Lord of the Flies and Freud
“The ego is not master in its own house.”
-Sigmund Freud This quote by Sigmund Freud explains how the decisions of the ego are not made on its own. The ego has the super-ego and the id telling it what to do, and the ego has to balance out what they both want. The ego may make the final decision but the super-ego and id are the ones putting in their opinions. In the book “The Lord of the Flies” certain characters help to represent part of Sigmund Freud’s theory of the id, ego, and super-ego. Jack represents the id because he has the mind of a child and he does whatever he pleases. Piggy is the one who symbolizes the super-ego because he always follows the rules, and he thinks before he acts. Finally, Ralph represents the ego because he is a balance of both the id and the super-ego. In Freud’s theory the id represents the primitive part of the brain that only considers its wants and desires. In the “Lord of the Flies” Jack acts as the id because he acts childlike and only does what he wants without thinking of the consequences. When Ralph wants to build shelters, all Jack cares about is going and killing a pig. Jack doesn’t care about what would best benefit the group such as getting rescued or building shelters. He only cares about his obsessions such as getting power and killing. Jack exclaims “We can light the fire again.”(58) Instead of keeping the fire going so they could be rescued, Jack goes and hunts a pig. Jack continues to be childish and doesn’t take responsibilities for his actions. When the fire goes out Jack doesn’t admit that what he did was bad. Instead, Jack says that finding meat was more important to the group than getting rescued. In fact, Jack ultimately turns into a savage from not following the rules. The book describes “They were bright blue, eyes that in this frustration seemed bolting and nearly mad.”(39) Jack doesn’t follow the rules of society like he did at home, so while on the island he slowly turns more
-Sigmund Freud This quote by Sigmund Freud explains how the decisions of the ego are not made on its own. The ego has the super-ego and the id telling it what to do, and the ego has to balance out what they both want. The ego may make the final decision but the super-ego and id are the ones putting in their opinions. In the book “The Lord of the Flies” certain characters help to represent part of Sigmund Freud’s theory of the id, ego, and super-ego. Jack represents the id because he has the mind of a child and he does whatever he pleases. Piggy is the one who symbolizes the super-ego because he always follows the rules, and he thinks before he acts. Finally, Ralph represents the ego because he is a balance of both the id and the super-ego. In Freud’s theory the id represents the primitive part of the brain that only considers its wants and desires. In the “Lord of the Flies” Jack acts as the id because he acts childlike and only does what he wants without thinking of the consequences. When Ralph wants to build shelters, all Jack cares about is going and killing a pig. Jack doesn’t care about what would best benefit the group such as getting rescued or building shelters. He only cares about his obsessions such as getting power and killing. Jack exclaims “We can light the fire again.”(58) Instead of keeping the fire going so they could be rescued, Jack goes and hunts a pig. Jack continues to be childish and doesn’t take responsibilities for his actions. When the fire goes out Jack doesn’t admit that what he did was bad. Instead, Jack says that finding meat was more important to the group than getting rescued. In fact, Jack ultimately turns into a savage from not following the rules. The book describes “They were bright blue, eyes that in this frustration seemed bolting and nearly mad.”(39) Jack doesn’t follow the rules of society like he did at home, so while on the island he slowly turns more