Power Dictates Identity Developmental psychologist Erik Erikson stated, “in the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity.” It is important to note that Erikson is trying to emphasize the influence and vitality identity has on the human mind. The identity people have dictated the status they hold and what they can and cannot do. William Golding suggests the power identity has over a civilization and a single person in his novel Lord of The Flies. Golding develops his novel in describing how people prioritize power and authority to which this desire alters their identity to change over time through exposure to possessing higher authority over others. This new identity is stripped from …show more content…
When wearing a police uniform that resembles a greater being, such as a soldier, they act as if they are one. The situation before them becomes one a soldier would deal with, not just a police officer. The power they already established through being an officer wasn’t enough for them it seemed, so they desired more authority through this new identity. This status seemed to justify their brutal actions simply because their original identity was being concealed through this uniform and taking on a different identification. This use of uniforms dictating identities for the police officers help Golding’s argument become clear with the use of the hunters in his novel the Lord of the Flies. The hunters choose to paint their faces with blood and dirt from the island to cover their faces. Alone on the island with camps splitting off into hunters and intellects, the boys proceed to paint each other before hunting around the island and “Eric made a detaining gesture, ‘But they’ll be painted! [the boys] know how it is.’ The others nodded. They understood only too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought,” (Golding 172). When a hunter is threatened with the reasoning from the civilization still left in Ralph, he …show more content…
When their identity is changed because of the driving influence of the desire for authority their perception for choosing right from wrong becomes unclear, similar to power influenced perception that takes over Jack. In the article “Torture at Abu Ghraib” Seymour M. Hersh addresses the issue behind the female “commander in the war zone, was an experienced operation and intelligence officer who had served with the special forces and in the 1991 gulf war, but she had never run a prison system. … had no training in handling prisoners,” (Torture at Abu Ghraib). Power was given to a person with valid responsibility in the workforce but the magnitude of that power altered their decision making massively. A certain amount of authority over others such as being a police officer was tolerated and could be handled appropriately, but when told she was a higher authority, a prison guard, her rational decision making was altered. The power she possessed posed a different identity to her, covering the old like a mask. Once this old identity was replaced with the new, she abused her authority and was held accountable for breaking chemical lights, followed by powering water on naked detainees and threatening them with rape. This rise to power from officer to prison guard manipulated her mind into dehumanizing prisoners and
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.
Jack is id in Lord of the Flies. Jack's personality represents the id theory because he does whatever he pleases, without any consideration of what would happen or the situation at hand. Three instances where this occurs are when Jack goes off to hunt, taking all the boys with him, and lets the fire out, when the boys have a meeting and Jack uses the opportunity to gain control over the group, and when Jack, along with two savages raid Ralph's camp to get Piggy's glasses for fire. When Jack leaves with his hunters to go hunt the pig, he completely forgets about the fire. In this part of the novel, Jack shows his connection with Freud's theory because he does whatever he wants at the time, without giving thought to the situation, or what would
in the book lord of the flies there is a ton of symbolism throughout the book . One method Golding uses is by creatively chooses the names of the characters in the book based on their original meaning. He does this through the characters Ralph, Piggy,Jack , and Simon. Throughout the story you can see how the meaning of the characters names reflect their actions and development in the novel .The names chosen by Golding creates a label of their personality and behaviors. Their character is tested throughout the book . As many months passed you can see how the island has shaped them into a specific person .
For centuries, psychologists and psychoanalysts have studied humans in hopes of discovering a common link, a pattern per say, in what provokes their certain thoughts and actions. Many question certain values, morals, religion, even their brain chemistry, but nobody knows for certain. Sigmund Freud’s theory suggests that human actions/personalities derive from three parts of the human psyche; the id, ego and superego. William Golding analyzes this further in his novel, Lord of the Flies, which is about a large group of boys that crash-land on a deserted Island after fleeing a dangerous England in the times of WWII. These young boys are used to entertain the idea of savagery vs. civilization and how evil lies deep within us all. After
Sigmund Freud had a theory related to how our personalities are formed, he called it ego, superego, and id. Freud analyzed the human mind further than any other in the field of psychology (Pak). Always inspired and moved by Freud. William Golding wrote, his first and greatest success novel, Lord of the Flies. The story, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, is rich with symbolism, allusion and hidden meaning, all of which the author uses to explore man’s inherent evil. A book that never fails to enchant and even frighten its own audience (“Lord of the flies”). A novel telling the story of a group of English schoolboys stranded on a tropical island during a war. With no rules, nor adults to remain the civilization. The boys over time descend into savagery. Golding wrote about the fundamental human struggle between some boys working together, obey rules, act lawfully and behave morally. While the rest seek brute power over others, act selfishly, and indulge in violence. In the lord of the Flies piggy’s character represents the superego, Ralph’s character represents the ego and lastly, Jack’s character represents the id.
William Golding’s first novel, Lord of the Flies, presents his pessimistic views on society and our primitive instincts. He demonstrates this through the setting of an inhabited island where a group of British schoolboys have been stranded. The entire story becomes a symbol for the theme Golding is developing, about the darkness within humanity. Within Lord of the Flies, William Golding highlights the flaws of society back to the flaws within human instincts, through the characters of Jack, Roger and Simon.
Crashed and now trapped on an island where no one knows where they are, these young boys make decisions they think are right; however, their choices lead to dead bodies and turn once innocent children into the savages author William Golding believes every human person possesses inside. The novel The Lord of the Flies exhibits how a quality leader can influence our society, and its cruciality for humanity to keep their senses and composure. The powerful theme of leadership, teaches important lessons throughout The Lord of the Flies that society should assimilate. Similarly, the theme in this novel gives critical examples on how a strong, moral, and confident leader should lead their followers.
In 1923, psychologist Sigmund Freud revolutionized his field with his model of the human psyche. According to his model, the mind is divided into three aspects: the id, ego, and superego. William Golding’s allegorical novel, Lord of the Flies, employs these three aspects of the psyche through intricate characterization representing the concepts of id, ego, and superego. Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of young British boys who are stranded on an island in the South Pacific. They become trapped when their plane is shot down while trying to escape their country during World War II. A choirboy named Jack is shown as the leader of the savages and encourages them to embrace their barbarity. As the novel progresses, the inner evil
What would it would be like to be stranded on an island? In the Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, many little kids are stranded on a island from a plane crash. The kids try to get rescued but when a mysterious beast comes into play less characters are focused on rescue. As the story progresses, many of the characters experience a change in their personalities. Some characters, like Ralph and Piggy, stay the same and are still focused on rescue while others, like Jack and Roger, change and are now focused on hunting and killing. Jack changes throughout the Lord of the Flies because at first he is civilized and focused on the rules but during the time on the island his identity changes and he becomes a savage.
There is something in all of us that is the strongest desire we have, to have power. You see it everywhere, in our nation’s leaders, in our sport’s programs, even in something as basic as a middle school class. In Lord of the Flies, you witness multiple characters striving to be leaders, even though they only focus on one thing at a time. Once they have that power, it’s often taken too far or not even represented at all. William Golding used the desire for power in his book to fuel it with a very life-like feeling.
William Golding in Lord of the Flies depicts the Id, the Ego, and the superego to represent the human psyche. The author creates this representation to emphasize how a society is only sustained success in the balance of power and responsibility. Without a balance, the instinctual Id of the human psyche will take over their minds suppressing the Ego and the Superego. The character Jack represents the Id by giving into his own temptations, Ralph as the Ego by using his logic and reasoning to find solutions to get off the island, with Piggy and Simon as the Superego by their sense of morality to help their “society.”
The Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel since it contains a multitude of emblems exemplifying the stories allegorical and literal meanings. The allegorical level reveals the large philosophic concepts such as savageness and capacity for evil. The literal level is what grabs our attention by using the characters and physical conflict. The entire story deliberately expresses symbolism. By doing this the Island and children's behaviors allegorical representations become extremely evident. This story's double meaning plays a key role in the understanding of the striplings unfortunate situation.
For Centuries philosophers and scholars have bantered about the topic of whether man is naturally fiendish. William Golding offers this conversation starter in his sensible novel “Lord of the Flies”. Set on a tropical island amid World War II, the novel starts when school boys from Incredible England are being traveled to well being and their plane is shot down. No grown-ups survive, and the young men are left to administer themselves and get protected. William Golding uses imagery in the type of the conch to speaks to the idea of society. The young men 's developing association with the conch shows Golding 's subject that people, when uprooted structure the weights of socialized power, will get to be malevolent.1
William Golding the author of the book, Lord of the Flies, brings up the issue of individuality and conformity. In the story, Jack had finally achieved his goal of diverting the rest of his group from polite British boys, into hunters, which left Piggy and Ralph alone, “Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secured society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror and made it governable.”(Golding,152) Much like everyone else, Piggy and Ralph just want to be accepted by the rest of the group, even though they knew that Jack as the new leader was a dangerous thing. In the end, Piggy and Ralph release to their ideas of order on the
William Golding is a very strange man. The types of stories that he wrote are very demonic, strange, and very insane to the reader. His demonic ways of life all lead to him writing the novel, Lord of the Flies. Throughout the book, William Golding shows examples of Freud’s characteristics of the three different types of personality. The three characters that show these examples are stranded on an island and showing whether or not they will have the civilized side of them left. ("Id, Ego and Super-ego") The three characters on the island are Jack, Ralph, and Piggy.