Psychoanalysis And Lord Of The Flies

In the theory of Freud’s psychoanalysis, he states that there are differences in personality functions, the Id, the Ego and the Superego and in the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding there are three characters that represent all three: Jack, Ralph, and Piggy. In the book, a group of boys, including the three previously mentioned, get stranded on a deserted island and must scavenge for food and set a fire to be rescued. It ends up in despair as there is a sort of mini war that takes place between characters and ends up lighting up the entire island on fire before being rescued just in time. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and according to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis the Id would be Jack with his assertive personality and borderline

Ralph’s personality can be described as fair-minded and decisive, which can be traits for the ego in Freud’s psychoanalysis as the ego represents and enforces reality principles. In the book, Lord of the Flies one can see the behavior conveyed by Ralph in a quote, “We’ve got to have special people for looking after the fire. Any day there may be a ship out there… and if we have a signal going, they’ll come and take us off. And another thing. We ought to have more rules. Where the conch is, that’s a meeting. The same up here as down there" (Golding 34). As the book develops one can see that Ralph’s behavior begins to slowly start changing in the book as it gets further into them being deserted how he sees what is truly important and puts up somewhat of a block between Jack and his wants, versus the needs of all the boys. An example of this would be “The fire’s the most important thing. Without the fire we can’t be rescued. I’d like to put on war-paint and be a savage. But we must keep the fire burning. The fire’s the most important thing on the island, because, because—" (Golding 126). It is quite visible how Ralph changes to represent the ego go in the book and as it goes on, he is the one the truly cares once Piggy and Simon have died. For the last part of the theory, there will be the

Piggy acts as some sort of savior in the book before he gets killed, and after he gets killed the island goes to chaos like how the world would if the superego didn’t exist. In Lord of the Flies, Piggy mentions one of the little boys who seemingly disappeared, "That little ‘un that had a mark on his face—where is he now? I tell you I don’t see him" (Golding 37). He mentions the little boy after Jack sets a major fire without care for anyone’s wellbeing, and disregards Piggy when he asks this question. Nearing the end of the book before Piggy gets killed after asking questions about Simon’s death because of how brutal everyone acted towards him, “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? What's grownups going to think" (Golding 91). Throughout the book, piggy gets disregarded and thrown around and we can see it in this quote because of how he asks his question leading up to his death. In total, Piggy represents the superego because of how much torment he ends up going through, but he stays calm during it and tries to work things out