Human Nature In Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

Human nature is controversial in many ways. What is natural for humans? Is it the same for everyone or is it unique to each personality? Do people have different natures when their needs are not met? Within everyone’s personality are many different aspects. For example, when someone is alone they will definitely act different than when they are in a group. Other people can influence the decisions of the individuals who make up the group. Lord of the Flies by William Golding attempts to explain human nature and the defects of society through the way that young boys might act when left without authority. When the boys are evacuated from their country during a war, they crash land on an island where they need to survive until they get rescued.

Jack represents the id category. There are many instances when he doesn’t get exactly what he wants and is upset about it. These include when he doesn’t get voted chief,(Insert quote), taking his entire group hunting and letting the fire go out which is important to the survival of the group as a whole (), and breaking away from Ralph’s group because he doesn’t get what he wants (). Now for Maslow’s Hierarchy, his basic needs are satisfied, he feels safety at least for a time and as the leader of the hunters he is a part of a group. He does not really show signs of respect for others so he belongs most to tier three of the model. Ralph represents the ego category because though he is a rational thinker and morally stable at least during the beginning of the book, he also demonstrates signs of wanting to fit in such as leaving Piggy behind to go explore\ the island with Jack and Simon (pg#). His basic needs are met, he feels safe in the beginning, he is leader of a group, and he respects himself as well as others. This puts him at level four of Maslow’s Hierarchy. Piggy and Simon represent the super ego because they both understand the rules of society and still adhere to most of them while on the island. This is

This shows how adults work as well because the same personality differences can cause disagreements and fractures in the structure of society. Most of all, everyone develops the id, ego and super ego differently which means that the nature of one person will not necessarily be the same as someone else’s nature. At the base of Freud’s Theory, the id rules first and the Hierarchy of Needs can explain how the boys regress into being id dominant. As for human nature, everyone has their own opinion, but William Golding says this: “Before the Second World War, I believed in the perfectibility of social man; that a correct structure of society would produce goodwill; and that therefore you could remove all social ills by a reorganisation of society... but after the war, I did not because I was unable to. I had discovered what one man could do to another... I must say that anyone who moved through those years without understanding that man produces evil as a bee produces honey must have been blind or wrong in the