More handpicked essays just for you.
Literary analysis of the Lord of the Flies
Literary analysis of the Lord of the Flies
Literary analysis of the Lord of the Flies
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Sigmund Freud was a neurologist who had the theory of ID, Ego, and Superego("Sigmund Freud Biography.com"). The Lord of the Flies was a book that showed a group of british school boys get stranded on a island and what the island did to them. His methods of ID, Ego, and Superego show through in each character in Lord of the Flies. ID represents Jack the most because he is selfish. Ego represents Ralph because he tries to keep the group balanced. Superego represents Piggy because he is smart but weak. ID is the part of the mind that has all the basic feelings and the mind feels want want want("Freud's Id, Ego, & Superego"). In Lord of the Flies Jack best represents ID because he is selfish and has just the basic feelings of wanting to have fun and hunt instead of get rescued. In the book Jack and his hunters were supposed to be watching the fire instead he took them out hunting and the fire went out when they could have been rescued(Golding xx). Jack also decided to be a leader of his own group where they focused on having fun and hunting but no rescue was thought of. Jack has the most amount of ID qualities throughout the book and represents it best. …show more content…
Ego is the part of the mind that tries to even out and wants to have stuff balanced("Character Analysis Jack").
Ralph represented Ego the best because he was always trying to keep the group together and try to get rescued. In the book when Ralph Became leader he gave everyone jobs and tried to keep everyone doing what they needed to survive but they kept stopping and tried to just have fun. Even when Jack's group wasn't being civilized Ralph still wanted to be civilized with them showing that he wasn't giving in to being a savage. Ralph represents Ego best because he is always trying to keep the group together and
civilized. Superego is the last part of the mind to develop and constantly strives for perfection and to enforce rules and what a child’s parents approve of("Freud's Id, Ego, & Superego"). Piggy fits into the Superego personality the best because he is the most intelligent but is also the least of them to be fit to be a leader. Piggy is the weakest of the boys and is always trying to get them to listen to things that they should think about like no one knows that they are there. In Lord of the Flies Piggy shows the most amount of Superego traits and always says stuff about what his auntie would do for him. In the Lord of the Flies Sigmund Freud’s method of ID, Ego, and Superego show up majorly in the three main characters. ID shows up most in Jack not only has the most ID examples but has the best examples. Ralph has the most balanced mind so he fits best in the Ego category. Piggy is the most intelligent but he is also the weakest and fits best into Superego.
Lord of the Flies was written by a British author in 1954. The book is about a group of British school boys that crash on an island and have to survive. During their time on the island they turn their backs on being civil and become savages. Ralph is the elected leader and always thinks civil. Jack leaves the group and starts a tribe with the boys and is a savage. Piggy is a boy who is knowable. Simon is compared to Jesus through the book and is the only naturally “good” character. The littleuns are the littler kids on the island. Roger is a cruel older boy who is Jack’s lieutenant. Samneric are twins who are close to Ralph but, are manipulated by Jack later on. In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding some of the characters represent id, ego, and superego. Id, ego, and super ego are the three parts of the psychic apparatus expressed by Sigmund Freud’s structural model of the psyche. Golding expresses his message of evil and how it is natural in every person, and how we must recognize and control it through id, ego, and superego.
Ralph is the novel’s protagonist and tries to maintain the sense of civility and order as the boys run wild. Ralph represents the good in mankind by treating and caring for all equally, which is completely opposite of Jack’s savage nature. Jack is the antagonist in the novel and provokes the most internal evil of all the boys. Jack is seen at first as a great and innocent leader but he becomes t...
Ralph shows actions of id and superego by deciding to act as a leader or become savage like Jack. Montag also shows actions of id and superego by trying to save society or be part of the corrupt society. Both Ralph from Lord of the Flies and Montag from Fahrenheit 451 have the same goal to save people through superego actions, which results in having vicious people trying to kill them.
Throughout the novel, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the character Jack finds his true identity through a clay mask of his own making. At the beginning of the novel, Jack is unable to kill a pig for food, however, he later puts on a mask in order to blend in with nature and not drive the pigs away. To the contrary, by putting on this mask Jack gains a newfound confidence that was nonexistent in his own skin. For example when Jack first put on the mask he “looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger” (63). By putting on a mask Jack is able to lose his identity a little bit and act and feel like a whole new person. This idea of taking on a whole new role when putting on a mask can be seen in many modern tv shows and movies.
Ralph is one of the few boys who realize that the only way to survive is through peace and order. Because he summons the boys at the beginning of the novel with the conch he and Piggy find, they look upon him as the most responsible of the boys and elect him as a chief over the humiliated Jack. Ralph creates a stable and peaceful society for the children to live; this significantly bothers Jack because he wants to have fun and do things that he never did back in the civilized society. Jack is eventually successful of pulling nearly all of the children out of Ralph’s control to form savages. Ralph represents the civilization, and Jack represents the primitive society.
Overall, Ralph is friendly and active. He is not fat or skinny and is easy to get on with. The first impression of Jack that we get is that he is arrogant and dangerous, because the book brings him in as a shadow. He is very different compared to Ralph.
Even though they don’t last very long, the fact that he tried to help the group is what makes him a better leader. Ralph’s wisdom and ability to look toward the future also has an advantage over Jack. He has a sense of keeping his focus on getting off the island. When the fire goes out, Ralph gets upset because the chance to be rescued was gone as well. Ralph enforces his role of leadership as he gives the boys a sense of stability as an authority figure.
As the common adage states, “people change”. This maxim, however, does not explain the cause of this change or the reason why people lose their identities. In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, loss of identity and the cause of this loss is a common theme throughout the novel. In the book, little boys turn from innocent children to bloodthirsty savages as a result of them being stranded on an island without any adults. This theme, loss of identity, and its cause are not just apparent in Lord of the Flies, but also in many other mediums, including movies, music, books, and news articles. These sources show that identities are not lost when all is well, but only when life becomes a living hell.
Have you ever thought about six to thirteen year olds ever acting like savages and turning into a serial killer? After reading Lord of the Flies, this is exactly what happened. Ralph, Piggy, Jack and other kids cash land on a gorgeous island with leaving no trace for the world to find them. Ralph tries to be organized and logical, but in the other hand, Jack is only interested in satisfying his pleasures. Just like in the short story, The Tortoise And The Hare, Lord of the Flies, stands for something. This novel is a psychological allegory, the island, as the mind, Ralph, the leader, as the ego, Jack, the hunter, as the id, and Piggy, an annoying little boy, as the super ego. As we read Lord Of
That’s why if I had to pick between Ralph and Jack it would be Ralph because he is a caring person. Ralph overall really tried his best to be together as a team and a family. So the point of this is to tell you that Ralphs motivation was to find help to get off the island he wanted to keep people safe so that they would all help and comfort each other. The tragedies were hard but Ralph did contribute even when he was upset he still showed effort. Oh and all the deaths Ralph was speechless he could not have prevented it even if he wanted to and we know he really wanted to.
Ralph’s power at the beginning is secure but as the group succumbs to their savage instincts, Ralph’s influence declines as Jack’s rises. This is due mainly to the cruelty and violence that goes on in the story. This cruelty reveals that Ralph’s commitment to civilization and being rescued is so strong that he will not allow himself to change his morals and become cruel like the others. The cruelty in this novel also shows that Ralph is a very intelligent character. His intelligence can be proven because there was a point in the novel when he hunts a boar for the first time and he experiences the thrill of bloodlust. He also attends one of Jack’s feast where he is swept away by the frenzy and participates in the killing of Simon. This is a very tragic moment for Ralph because this is when he realizes the evil that lives within himself and every human being. It is the cruel acts that happen in this novel that reveals Ralph’s character of being intelligent and being able to think deeply about human experiences. He even weeps when getting saved because of his knowledge about the human capacity for
He tries to keep a democracy, but Jack's aggressive nature does not allow it to last very long. Ralph is probably the most likable person in the book, because of his good nature and his handsome looks, "His size and attractive appearance". Ralph means "counsel" in the Anglo- Saxon language, and he's the one who calls all the meetings by blowing the conch, and he's chosen as the leader. The conch is seen as a powerful symbol, and he holds it. Ralph does not specialize in any area of human behaviour, except maybe for having common sense (building shelters, climbing the mountain to see if it is an island) and Jack can be seen as his opposite.
However, at the end of the book, he simply stood for a common human being. In the beginning of the story, before a formal introduction, Ralph was described simply as “a fair boy.” This already sets him out in a favorable light. Then it further describes how he is apparently good-looking and has the natural air of leadership. Of course, the conch played a big role when the kids voted him for leader, but his appearance played a large role as well. For the good first part of the book, Ralph has always symbolized leadership. As the story progresses and the kids became more and more distant from the idea of civilization, Ralph became more like a representation of common sense. Golding wrote, “‘I was chief, and you were going to do what I said. You talk. But you can’t even build huts-then you go off hunting and let the fire-’ He turned away, silent for a moment. Then his voice came again on a peak of feeling. ‘There was a ship-’” At this part, Ralph criticized Jack for not doing the necessary civilized things in favor of quenching his thirst for a hunt. As more and more of the kids become more and more uncivilized, Ralph became one of the last voices of common sense. When Simon and Piggy died, Ralph was the last one who retained that common sense and yearned for civilization. He had no leadership powers left anymore, and he stood for nothing more than a
Throughout history, it has been noted that when an individual is isolated from civilization, various psychological effects take a toll on that person’s well-being. Sigmund Freud, an Austrian psychologist, believed that when a person is isolated from civilization, a darker “savage” side naturally takes over (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. pag). William Golding shared this belief and used it as inspiration to write one of his most well-known novels, Lord of the Flies. Freud’s findings on the human mind led him to believe there are three main parts: The id, the ego, and the super-ego (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. pag). Jack, Ralph, Simon, and Piggy are not only the main characters in Golding’s Lord of the Flies, but also embody the id, ego, and super-ego characteristics of Freudian psychology.
Ralph and Jack are both powerful and meaningful characters in William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies. Ralph is an excellent leader; responsible, and stands for all that is good. Jack is a destructive hunter, selfish, and represents evil. These two main characters can be compared by the actions they take as leaders, their personalities, and what they symbolize in the story.