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Sigmund Freud psychodynamic theory
The lord of flies character development
Sigmund Freud psychodynamic theory
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The theory of personality composed by Sigmund Freud is woven into the work of Golding. The structure of this theory, built by the id, the ego and the superego, all connect to the personalities of the main characters in Lord of the Flies.
Starting from birth, the id is one of the main components of this theory. Described in three separate parts, Freud’s theory states the component of the id being the part of personality in which is the base of which all urges come from. The id falls under Freud’s category of the unconscious mind and sometimes unreasonable thinking, driven by the urge to avoid pain. Also, the id demands immediate happiness and lack of this could result in unpleasure or pain. Stated by Sigmund Freud, himself, the Id runs on the “pleasure principle” (Freud 1920 A.D.). Jack could best be connected with the personality described by the id, as he is always searching for power wherever and whenever he can get it. As the leader of the choir, commands were screamed often and soon enough the choir became “wearily obedient (Golding 20)” and even hesitant to talk to him; “...
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.
Rosenfield, Claire. “Men of a Smaller Growth: A Psychological Analysis of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.”Literature and Psychology. 11 (Autumn, 1961). 93-101. Print.
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a sordid tale about a group of kids who are stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. The story is set during the Atomic War and plenty of references are made to the fact. However, the real key to the story lies in the role of Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies. Beelzebub has a central role in the story as he represents the Beast, or evil, that dwells within all humans. The Beast cannot be hunted and since it dwells within all humans, humans are all guilty because mankind is sick. The destruction of mankind is a point that Golding makes apparent often in this novel. He establishes early on that Beelzebub is a force within all humans that drives them to destroy and maim. In the story the central emblem of the story lies in the dead airman. The boys mistake him for Beelzebub and basically begin to worship him.
Golding has a rather pessimistic view of humanity having selfishness, impulsiveness and violence within, shown in his dark yet allegorical novel Lord of the Flies. Throughout the novel, the boys show great self-concern, act rashly, and pummel beasts, boys and bacon. The delicate facade of society is easily toppled by man's true beastly nature.
Struggling for the power of the id, ego, and superego, it is very difficult to take control of and to understand. William Golding had made a statement that “we can not leave or escape from our savage and violent tendencies.” There are three parts of a psychological allegory of Lord of the Flies. They are known as the id, ego, and superego which are different aspects of the human mind.
' I believe that man suffers from an appalling ignorance of his own nature '.
The first of Freud’s divisions of one’s personality is the Id. The Id is exists from birth it directs one to avoid pain and to seek pleasure in life. The id controls two main instincts, one is a reproductive instinct for life, whereas the other is an aggressive death instinct almost like a fight response in one’s brain (Wade Tavris 40). The Id is always in a constant want of immediate satisfaction. The Id is our primal instinct from birth to always seek out pleasure, or our wants when humanly possible, and to avoid pain at all costs (Basirizadeh Harati 2). Due to these two conflicting instincts that reside in our personalities, there is always tension in the Id. This tension can be eased in many different forms, from a physical reaction to the tension to an impact on one’s mental state with uncensored images and immoral thoughts. The id lives in our subconscious while it motivates us toward pleasure and avoiding pain (Wade Tavris 40).
Could it be, that our personality lay more in the power of situation and less in the power of biological factors? The boys’ savage and immoral behavior, shown at the end of the novel, “Lord of the Flies” should be condemned on both the environmental situation they lived through and biological factors. This novel is based on the topic of nature versus nurture and although I agree that they both had an impact on the boys ' behavior, a more rational appeal would be that the power of the situation overruled the power of biological factors. The boys were very conservative in the beginning but the longer they stayed stranded the more selfish a majority of them became.Golding developed his first claim by first comparing the common attitudes expressed between the boys, then narrated how they had different perspectives for survivnig on the island, and finally illustrates the importance of guidance in order to maintain a properly functioned society
Although there are many interpretations of Golding’s Lord of the Flies, one of the most important is one that involves an examination of Freudian ideas. The main characters personify Sigmund Freud’s theory of the divisions of the human mind; thus, Jack, Ralph, Piggy and Simon are metaphors for the id, ego, and the super-ego of Freudian psychology, respectively. The inclusion of psychological concepts in this literary work distinguish it as a commentary on human nature, beyond labels of “adventure” or “coming of age” novel. Many readers are left in shock upon reading Golding’s masterpiece because of the children’s loss of innocence, but most fail to consider
Lord of the Flies provides one with a clear understanding of Golding's view of human nature. Whether this view is right or wrong is a point to be debated. This image Golding paints for the reader, that of humans being inherently bad, is a perspective not all people share. Lord of the Flies is but an abstract tool of Golding's to construct the idea of the inherent evil of human nature in the minds of his readers. To construct this idea of the inherent evil, Golding employs the symbolism of Simon, Ralph, the hunt and the island.
In addition to Freud’s stages of development his best-known concepts are those of the id, ego, and superego (Crain, p. 268). The id personality called ‘the unconscious” is the personality that focuses on maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain through reflexes and drives such as hunger or bladder tensions (Crain, pp. 268-269). The id concept is impulsive, chaotic and unrealistic.
In Freud’s research on the mind he found three functional areas--the id, the superego, and the ego. These interrelated parts permit the self to function in society. The id is the innermost component of the three. It is the extreme unconscious. This is where the child-like unsocialized drives and instinctual impulses arise. The id knows no rules and does not abide to any external logical laws. It is only ruled by the desire for pleasure. When the id sees something it wants, all it says is, "I want that, I want that, I want that," like a young child in a toy store. The id is selfish; it represents self-centeredness in its purest form.
Golding’s time with the Royal Navy during World War II inspired him to write Lord of the Flies. The theme of Lord of the Flies is the need for survival to cause a loss of innocence evident by the sharp change in personalities, the acts of violence most of them commit, and killing animals without mercy. Firstly, the theme
William Golding wrote of his novel "Lord of the Flies" that the theme was an attempt to explore how the defects society are based largely on human nature rather than the structure of civilization. Golding used "Lord of the Flies" to allegorically explain that the architecture of a society depends on the morality of the individual rather than a social or political construction, regardless of its inherent merit or esteem.
According to psychologist, Sigmund Freud, there are three main parts that make up a human’s personality: the id, ego, and superego. In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, the narrator of the story, Chief Bromden, represents each of these traits. In the beginning, Bromden only thinks of himself as any other crazy man, who no one pays attention to, but throughout the story Bromden develops mentally through all three stages of Freud’s personality analysis, maybe not in Freud’s preferred order, but he still represents them all.