Lord Of The Flies Allegory

Oftentimes authors will use symbolism through the characters in order to represent a larger encompassing theme. William Golding’s book Lord of the Flies is no exception to this pattern—as various characters in the book have such allegorical meanings. In the case of Jack, he could be said to represent the evilness in humanity, proven by three established concepts in the story: the true nature of his hunting tendencies, the progression of events that happen in his dancing rituals, and his interactions towards other symbolic figures. These three reasons, furthered by evidence shown throughout the novel, fit Jack into a role of symbolic evilness (add something here).

Frued's theory of the human psyche is that it is made up of three parts: the id, ego, and superego. These three parts are represented in the realistic novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Set on a tropical island during World War II, the novel begins when schools boys from Great Britain are being flown to safety and their plane is shot down. No adults survive, and the boys are left to govern themselves and get rescued. In the novel Jack represents the id, Piggy and Simon the superego, and Ralph the ego.

People with ego personalities are rational and understand the need for compromise ("Structure of Mind: Freud's Id, Ego, & Superego"). Ralph is the character in Lord of the Flies with this temperament. He exercises this characteristic, for example, by telling the group that they will be rescued (Golding, Ch. 3). All of the boys are scared of or worried about the unfamiliarity of the island, and Ralph is trying to comfort them and reassure them that everything will be okay. He also tries to create and maintain order throughout the group because he understands that, if they’re going to live on the island, then they’ll need some sort of organization amongst them. Later in the book, when Jack’s tribe ransacks Ralph and Piggy’s makeshift hut and steals Piggy’s glasses, Ralph confronts him. He says that Jack should have just asked to borrow his glasses to start a fire and that stealing them was unnecessary because he would have been allowed to borrow them. Ralph is continuously trying to make Jack see the rational part of things throughout the story; he’s trying to convince him that there are other, better ways to do things. But Jack can’t see through his animalistic personality and pushes Ralph’s reasoning and insight aside, despite himself.

Williams Golding experienced many horrors that haunt him, which bleed over into his writing as evident in his vivid descriptions of horrid and inhumane occurrences. Lord of the Flies is about a group of school boys that are stranded on an island without adults. The boys form their own leadership, in the latter part of Lord of the Flies a new tribe is formed and the boys descent to savagery. Chapter 9 is the turning point of the story, it is when the boys lose their innocence and they become savage. Simon is beaten to death in a circle of savages (death circle). Each word, adjective, and event was picked carefully by Golding to further emphasize his allegory. In chapter 9 of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs diction, animal imagery, and foreshadowing to convey the that fear corrupts hope and converts civilization to savagery.

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.

He tries to maintain control over the boys and keeps in place rules and regulations mimicking those of the English society. He works to maintain a functioning community, as shown especially during the assembly relating to their rules, “All this I meant to say. Now I’ve said it. You voted me for chief. Now you do what I say” (Golding 81). However, Jack, the other competitor for leader on the island, disturbs the peace and constantly acts as a source of immaturity and savagery for the children. As Claire Rosenfield says, “If Ralph is a good projection of man’s good impulses… who establish the necessity for our valid social and ethical action, then Jack becomes an externalization of the evil instinctual forces of the unconscious.” Ralph, who represents the morality and kind-heartedness of the ego, while also challenged by Jack, still maintains control over him, just as Freud hypothesized the ego would do (Hanley). Not only that, but Ralph also acts as a mediator between Jack and Piggy, which shows that he has the characteristics of the ego, and was used by Golding to create an

The Lord of the Flies Throughout The Lord of the Flies , Golding explores the realities of the real world and metaphorically compares them to a group of boys stuck on an island and are forced to from their own society in order to survive. This novel is an allegory, the boys inevitably faced obstacles and most lost themselves along the way. In The Lord of the Flies , Golding uses the symbol of the sow’s head, the death of Simon, and the character Roger to communicate the theme that people often lose sight of who they are when they’re overcome by their innate evil.

Adolf Hitler was responsible for the deaths of over 70 million people. Jack only kills two people, but these two men are similar in several ways. The fictional novel Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding is an allegory of World War II. Piggy and Jack are two characters in the novel that relate to prominent figures in history. Jack is the chief of his tribe, and he is an allegory for the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The Nazis, or German Workers Party were the notorious political group during World War II. Piggy is the brains of the boys in the novel, and is part of Ralph’s tribe. Piggy is an allegory for Sir Winston Churchill. Churchill

The ego is the part of us that makes moral decisions while thinking of our decisions in the long run. Still satisfying the id with decisions that are socially acceptable (Cherry). In Lord of the Flies, Ralph portrays the ego by making decisions that will benefit everyone in the long run in trying to make it off of the island. Ralph is the first to actually take in the fact of the crash landing and how they need to get off this island as soon as possible. One of Ralph’s main ideals throughout the entire book is the rescue fire. Without this, he says rescue is impossible. While the id of our brain may not want not to always be tending to a fire, Ralph knows it must to be done. Furthermore, Ralph wants to keep everyone in one tribe to avoid conflict and knows if not, serious consequences will follow (Golding). Knowing that Ralph is basically the equalizer between Jack and Piggy we can understand he is in a very tough

The character, Piggy represents the superego because he is trying to do everything that is right.“Which is better – to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is?” (Golding, 11.200). The reason why he represents the superego is because he goes against the id; when he dies, behavior on the island gets much worse. Ralph symbolizes the ego area of the mind."All this I meant to say. Now I've said it. You voted me for chief. Now you do what I say" (Golding, 5.58). He is caught between making morally right or wrong choices. Jack seems to represent the id because he does not think clearly before acting; he acts on his physical feelings."…fear can't hurt you any more than a dream. There aren't any beasts to be afraid of on this island . . . serves you right if something did get you, you useless lot of cry-babies!" (Golding, 5.79). For example, when he gets hungry, he hunts instead of trying to help the other boys with starting a signal fire. All these characters are under one conflict, the conflict with the self, which is generated by the id, ego, and superego. There are two more literary elements and ideas apart from the 3 part mind

Society has dictated how individuals act since its birth, humans therefore have transitioned from individuals into a united force. One man by the name Alan Wilson Watts agrees that society steals independence and has expressed this belief by saying: “We seldom realize…that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.” This statement relates to the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, because the novel analyzes what the absence of societal structure does to the human mind. Golding analyzes this question by generating allegories through many characters.

The disappearance of the ego indicates id is breaking free. During the hunts, Jack is slowly losing his natural kindness, at one point he is determined to kill the only civilized and rational adult. When Jack finally breaks off from Ralph, Jack and his tribe accidentally killed the pilot. The satire is when Simon goes to search for “beastie,” he finds the dead pilot. This is the ingenious part of the movie, the children kill the symbol of civilized. Thus, it prominent the extinction of their innocence as they slowly step towards the end of civilization. Under the influence of id appetence, not only they kill the ego representer, they also kill civilization and order, and their nature.

Lord of the flies is a pessimistic novel providing readers with an abundance of metaphors that provides many structures in human life in society. The novel portrays human behavior in an environment where civilization is no longer has means. Lord of the flies is an allegorical story in which objects, people, and actions in a narrative have meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The powerful experiences that William Golding lived through in the Royal Navy in world war two affected Golding’s understanding of what people are capable of doing to one another. Goldening discovered and shared that men produced evil.

The book Lord of the Flies by William Golding uses allegory to convey its theme. How does he use allegory to convey the themes within the book? In the book, he uses objects and some of the stranded boys to illustrate the many themes that he had creatively woven into the book. Along with telling a story about boys that were stranded on an island, he creatively sent out an important message through allegory.

William Golding wrote a fascinating novel published on September 15 ,1954 ,titled Lord of the Flies that in literal terms is merely about a group of boys who survived a plane crash on a secluded island. In actuality, the book has a deeper meaning. Golding himself said that there is allegory in this novel, and the book is filled with it. Religion and psychology are two types of allegory that just ooze from the book. The religious and psychological aspects of this novel are tied together by the idea of fear.