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Morality In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

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“Freud” of The Flies The renowned physiologist Sigmund Freud once said, “The virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life” (Freud The Interpretation of Dreams) This genius man also divided our subconsciousness based on the same principle that he also wrote this quote on. The principle that everyone possesses the capacity and tends to fill the capacity for not just evil but also good. This is where Freud derives his three divisions of the self conscious. First off, Freud says that all humans possess the capacity for the superego which he says is not something humans are born with, but it’s something that is taught starting from a young age. Secondly, Freud says every human was born with capacity …show more content…

Piggy represents the superego because he keeps reminding Ralph to keep the fire going and taking care of the littluns. Piggy’s “nagging” may seem as if he’s being no fun, but he shows that he’s still grasped onto a tiny bit of morality and that he cares enough for him to attend to the needs of the whole island. In the article “An Overview of Lord of the Flies”, Henningfeld claims that the superego “punishes” the ego by giving it feelings of guilt. One can identify this in Lord of The Flies in chapter two during the chaos ensuing the fire that burned down nearly half the island. Ralph is desperately trying to reclaim a level of order and suddenly their fire dies out. Piggy declares that if they want to get off the island from there on they must work more proficiently. After realizing the boy with the birthmark is missing Piggy yells at the group for being so out of control and as the group becomes crestfallen, Ralph (The representation of the ego) is shamed. Piggy isn’t the only resolute, conscientious person Golding places on the island, Simon represents the superego in a nearly Messianic way. “Immorality, no less than morality, has at all times found support in religion” (Freud The Future of an Illusion). To be one of the moral voices in Lord of the Flies, Golding writes Simon’s character to have a strong tie to religious figures. Throughout the book Simon is compared to and acts similar to a Christ-type figure. When the Lord of the Flies is talking to Simon he says, "You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close, close! I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are what they are?" (111) Golding writes this dialogue as

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Piggy is truly the brains behind Ralph’s leadership on the island. He comes up with all of the ideas, such as calling the group together by using the shell and taking names as a source of accountability; however, he is unable to carry out his ideas due to a lack in assertiveness. “We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us” ( 16) .

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After a plane crash in the midst of war, a group of boys get stranded on an island in the middle of an ocean, left to fend for themselves. In Lord of the Flies, young boys create a functioning society on the uncivilized, wild island. Throughout the book, one character in particular, Piggy, is seen as the societal voice of reason. However, after his death, the island descends into complete chaos. In Lord of the Flies, Piggy represents the societal voice of reason, and is used as a scapegoat for the characters and the reader to show the chaos that any contemporary society faces without reason.

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792 Words | 4 Pages

but then he gets cut-off because Ralph isn’t interested in his wisdom. Piggy is perceived as a goof or jester because he is overweight. “Piggy shows that morality and maturity are needed to balance people’s wild instincts”(Lord of the Flies). Piggy’s wisdom and knowledge exemplifies the good qualities in human society. Piggy, Simon, and Ralph were the ones who attempted to keep order, but Ralph was the one in charge of the whole

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654 Words | 3 Pages

Golding puts Piggy as a symbol of wisdom, but Piggy doesn’t have much of the power because of his outlook. Piggy brings this idea that no one knows where they are and tries to find the way to survive. However, Ralph not primarily thinking about their situation, doesn’t show great leadership, but he takes the idea of Piggy and announces that he had that idea too. Piggy doesn’t say anything to Ralph since Ralph has more power than Piggy. “‘I got the conch,’ said Piggy indignantly.

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William Golding’s fictional, British novel, Lord of the Flies, presents a character that serves a two-part function as a “scapegoat” and a certain commentary on life. During WWII, a group of British boys are being evacuated via plane when they crash and are stranded on an island without adults. As time progresses, the innate evilness of human nature begins to overcome the savage society of young boys while Piggy, an individual representation of brains without brawn, becomes an outlier as he tries to resist this gradual descent of civilness and ends up shouldering the blame for the wrongdoings of the savage tribe. Up until his untimely death, Piggy is portrayed as the most intellectual and most civil character in the group of stranded boys. Right from the beginning, Piggy realized that “[they] got to do something,” (8) and he recognized the shell Ralph had picked up as a conch.

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806 Words | 4 Pages

Abandoning one’s Christianity leads to a loss of morals, as seen in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies through the allusions to Jesus, imagery of regression, and personification of the sea. Golding uses the characterization of Simon to allude to the life of Jesus Christ by contrasting his disposition with that of the other boys, highlighting their distance from their faith and its destructive effect. One example of such disparity is when "Simon knelt on all fours and

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830 Words | 4 Pages

It has been said several times throughout history that human nature is constitutionally a negative force. This is further shown in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies when numerous young boys aged twelve and under are stranded on an island after a plane crash during World War 2. These children abandon all civilization and grow more savage as the literature progresses. The main boys: Ralph, Simon, Piggy, and Jack change exponentially throughout the novel, gradually losing themselves and any culture they had. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, depicts human nature’s inherent evil and man’s inability to escape it.

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Jim Casy was the moral voice and religious center of the chapter. Steinbeck uses him as a religious icon and his initials J.C further conclude to the fact that Steinbeck designed him as a figure of Christ. Casy discovers the rules and regulations of the Christian faith severely confining and clearly extraneous to actual situations. As a preacher and a history of many sexual relations with women he converts. Casy originally felt immense guilt for what he had done in his past and he worried the responsibilities he direct to Jesus.

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522 Words | 3 Pages

One of Freud’s theories is that the “Id – Ego combination dominates a person’s behavior until social awareness leads to the emergence of the superego, which recognizes that

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Imagine you are a twelve-year-old and you are on a deserted island with a bunch of kids your age, you have great ideas but because you are not big and strong no one listens that is exactly how the character Piggy felt. First, Piggy has no qualities that kids stranded on a deserted island view as useful. Secondly, all of the character, with the exception of Piggy, adhere the principal of survival of the fittest in order to survive. Finally, Piggy is used as a symbol to demonstrate the idea that humanity is reliant on power to escalate their country instead of trying to advance their country through science and mathematics. The character Piggy is part of a broader spectrum that one might not pick up on the first read of the novel.

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Piggy is reassuring the other boys on the island that "the only thing to fear is fear itself". Piggy has faith in other people to carry their own weight. He even says that his "mama" raised him to expect a lot from others, and he is often let down. Piggy originally wanted to be the leader of the island of boys, but the boys voted for Ralph because of his fair hair. It was later determined that Piggy, the fat boy no one seemed to like, would've turned out to be the more superior leader of the

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860 Words | 4 Pages

Piggy is the character in the book that is not respected due to his physical condition. Piggy is known as the outsider, who has glasses and is overweight compare to the others. Although, out of everyone he is the one that uses his knowledge in making solutions. He sees perspectives that enables him to see things that Ralph cannot. Golding uses Piggy’s death as an example of savagery as a loss of civilization.

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809 Words | 4 Pages

For instance, as Ralph is accentuating Piggy’s assets, he explains, “Piggy, for all his ludicrous body, had brains” (71). Each boy in the group has little respect for Piggy and thinks of him as an outsider, yet Piggy continues to stay true to himself and finds small ways to help the group, which always involves his high level of thinking. Piggy knows better than to participate in the savage acts with other boys, which helps him maintain his sanity up until his gruesome death. Moreover, in a large discussion with all the boys, Piggy reflects, “Which is better - to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?” (259).

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1243 Words | 5 Pages

Jack’s beliefs of malice were proven, demonstrating that everyone had a dark side, whether they chose to acknowledge it or not. Jack also earned enough authority to acquire dominance of the island through Simon’s passing, due to the fact that his capabilities of violence were displayed, whereas before the boys might have been doubtful of his dubious boasting. Simon’s death also caused Piggy to obtain more self-confidence, using his emotion and attachment to Simon as a powerful anchor, in with he realized that the savage game the island and Jack were playing had gone to excessive lengths. Simon’s death made it so that Jack could dominate the island and further spread his ideas of disorder and brutality, dooming the boys to bloodshed and their own ultimate

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1127 Words | 5 Pages

During Simon’s encounter with the Lord of the Flies, Golding reveals the central issue concerning human nature. Simon reaches the realization that they fear the beast because it exists within each of them. The Lord of the Flies tells Simon that the beast is inside each boy and cannot be killed. The boys go from behaving like civilized young men to brutal savages. “What I mean is…maybe it’s only us.”

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