Lord Of The Flies: Psychoanalytic Lens

Lord of the flies through a psychoanalytic lens.

Lord of the flies is an exciting, action packed, and around dramatic fiction novel based a group of British schoolboys trying to evacuate from home in England during the hype of the raging war. In the middle of their evacuation, their plane is shot down and it crashes on an deserted island on the coast of the pacific ocean. Their pilot is killed and now the boys are stranded all alone on the island. The boys try to think rationally, they assign each member of the group a certain job that is crucial to their survival and rescue.But as the weeks go on the boys mental status begins to deteriorate and they turn into blood thirsty savages and instead of hunting

for animals the boys begin hunting each other instead. Two of the main characters die cruel and terrible deaths before they are rescued off the island. Simon is attacked by jack and the hunters and basically mauled to death, and piggy is smashed by a giant rock that jack and the hunters rolled on top of him from cliff. There are many ways book can be assessed and categorised, but the thing that stood out to me most is psychoanalytical lens, because of the connection that certain events in the book relate to William Golding’s life himself.
The psychoanalytical lens (also known as psychoanalytic theory) was originated from sigmund freud.

Psychoanalysis is “the method of studying the mind,” paying close attention to the mental and emotional status of the author, and being aware of the author's past experiences that could later be used as an influence on their writing. Through this lens you will be able to see how the underlying roles, personalities and actions relate to the author's real life. Lord of the is the perfect example of that. Lord of the flies was written by William Golding in 1954, Golding served 5 years in the Navy (1940-1945) during WW2 where he was exposed to hannis and cruel brutality everyday, Golding father (Alec Golding) had huge impact on Williams personal views, Alec was a rationalist and he tried in in store the view upon golding, but William son broke that perception after entering the war, and Golding's view on humanity as whole had a huge influence on the actions on the characters in lord of the

flies.
Golding spent 5 years in the Navy during WW2.

The war has a huge impact on Golding's life. While away at war, Golding was exposed to multiple cruelties and brutality while surrounded with casual death, the kind of brutality that he didn't think humanity was capable of. Golding soon discovered that war can change your whole outlook on life in general. You can clearly see the connection between Goldings war experience and Lord of the flies. When the boys crashed on the island they made a “game plan” and assigned everyone a role Example: Jack and the hunters were in charge of food, and another group of boys was in charge of shelter) The boys being the soldiers and the island being the battleground. But the longer they were on the island Jack and the hunters got a thrill and a sense of excitement from killing the pig and they then turned that energy on to hunting the other boys and turning into “blood thirsty savages”, a lot like the kind of people and behavior golding saw in WW2, and he expressed what he saw through Jack and the

Hunters”.
William Golding's Father ( Alec Golding) also had a big impact on his life Goldings father was a rationalist. Rationalism is the belief that your opinions, actions and decisions should be based on reason and not on a religious or emotional response. Alec tried to enforce these views on William, and for a while William followed in his father's footsteps and practiced this idea of thinking. But once William entered the war his views soon changed, he noticed that during those hard and tragic times people will act without reason and they will have no compassion or empathy for the people that they just killed, seeing these scenes made golding very angry and he couldn't understand the lack mental stability that others soldiers possessed, this is when he then abandoned his “rational” views. This mentality is also seen in Lord of the flies. When the boys arrived on the island (even though there was some tension already ) they had an “were all in this together”, But once jack and the hunters started “hunting” the other boys Ralph realized that there was no was no rational reason what so ever to their actions, and he begins to lose faith in ever escaping( especially after piggy was smashed by a rock and killed) This compares to Golding's experience in the war, When Golding entered the war he still held those rational views, but after see the harsh effects of war he lost that “rational” mentality.
After the war William Golding’s views towards humanity was changed as whole and this had a huge influence on plot of Lord of the flies. After the war Golding had a new outlook on life and he was forever changed. He saw certain cruelties during that war that he didn't even know that humanity could possess. Golding based the whole book off this idea, Cruelties like simon getting jumped and killed on the island, piggy getting smashed, and the boys mental status and reasoning behind their actions in general. Ralph even claimed that he was forever changed even after being rescued from the island. This relates to Golding, after golding left the navy during WW2 (AKA; The island) he was forever changed.
In conclusion, William Golding's life had a huge influence on his book Lord of the flies, it expressed his current thoughts and views towards humanity based on his life experiences during the war. It’s clear to see that this book was written through the psychoanalytical lens. Goldings major influences was the 5 years he spent in the navy during WW2 being exposed to harsh cruelty ,brutality and death.His father's views and influence towards rationalism, this was a belief that before making a decision you should have rational reasoning behind it, meaning you shouldn't act out of emotion or religion. And finally Golding's view of humanity as a whole made a huge influence on the book in general. He was amazed to see how , “humans produce an evil that he didn't know mankind was even capable of when put in certain situations”.