The Id, Ego, And Superego In Lord Of The Flies

‘lord of the flies,'. In R. Matuz & C. Falk (Eds.), Contemporary Literary Criticism (Vol.

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“ “Shut up,” said Ralph absently. He lifted the couch. “Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things around here.” (Chapter 1, Page 22) Ralph immediately notices the boys need some leadership his natural choice is to help guide these boys. He, however, lacks this responsibility. He doesn't continue to command respect from the boys. Ralph grows up faster in the book due to Jack. Later Jack breaks the tribe apart with his appealingly savage ways. Jack ended up establishing a hunting tribe. Once the tribe breaks Ralph tries to bring it back together, but since he didn’t have solid leadership skills even though he might have developed some compassion. He tries to convince Jack that he is still in charge and has power over the boys. The changes Ralph undergoes, from self-centered to group centered, doesn't reflect the island as a whole. They are all too elated to abandon the trappings of society.

Freud, developed a way of thinking that broke down the mind into the id, ego, and super ego. In William Golding’s book, Lord of the Flies this theory explains the boys’ descent into savagery because of the uneven balance of the egos. The id represented the instinctual desires that required immediate satisfaction. The super ego represented moral standards and rule following. Lastly the ego is the healthy balance between the ids desires and the superegos moderation. The ego and the superego were too weak, Freud explains the breakdown of the boys’ turning into savages because the egos’ were off balance given that, Freud describes the descent the best.

Because there are no grown ups on the island and less and less order among the boys, Jack starts to abandon his usual social norms and begins to embrace his primal instincts. One example of this is when Jack and some of the other boys get swept up in hunting pigs and let the signal fire go out. This can be seen on page 69 when Jack tells Ralph, “You should have been with us, Ralph. We had a smashing time” then Ralph simply responds with: ”you let the fire go out.”. The boys prioritized wanting to hunt over getting rescued.

Each character in the novel Lord of the Flies represents a part of the psyche according to Freud. The power struggle between the characters displays the need for civilization to control the instinctual nature of Freud 's theory.

With just a simple sentence we could sense the frustration and the desperation of Ralph as the fire went out because of Jack’s fault. The mood is set in a tense and fragile way. It also demonstrates how Jack prefers to enjoy the moment. He is becoming a savage by killing animals and obtaining pride and joy within it. He is not as eager to be rescued, he does not obtain as much hope from the fire as Ralph does. In this excerpt of the passage the meaning of fire varied from character. To Ralph it is the most important element in the island since it represents civilization to him. He wants to leave the island as soon as possible and reach civilization once again with grownups who can let him mature at his own rate. Jack perceives fire as a game. Fire is used for feasts and it is not as important to him. He is willing to start the fire again, but not willing to leave a hunt go

Lord of the Flies Personality Essay In the book, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, we can pull out the three different personality types explained by Sigmund Freud. Freud was a neurologist who came up with the 3 stages of the human mind. Id, ego, and superego are said to be the stages in which a human goes through in their lifetime ("Freudian Theory of personality"). Each of these can apply to William Golding’s Lord of the flies and the characters within.

Jack and the hunters decide it was more important to have fun and let the fire flicker out. This stupid decision lost them a chance to be rescued. Continually , fire symbolises destruction. In the beginning of the novel they let the fire get out of control which burns a large portion of the island resulting in the “boy with the birthmark” to go missing. Likewise, at the end of the novel jack sets the island on fire in an attempt to

Jack’s selfishness did not take long to affect their chances to be saved, and get home. All of the boys had their mind set on getting back home and staying on task, except for Jack. They made a fire in hope for ships passing by to save them; they had shifts to watch over the fire, and Jack and his hunters did not watch over the fire when it was their

When Jack lets the fire go, this shows the breaking of the rules. This also represents the breakdown of society. The fire going out shows that the boys are not worried about getting rescued, but have accepted their chaotic life. Since Jack could not follow the rules, he began the breakdown of the boys normal way of life. The loss of hope is the end of the

deception that these two, ironically, realize they were lying to themselves, and that they do, in fact, love each other, showing that deception can overcome the opposition men and women have for one another.

Golding’s Lord of the Flies takes the structural model of personality and uses it to represent Jack, Ralph, and Piggy in the novel. He uses them to show how they interact with each other in society. He wants the readers to understand that the id makes decisions and actions that feels good for themselves, and not for others. The superego wants to help out society, and follow good morals, but often gets overpowered and ignored by the id. Lasty, the ego is a balance of the two, and listens to both the superego and the

Jack does not care about the fire but still interested in hunting the pig. On the other hand, Ralph is worried about the fact that the fire and the chance of being rescued are gone. Ralph said, “ I was the chief and you were going to do what I said. You talk. But you can not even build hunts; then you go out hunting and let out the fire.”(Golding 73). Then, the two boy’s conflict of struggling for power continues. Evidently, this quote significantly highlights the desire of the power they are struggling with which is also caused by the fire. Therefore, the fire represents Jack’s tribe and Ralph’s struggle for power. Finally, when Jack puts the jungle on fire to kill Ralph at the end, the fire symbolizes Jack’s struggle for power because the fire leads to his desire of killing Ralph. In the attempt, Ralph said, “no smoke, no fire, no rescue.” (Golding 205). Ironically, when Jack finally has the power to control others as a chief, he puts the whole jungle on fire and keep it going which he never did before. But, the fire is not a rescue fire and purpose is not for rescue. Instead, it is a tool for Jack’s plan of killing Ralph to end his struggle of

Ralph concentrates on being rescued and Jack goes along taking on the responsibility that he and his choir will mind the fire. “We’ll be responsible for keeping the fire going-”, (Page 38) but while Ralph remains focused on being rescued, Jack’s new-found interest in hunting leads him to forget about rescue. “Jack had to think for a moment before he could remember what rescue was. “Rescue? Yes, of course! All the same, I’d like to catch a pig first-.” (Page 58) This also starts to show that Jack has entered the realm of savagery.