Freudian Psychology In The Lord Of The Flies Analysis

1530 Words4 Pages

Cassidy Pinder Room 403 Mrs. Rossi 3/10/14 Freudian Psychology in the Lord of the Flies Throughout the novel the Lord of the Flies by William Golding Freudians theory of the Id, the Ego and the Superego is prevalent. The Id represents the human instinct superego represents ones morals and the Ego balances the needs of both the Id and the superego. The novel the Lord of the Flies shows the importance of balance between the three sides of the psyche. It is shown through the book that in order to be a healthy individual in society as well as have a healthy society it is necessary to fulfill the needs of both the Id and the superego. The first idea of Freudian psychology in the Lord of the Flies that must be discussed is the concept of the Id.” The Id is the unorganized part of the personality structure that contains a humans basic instinctual drives”. (Wikimedia) The Id is impulsive and is the source of the bodies’ needs wants and desires. It avoids discomfort and pain seeks only things that involve pleasure. “The Id is driven by the pleasure principle for immediate gratification of all desires, wants and needs.” (Cherry) The first character that is an example of the Id is Jack. Throughout the novel Jack only sought to fill needs that were necessary to survive. This can be seen when Piggy suggests that they take count of the younger children on the island and Jack ignores Piggy telling him to “shut up”. Jack is disinterested in anything that does not satisfy his basic needs or is not considered “fun”. This refusal to acknowledge anything but something involving his immediate gratification is also seen in the quote “We want meat… “We haven’t got any yet, and we want shel... ... middle of paper ... ...d conscience in a healthy society. Society cannot survive only focusing on the survival or just focusing on morals if this does occur the results will certainly be disastrous. Because one cannot live only focusing on morals without also seeing the importance of survival. And one cannot focus only on the Id because without morals and order society will eventually collapse. Those relying solely on the needs of the superego in this book all ended up dying and those who relied solely on the needs of the Id became destructive and ended up losing their humanity. In the book when there was a balance between these two there was a peace, however as soon as that was disrupted the island became chaotic. The novel “The Lord of the Flies” shows that in order to be a healthy individual one must create a balance within themselves between the Id and the Superego.

Open Document