by the innate human yearning for chaos. Overall, comparing Piggy and the hunters’ wishes for order versus chaos represents society’s own eventual renouncement of rules and

Many times throughout the book, Piggy is the voice of reason and helps to guide Ralph along that same road if he loses his way. After scolding Samneric for being pessimistic about their fate, Ralph momentarily forgets the reasons why the signal fire is so important. "He tried to remember. Smoke, he said, we want smoke. Course we have. Cos the smoke's a signal and we can't be rescued if we don't have smoke. I knew that! Shouted Ralph" (Golding 172). Ralph begins to lose his initial cheerfulness and enthusiasm and replaces it with disinterest and pessimism. Piggy and Ralph separate themselves from Jack and his tribe and continue to maintain their "government". However, when Jack and his tribe kill a pig and invite Ralph and Piggy to join their feast, the two accept and cannot resist the temptation of the meat. Later on in the celebration, Jack and his tribe perform a ritualistic dance, in which Piggy and Ralph later join. "Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society" (Golding 152). They realize that the dance fueled the boys to murder Simon, and later deny their participance in it. "We left early, said Piggy quickly, because we were tired" (Golding 158). Ralph and Piggy recognize the evil in the dance, and know that if the others found out about their participance in it, then the boys would claim that Piggy and Ralph would be

Ralph often treats Piggy this way because it makes him look superior. However, without the influence of Piggy, Ralph clearly does not have the rationale to keep the group sane and together. Ralph knows that the group has been acting more and more animalistic, and says, "I'm frightened. Of us"-(157). Ralph is scared the group will let their id take over completely after they kill Simon.

Piggy urges Ralph to use what power he has left by calling a meeting: “’What’s grown-ups going to say?’ cried Piggy again…The sound of mock hunting, hysterical laughter, and real terror came from the beach. ‘Blow the conch, Ralph...You got to be tough now. Make ‘em do what you want.’ Ralph answered in the cautious voice of one who rehearses a theorem. ‘If I blow the conch and they don’t come back; then we’ve had it. We shan’t keep the fire going. We’ll be like animals. We’ll never be rescued.’” In this situation, Piggy is still worried about the punishment of his previous life. He is the closest thing to an adult on the island, and Ralph is the only one who advocates listening to him, illustrating Ralph’s connection to the rules of traditional civilization, which the other boys despise and want to escape through the island. After showing blatant disregard to their “chief’s” rules, they decide to escape the constraints of Ralph’s assemblies and embrace their inner savagery with Jack. Piggy urges Ralph to blow the conch, the symbol of his power throughout the book, but Ralph understands that his form of leadership is becoming the less desirable option to the boys: if he calls an assembly and the other boys do not respond, its power, and his civilization, will have completely disintegrated. Ralph constantly emphasizes their responsibilities on the island—specifically, tending to the signal fire.

Simon gets fruit for the littluns who can’t reach it by themselves, another kind act only meant to help another. “He [Piggy] went crouching and feeling over the rocks but Simon, who got there first, found them for him” (71). When Jack hits Piggy and he loses his glasses, Simon is the one that picks them up for him. Simon knows that Piggy gets picked on and is disliked among most of the members of the tribe, but he helps him out anyways. Simon’s angelic nature is topped off with the fact that he has seizures.

Change is a quality that breeds much resistance; it is inevitable. On an island, a group of boys are stranded with little hope of survival. As the boys try to get rescued, every incident results in conflict. Differences create even more conflict. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, this is the result of varying stages of brain development through the id, ego, and superego.

Piggy acts as a conscience when rumors of ghost and monsters are spread, and he ends the gossip by explaining ghosts are not logical or scientific, meaning they do not exist. Piggy uses his smarts to make sundials for the boys to keep track of the time, and with Ralph’s combination of leadership, the two boys begin to form what looks like the beginnings of a civilized camp. Civilization exists in the children, as they follow Ralph’s initial commands and help build the first shelter. They don not fully understand why they act civil, but their morals passed on by parents or self growth guide them during the first portion of the book. Golding uses the combination of Ralph and Piggy to show the roots of civilization, and the peace that morals bring, and the other boys to show the balance factor of feeling obligated to act civil. They use law as a protective companion, making rules for only speaking when holding the conch, to prevent yelling and fights. Jack even shows a civil side to his mind, when first establishing their camp, crying out, "We’ll have rules! Lot’s of rules!" (33) The fact that Golding would show that Jack, the symbol of savagery, has some civil thoughts, indicates that he is conveying the idea that civilization exists in even the most immoral people. Jack retains a sense of moral propriety and behavior that society leaves impressed on a person. Rodger, the

The book series Fablehaven accurately portrays the three parts of the psychic apparatus, id, ego, and superego, created by Sigmund Freud amongst the three main characters. Kendra, the first main character introduced, represents the ego because at times she must determine to follow the rules and play it safe or break the rules to help her family. Seth, the second main character introduced, represents the id as he constantly acts on his own impulses without any regard to the rules which usually lands him in trouble. The last main character introduced, Grandpa, represents the superego since he always follow the rules of the preserve, as well as teaching them to Kendra and Seth, to ensure the safety of them all from the fable creatures. Kendra, Seth, and Grandpa create perfect examples of Sigmund Freud's id, ego, and superego.