Jack Lord Of The Flies Psychological Analysis Essay

Liam Hodges

Mrs. Long

DC Intro to Literature

12 May 2023

Psychological Analysis of Jack

In William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, the character Jack shows many signs of displacement. Jack begins the story as a confident and natural leader who wants to use his past leadership experiences to bring the boys together and survive the trials of the island. But as time passes on the island, Jack descends into a violent and barbaric state, displacing his emotions onto other boys in the group as well as the animals on the island. These displaced emotions fall onto others and begin a chain reaction, and the boys terrorize the pigs native to the island, all because of Jack’s unconscious defense mechanisms.

The novel begins with the boys stranded

In the story, it says, “He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up.”(Golding 51) Davidson does a deeper analysis of this quote in her article titled “Lord of the Flies – Character Essay on Jack,” stating “The word ‘compulsion’ suggests this feeling is not something Jack has any control over; it is almost instinctive for him or a crazy addiction. This is reinforced by the idea that this feeling was ‘swallowing’ him up, it was a feeling or thought taking over his life and killing a pig became the only thing he could think about.” Jack is consumed by this creature and is subconsciously using defense mechanisms to hide his anger about not being elected leader of the island. Instead of letting the negative emotions he feels go onto someone else, he puts them onto a more accepted target, a pig. Psychology Today writes “Displacement often involves deflected anger or aggression, but it can include other feelings and impulses as well.” They also write “Defense mechanisms…function to unconsciously protect the ego from discomfort or distress.” Jack displays all of these symptoms in the book, and his thirst for blood further proves he is displacing his

Brian Ireland explores these outside factors in his article “William Golding’s Lord of the Flies in Historical Context.” Because the story takes place in the 1940’s, Ireland explores the impact of World War 2 and how it could emotionally impact the boys, including Jack. Ireland writes “It seems the boys were being evacuated from Great Britain to Australia because of the threat of war.” Great Britain was the subject of many bombings during the war, and these boys were being sent off by their parents so they could be safe somewhere else. While this was done for the good of the boys, it could cause lots of emotional trauma because they were being sent away from their homes and separated from their parents. This trauma could easily explain why Jack was using defense mechanisms such as displacement to get his mind off of these problems.

In conclusion, Jack’s decent into a barbaric and mentally unstable state may have been because he was displacing his emotions onto other things. The trauma he experienced from being separated from his parents paired with not being elected leader of the boys could have triggered subconscious defense mechanisms, specifically displacement. These emotions were displaced onto other things, such as the boys in his hunting party and the pigs native to the island, which caused Jack to lose control of himself