Lord Of The Flies: Sigmund Freud's Theory Of Mind

Sigmund Freud’s “Theory of Mind” papers greatly influenced our understanding of the structure of the human mind. Freud conceived the tripartisan mind consisting of the id, superego, and ego. In the novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, there are a couple distinct characters that fit in with the three parties. The id is the instinctual and sexual thoughts of the human mind. This role is held by Jack, a dictator-like leader that governs some of the children on the island. The superego is the self-critical thoughts and are heavily influenced from teachers and parents. This role is held by Piggy, the glasses wielding, smart, over compassionate, overweight, sidekick to our protagonist. The ego is the mediator between the id and superego.

Jack wanted to be the main leader of the entire group from the start, but this did not happen and Ralph was ultimately elected. Feeling woeful, Ralph made Jack head of the hunters. Jack says “Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong, we hunt!”(91). Jack isn’t disagreeing with any rules in particular that ralph put in place, but jack is saying that he doesn’t like the rules all together. Being young, other boys agree with this thought that rules are unnecessary. They think that if no one is present to govern over them, that their actions have no

Ralph wants to focus on getting rescued and going home like Piggy, but still wants to have fun like Jack. Ralph is the leader of both Jack, Piggy, and all others on the island. This is like the ego governing over the superego and the id. Ralph decides what happens on the island; rescue being the number one priority. Ralph says that “The fire is the most important thing on the island.”(80). In the beginning, the boys know to make a rescue fire for boats and planes too see, but things get out of hand too quickly and the fire spreads and almost goes out. Near the end of the book, Jack harnesses the fire by stealing Piggy’s glasses and it quickly gets out of control. Jack’s tribe starts to get rambunctious and starts to chase Ralph with the intent to kill him. Things only got so disorderly because Ralph let the id take over and eventually command the island. Ralph is saved by a naval officer who happened to see the smoke from the fire that Jack’s tribe made; therefore enforcing his statement on fire being the most important thing to focus on. The ego is also the reality portion of the brain, it takes information and doesn't try to combat it with other information. When Ralph and Piggy are talking about Simon's death, Piggy dismisses it as an accident. “That was murder” “You stop it” said Piggy, shrilly “What good’re you doing talking like that?” “It was an accident”.(156-157). Piggy is rationalizing simons death as an accident and that