Superego Thoughts In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

A recurring theme among leaders in many societies today is that “absolute power corrupts absolutely” (John Acton, a 1700’s English Catholic historian, politician, and writer). In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, this idea of leadership, power, and corruption is put in the spotlight. Jack, one of the boys on the island, forces his way into the leadership position without actually earning it. It is clear that Jack has become corrupt as he turns into a person who is intimidating, egotistical, and selfish. Ralph, on the other hand, is a quality leader under most conditions as he appeals to the boys’ sophisticated side and has a

wrote this after publishing Lord of the Flies. It is our world, in the form of a story. The two leaders in the story are Ralph and Jack. Ralph starts off a comfortable leader of the boys, but by the end of the book, Ralph and his companion Piggy are alone facing Jack and the rest of the boys. As the novel progresses and the society on the island starts to change, so does Ralph. He begins thinking he has all the answers, but comes to realize that without Piggy he would have never gotten this far. By the end of the book, Ralph and Jack are complete opposites. Jack is about savagery and fun while Ralph is holding on to society, rules, and civilization. Appearing to be a weak leader due to defection of his followers, Ralph is actually dedicated and insightful, only loosing his followers because he could not compete with one category that attracts nearly everyone in the world: fun.

The book Lord of The Flies, by William Golding has the theory of Freud’s Id, Ego, and Superego characterized throughout the actions of boys who had to try to survive after being stranded on an island while escaping the war. When using Freud’s theory, the character, In the book Lord of the Flies it explains Piggy himself as a character, the superego of Freud’s theory, and Piggy being portrayed as the superego come together to piece a great story together showing us all the part of the subconscious mind.

The id is the unconscious part of our mind that "contains our secret desires, darkest wishes, (and) intense fears" ("Psychoanalytic Criticism" 2). The id is entirely irrational and serves only to fulfill urges and wishes that the person most desires. The superego is also unconscious and is driven by the morality principal. It "represents the demands of morality and of society" (Mullahay 39). The superego urges us to do what will be accepted by our peers and by society. It can be compared to our conscious in the sense that it drives us to do what is right so that we won’t feel guilt or remorse. The third part to the trio is the ego, which is based solely on logic and rationality, and is part of the conscious mind. The ego "represents reason and sanity" and makes sensible and logical decisions even though these decisions may not fulfill all of our desires (Mullahay 36). "The ego (can be called) the battleground for forces of the superego and id" in that it "regulates (the) id and comes to terms with (the) superego" ("Psychoanalytic Criticism" 2).

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.

In the beginning, the island has a happy, holiday feel, like a trip to the Bahamas. The boys explore the island feeling like adventurers and trailblazers instead of lost children. When scouting the island for the first time, Ralph, Simon, and Jack talked of making maps and a“kind of glamour was spread over them and the scene and they were conscious of the glamour and made happy by it” (Golding 25). But the island does not retain its pleasant and benign atmosphere for long- soon an aura of fear steals over the jungle. Hunting goes from an adrenaline fueled excursion to source a mild anxiety for all but Jack, and when he tells his hunters to follow him, they “spread out, nervously, in the forest” (Golding 133). The jungle has changed from a place full of fruit and joyous exploration, to one full of shadows and beasts. It is easier to revert back to savagery when lost within its trees. As early as the third chapter, Jack gets startled and “for a minute became less a hunter than a furtive thing, ape-like among the tangle of trees” (Golding 49). When one is alone or afraid, the jungle starts to feel like a hunt-or-be-hunted scenario. Jack, the character perhaps most acclimated to the jungle through his long hunting trips, describes being afraid and feeling vulnerable in the jungle, as if something is always behind him. When everything has deteriorated into chaos, perhaps the most telling

The id is Freud’s definition of the irrational, animalistic part of the mind ("Structure of Mind: Freud's Id, Ego, & Superego"). Jack, the lead choir boy from the group, is a cruel, selfish, and primitive boy-- the perfect example of an id personality. In Lord of the Flies, this boy executes multiple actions which prove that he truly has an id personality. For example, Jack stops his

William Golding's Lord of the Flies "Everything is breaking up. I don't know why." - Ralph What is going wrong on the island and why?

“Human nature is evil and goodness is caused by intentional activity” - Xunzi. Humans by nature have natural tendencies to evil however not everyone acts on those emotions.

      In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding tells the story of a group of boys on an island left out to self survive. The time was World War II when the plane the boys were in was shot down leaving young survivals on a deserted island without any adults. The whole story is about what happens during their stay on the island representing metaphoric ideas of humanity in each incident as Golding describes. Golding has reportedly said that he wrote the novel in response to his personal war experiences. “ (The war)… taught us not fighting, politics or the follies of nationalism, but about the given nature of man.” (Golding) By looking at Lord of the Flies, it is clear that Golding’s view of

Savagery is the condition of being primitive, uncivilized or the quality of being fierce or cruel (Google). It is something that comes easy to everyone at certain times in our life. People will learn it is harder to be good than bad. Being bad comes natural to everyone; people like the thrill of taking a chance. People are trained to be civil and polite from the time one grows up and it is not that hard because of the society everyone lives in. What would happen if the people’s democracy fell and everybody is left with nothing? How would the citizens react? Would they act like they were trained to do ever since they were born, or would they disregard all of it and do as they please because there is no definite

The author, William Golding uses the main characters of Ralph, Jack, and Simon in The Lord of the Flies to portray how their desire for leadership, combined with lack of compromise leads to the fall of their society. This desire for leadership and compromise led to the fall of their society just like multiple countries during times of wars.

In his story A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah struggles to balance his id, ego and superego during his time of recovery at UNICEF’s rehabilitation center. The id, ego, and superego are terms that Sigmund Freud introduced to explain differences in the unconscious mind. The id is of the unconscious the part of our minds in which our drives towards pleasures and bodily needs, such as self preservation, aggression, and sexual urges are found this unconscious part is the primary of the unconscious this is is also primitive. I like to think when eating a cake my id will want the whole thing accepting the calories and all. The ego is the balance between the id and superego and is actually conscious. Our ego

One of the first questions a writer must ask is “Where does this story take place?” If the writer wanted to write a book about eskimo’s, he probably shouldn’t place the story in Africa, just as if William Golding wanted to write about a group of boys surviving on their own in a secluded area, he probably shouldn’t have chosen Paris, or New York, where there is a mass of people. Instead, Golding chose an uninhabited island located somewhere in the vast South Pacific Ocean, far from any civilization. However, this decision was not just solely based on its isolation; Many more important factors from the location come in play with Lord of the Flies’ plot.

This is the part of the book where madness strikes. The kids become a little home sick and maybe even a little sleep deprived. Everyone starts to argue and everyone really starts to ugly. However, Ralph is really holding strong and trying to pull the whole group together even though Jack is struggling to let Ralph be the alpha dog. All of the younger kids really start to worry and be scared of a beast that lives in the forest. I like the part, on page 87, when Ralph is asking the younger kids where the beast lives. It kind of reminds me of the boogie monster that my mother would joke that it lives under my bed or sometimes in my closet just to scare me. One of Ralph’s best methods of keeping everyone in control is using the conch as a way to