User:Natewest

Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psychoanalysis and developer of the theory of the human unconscious, proposed that the human psyche is composed of three parts; the id, the ego, and the super-ego. When one gives in to basic instincts and desires, blame the id. If you consider yourself separate from such savage motivations, you may be feeling the influence of the super-ego, which is the part of the psyche responsible for morality, our consciences, and our inhibition to commit taboos. The ego is the third part of the psyche and it is considered the mediate between the id and the super-ego. In William Golding's novel "Lord of the Flies", three characters have definite relations to the three parts of the psyche. The wild, brutal Jack is a representation of the id, our inner savage. Thoughtful, yet out of touch Piggy is the super-ego, well meaning, but removed from reality. Finally there is Ralph, the pragmatic leader who represents the ego in the story. Even at Jack's first appearance on the island, he already has an air of darkness and brutality to him. He appears with his band of choir boys in toe, but when one falls from exhaustion he never bats an eye, saying merely "He's always throwing a faint" Golding, page 20. Jack first challenges Ralph for leadership, in a similar manner to how the id and the ego fight for control. He is obsessed with killing and cannot thin about other ways to solve problems he is faced with. The most telling symbol is the constant battle for power between Jack and Ralph. Freud stated that the Ego must always mediate between the Id and the Super-ego and in doing so it is always in conflict with one or the other. If Jacks savage brutality are representative of the Id, then at the opposite end of the spectrum lies Piggy and his quiet, awkward sense of logic, order, and civility. From Piggy's first appearance in the novel it is hard not to feel that such a person as he will meet with disaster in a place as wild as the island. He seems frail and unprepared for the reality of the place, especially after saying "I was the only boy in our school what had asthma, And I've been wearing specs since I was three." Piggy is the super-ego, the place where your morality and conscious lie. He knows what is right and wrong. When Jack begin acting more savage, Piggy is the one who knows that bad things are going to happen. He cannot fight jack though, just as the Super-ego cannot go against the Id, thus requiring the ego, Ralph, to be the middle ground. Though Ralph is the leader of the group, analysis of his decisions shows that he actually is under the control of Jack and even Piggy. Most of Ralph's ideas come from Piggy, but we see that Jack even has some influence on Ralph when Ralph tries to spear the pig and also when the group kills Simon. Piggy feeds Ralph most of his ideas about what the tribe should do, in very much the same way that Freud theorized the Super-ego affected the ego. In the same way, the id fights its way through at times and Ralph seems to like the feeling of savagery, his view on hunting even changes after he tastes blood for himself, after he speared the pig, " he sunned himself in their new respect and felt that hunting was good after all." Golding p. 113. Ralph fights the id until the end, but we are forced to ask ourselves if morality and civilization really triumphed over savagery. Lord of the Flies is a novel about conflict between a group of school boys, but when looked at from this point of view, the conflict is one occurring inside all of us. It is the battle of the Id and the super-ego, and the ego is battlefield that is torn asunder in the process. In Golding's novel, one could say that the id wins in the end, and the coming of the adults could be a reassurance of the fact. What act could be more of a concession to the id's pull than the act of nuclear war; a self insured, mutual destruction for all parties, involved or not. Golding's pessimism is tangible in the underlying themes of Lord of the Flies, but with the current state of the world we live, we must ask ourselves whether it is a misplaced impression or if we are letting our ids get the better of us.