Superego In Lord Of The Flies

Psychology is the study of the mind and the behavior in humans. The theory of psychoanalysis was introduced by Sigmund Freud which explained that the human mind is the result of the interaction of the ID, the SuperEgo, and the Ego. In the novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, published in 1954, a group of British boys ended up stranded on a deserted island. The protagonist Ralph is attempting to get rescued through fire, while the antagonist Jack has lost complete sense of civilization and is preventing Ralph from reaching his goal. An application of Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies elucidates the novel’s theme that evil is within everyone and reveals the author's use of symbolism. Freud's theory is

The ID is innate and is based on our pleasure principle, as the two main goals are seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. The ID has two major instincts, eros: the life instinct that motivates people to focus on pleasure-seeking tendencies, and the thanatos: the death instinct that motivates people to use aggressive urges to destroy. The boys’ characterization represents the two parts of the ID. Jack portrays the thanatos, while Roger portrays the eros. One way Roger is portrayed as the eros is when Roger was throwing rocks at Henry, “Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed, and threw it at Henry - threw it to miss. … Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them” (Golding 62). Roger’s actions show his sadistic behavior, where he finds pleasure from the pain of Henry. Roger establishes

It makes use of secondary processes that emerge during childhood, including perception, recognition, judgment, and memory. The ID and SuperEgo's demands must be balanced in some way by the Ego with reality's limitations. The boy that represents the Ego is Ralph, Ralph is always trying to please either the ID, Jack and Roger, or the SuperEgo, Piggy and Simon. This is presented when the discussion of the fire, “The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make?” (Golding 80). Ralph’s objective is clearly to find rescue and in order to find rescue the fire is needed to attract attention so they can be found. This illustrates Ralph’s decision to side with the SuperEgo because it shows responsibility and order. The fire can symbolize both the SuperEgo and the ID. It can represent the SuperEgo since it illustrates responsibility, the fire is used as a way to secure rescue. While the fire can also represent the ID, since the fire towards the end is very destructive and ends up burning the entire forest