Freudian Personality Aspects Of The Id In Cat In The Hat

Always reckless and only looking for fun, the Cat in Cat in the Hat best exemplifies the Freudian personality aspect of the Id. The Id is the part of our personality that only wants what whatever feels good and its actions revolve around obtaining self-pleasure without regard for the circumstances of the situation. The Cat wants to have fun and follows what he wants without consideration for those around him, similar to the Id. First off, when the Cat initially comes and wants to play a game he says “Why, we can have/Lots of good fun, if you wish/With a game that I call/UP-UP-UP with a fish!” (12) and in response the fish says ““Put me down” said the fish/“This is no fun at all!/Put me down” said the fish/“I do NOT wish to fall!” (13). The
The fish is put in a precarious situation and is scared but yet the cat continue the game because he finds it fun, not stopping to think about if anyone else is having fun. He is only interested in self-pleasure and getting what he wants which are characteristics of the Id. Also, multiple times characters say they don’t like what the cat is doing for example when the fish says on page 22 “No, I do not like it/Not one little bit!” or when the Narrator says on page 45 “I do NOT like the way that they play!”. Again, the cat is oblivious to everyone else’s clear discomfort with his games and how they don’t like his games. Every time the fish would say something about not liking the game the Cat would brush him off or just blatantly ignore him and continue with his game or play another game that, yet again, nobody liked. Even when the narrator, who had not explicitly expressed that he didn’t like the games up to when he said it out loud, said he didn’t like the games the Cat didn’t react till they were physically forced to come to a
The Ego is the balance between the Id and Superego, it meets the Id’s needs but also keeps the circumstances in mind and doesn’t act rashly. Ralph’s response in this situation shows this: ““You shut up!” Piggy wilted…Ralph took the conch from him and looked round the circle of boys…“We ought to have more rules. Where the conch is, that’s a meeting. The same up here as down there”” (Golding 42). Ralph never directly addresses the way Piggy is treated and ignores it as if it’s ok. However, he later adds more rules as a small response to what happened to Piggy. He never directly faced the problem and hence was then not acting as the Superego but he didn’t completely ignore it so he isn’t the Id, he is the in between, the Ego. Later on, in response to Jack and a heated conversation on page 70 and 71 “Ralph pushed Piggy to one side. “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 out the fire—” He turned away, silent” (Golding 70-71). He doesn’t let Piggy finish and has this sudden urge to day his thoughts after staying fairly quiet and only saying three word sentences. He interrupts because he wants to talk but then make a valid point about how nobody is actually