lord of the flies essay

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Everyone reacts differently to certain situations, some people tend to react impulsively suiting their own needs, while others react with a higher sense of morality. Sigmund Freud, a psychoanalyst, would say their behaviors are largely influenced by the three main parts of the psyche. The three parts of the psyche are- the ID psyche which looks after our basic needs, such as our wants and desires. The id acts to the pleasure principal wanting immediate satisfaction of any impulses. Another psyche is the EGO psyche, which controls our impulses based on what society expects. The EGO acting to the reality principal. The final psyche being Super-ego which controls our impulses based on personal rules along with high moral standards. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, there are three main characters who best represent Sigmund Freud’s psyches. Jack being an ID character, Ralph having ego characteristics and Piggy representing Super-ego traits. The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding establishes psychological allegory by the character development of Jack, Ralph, and Piggy.

Through jack’s development, jack represents Sigmund Freud’s ID psyche. He neglects his duties of keeping the fire going and instead decides to go out hunting. ‘Ralph spoke “you let the fire go out”… “We can start the fire again. You should have been with us Ralph. We had a smashing time. The twins got knocked over-”. (p.69) Jack demonstrates his ID characteristics by not caring about the fire and only wanting food for himself. Secondly Jack displays his ID character personality by making a disturbance in ralphs meeting and making the boys question Ralphs leadership ability. “I’ve got the conch. Ralph thinks you’re all cowards, running away from the boar and the beast and that’s not all… he’s like piggy. He says things like piggy. He isn’t a proper chief. (p.126) Jack is being rude by not letting ralph talk or explain himself and also not taking piggy’s feelings into consideration while dissing ralph. Finally jack confirms his ID characterization by raiding Ralph’s camp looking for piggy’s glasses to start a fire “I know. They didn’t come for the conch. They came for something else. Ralph, what am I going to do? …. From his left hand dangled piggy’s broken glasses”. (p.168) Jack is presenting his ID character by taking what’s not his and returning it broken along with raiding Ralph’s camp, he could have asked piggy if he could borrow his glasses instead of stealing and breaking them.
Through Ralph’s development, Ralph conveys Sigmund Freud’s ego psyche by having a duel character personality by caring at times only about himself and
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