No matter who you are, there is always evil within everyone. In the fictional novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, a group of boys are stranded on an island without supervision. They try to survive on the island without any adult authority however, over time, the tension of living without adults influences them and dramatically transitions on how they think. In the novel Golding’s use of 3 personalities were inspired by physiologist Sigmund Freud. He has developed the 3 parts to create complex behaviors of human beings. This novel exemplifies Freud’s psychoanalytic theory that are used to deepen the audience’s perspectives on the characters.
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'The Analysis of The Fictional Novel "Lord of The Flies" by William Golding'
Simon characterizes the superego who looks out for the boys in trouble. Simon is the only boy who always helped out the boys who were struggling and never participated in the destructive behaviors. Jack and his hunters come back cheerfully as they have successfully killed a pig. As Jack distributes meat to everyone but Piggy, Simon “shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy”. Simon displays as a parent throughout the novel. Like parents, he sacrificed his own food so Piggy would not starve while everybody else is enjoying their food. He understands the risk he is taking by giving Piggy meat since Jack specifically did not want to give meat to Piggy. However, in his perspective Piggy’s life is more valuable than his. During a meeting when discussing about shelter, Piggy suggested that they should make “shelters down there by the beach”.
Everybody ends up ditching building the huts to play around by the beach or hunt for pigs. Simon also portrays as a parent like figure as he builds the huts for everyone with Ralph. He helped Ralph out because he knew that the huts would provide safety for all the boys. He understood the littluns could not sleep as much as the older kids since they are homesick and frightened by the story told about the beast on the island, so he believed that the shelter would help them have a better sleep.
Later on in the story Simon’s moral compass is able to realizes the “beast” is actually inside of the boys and helps him to see the evil of mankind. Although his death by Jack and hunters were brutal, his death symbolizes the core evil in humans. Ralph characterizes the ego that resembles the rational aspect of the mind. In the beginning of the novel, the boys are very excited of having no authority around. However, Ralph states they have to “have rules” to prevent any chaos. Ralph has instinct of good judgement and reasoning. As the ego, he tries to overrule his decisions over his savagery. Ralph wishes that everyone would use think through their actions before they act and create well informed decisions for them to have a chance of getting rescued. Ralph orders the boys that they “‘must make a fire”.
Ralph desires for the fire to stay lit since the fire was the only chance of reaching out to the adults in the real world. The fire displayed the boy’s connection with civilization. As the fire begins to descend, Ralph’s power as chief also descended. His logic was being beaten by his own Id. Although Ralph tries to maintain his ego, he loses his against his id as he attacks Simon. Ralph sensed “the desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering”. Ralph’s id had taken over his ego. His id seeks pleasure over everything and he is not concerned how this affects Roger. In this moment, he is selfish by only caring about gratifying his needs.
Once he realized what had happened to himself, he is terrified of what just occurred but he also traumatized that he had the evil within himself. His is sickened by attacking Roger without thinking through on what the damage of his action would lead to. As the novel goes on Ralph is able to maintain his ego however, Ralph helps reader understand that no matter who they are, there will always be evil in everyone. Jack characterizes the id that overpowers the superego and ego in which is seen through his violent urges. Throughout the novel, he attempts to turn the boy’s against Ralph numerous times. When Ralph questions Jack about the idea being rescued during a meeting, Jack replies “Yes, of course! All the same, I’d like to catch a pig first”.
Jack ignores Ralph’s ideas of getting rescued and only focuses on his main focus, hunting for pigs. His desire of hunting pigs may have come from other kids making fun of him for not killing a baby piglet. Moreover , Jack has been craving power ever since he has been on the island. He was envious of Ralph becoming chief therefore he believed that killing the pig would gain him power and people would look up to him. As Jack and his hunter arrive back from their hunt with a pig very happily, Ralph is upset that Jack agreed to “keep the fire going” however, Jack “let the fire out". Jack displays selfishness to gratify his enjoyment of hunting, he avoided doing what he is told to do by abandoning the fire and went off into the forest to hunt with his hunters. In addition, Jack believes that survival is more relevant than rescue and Ralph believes that rescue is more relevant than survival. The differences between the two creates tension and fights about who is should be chief. The tension between them extended so exceptionally that near the end of the novel, Jack would risk his own life to kill Ralph. Much like the id, Jack is very unconscious and impetuous towards the society.
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The Lord of the Flies connects to real life society by utilizing his characters that portrays Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. Golding’s use his characters represents the different aspects and layers of society today. He believes that everyone can have the possibility to commit evil actions regardless to who they are. Those savage and violent actions are commonly hidden in the human mind however it can potentially come out during a situation if needed. The novel demonstrates that if society lacked civilized laws, the savage and violent side of mankind would appear.
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