William Golding's Lord Of The Flies: A Psychological Analysis

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding utilizes characterization of Ralph and Jack to create a Freudian psychological allegory for the purpose of illustrating the innate evil in humans but also the capacity to care and help. For instance, after the boys believe they have seen the beast, Ralph declares, “There was no need! Now there is. Piggy’ll look after them…(to Piggy) This is more than a hunter’s job...because you can’t track the beast. And don’t you want to be rescued?” (Golding 101-102). In this exchange, Ralph clearly demonstrates the balanced ego character, since he appeases both Piggy, the superego, and Jack, the id, as he finds the middle ground; Piggy will stay in the safest place and responsibly manage the camp, while Jack leads the hunters on a chase after the
Ralph wants to enjoy the thrill of the hunt like Jack, but unlike Jack, Ralph sees the necessity to take care of those who cannot hunt, the “littluns”, and ensures the overall safety of the community, like the ego would for the human. Additionally, Dianne Henningfeld, in her allegory overview of Lord of the Flies, draws the parallels between Freud’s original belief of the psyche and the book saying, “...the ego is the conscious mind whose role it is to mediate between the id's demand for pleasure and the social pressures brought to bear by the superego. Freud calls this mediation process the reality principal; that is, the notion that immediate pleasure must be denied in order to avoid painful or deadly consequences,”