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"Lord of the Flies" essay
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Tiffany Chang
Michael Diluccio
ENG 2D1-04
24 May 2013
The Psychological Allegory of Lord of the Flies
Experts in the field of psychology have been debating the importance of the subconscious
mind and its major role in dictating human actions since the early 1920s. ‘Father of Psychology’,
Sigmund Freud, theorized the structural model of the human psyche in three parts: the id, the
ego, and the superego. The id is the psyche’s basis composed of naturalistic urges that are the
effects of the id’s ‘pleasure principle’; the ego is ruled by the ‘reality principle’ and intends to
satisfy the cravings of the id by means of socially-acceptable methods, determined by the strict
behavioural and moral codes set by guardians and society contained within the superego. Many
authors have adopted this psychological theory into their work through their characters; in Lord
of the Flies, William Golding uses Jack, Piggy, and Simon to suggest the novel’s plausible
connection to the subconscious triad. Lord of the Flies can be interpreted as a psychological
allegory to represent the Freudian aspects of the human psychic apparatus: the id, the ego, and
the superego.
Jack brings to life the survival instincts, selfishness, and the lust for power over an
individual’s psyche, highlighted by the id. He is driven to fulfill the mortal, basic physiological
need for dietary sustenance. After returning to the rest of the survivors from a preliminary
expedition of the island, Jack tells them, “[t]here’s pigs, there’s food; and bathing-water in that
little stream along there – and everything” (Golding, 33). Jack’s concern with being self-
sustainable is innate; the thought of having access to those critical resources gives him the instant
relief of knowing that he would be able to weather nature’s storm. On top of being fixated on his
own survival, Jack also emanates an aura of self-centredness. Ralph is furious at his leaving the
fire unattended to go hunting and bluntly tells Jack, “[y]ou could have had everyone when the
shelters were finished. But you [my italics] had to hunt –” (75). Jack does not consider the
possible consequences should he leave the fire unattended. Hunting for wild game is not
absolutely crucial for survival; he hunts because the act emotionally pleases him, which does not
go unrecognized by Ralph. To the id, all that matters is the fulfillment of this pleasure principle.
Finally, he derives confidence from the knowledge that he holds a position of significant
authority over the group. Jack is humiliated after the boys’ refusal to vote Ralph out of the
position of chief, saying he is “going off” by himself to leave Ralph to “catch his own pigs”, but
beckons for “anyone who wants to hunt” when he does to “come too” (140). Running off on his
own is Jack’s secondary option because he knows many of the children share his bloodlust and
will easily give into his siren call. Like the id, Jack persuades and exercises control by means of
primal enticement. When these three characteristics come together, the result is the id’s
impulsive desire to receive immediate pleasure without any thought of consequence.
Acting as the voice of reason of the group is Piggy, who portrays the ego’s practicality
and its struggle to mediate between the id and the superego. Piggy is extremely well-aware of his
Achilles’ heel – his physical inferiority – and prefers to make up for it in creative ways. In the
case of Ralph inviting him to swim in the beach pool, he patiently replies, “[y]ou can’t half swim
well” (8). Parallel to the id, Piggy recognizes his physical limitations due to nearsightedness and
asthma – the ego identifies the id’s susceptibility to temptation; in addition, he does not endeavor
a persona in which he is not by remaining true to his intellectual identity – the ego restrains the
id from committing sins that are out of an individual’s normal character. He is also the one who
identifies the id’s savagery and the superego’s morality in order to come up with a realistic
situation for the boys’ predicament. When the few remaining followers of Ralph vainly negotiate
with Jack at Castle Rock, Piggy, over the cries of Jack’s hunters, screams, “[w]hich is better – to
have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?” (200). With Simon gone, Piggy realizes that law and
order must be maintained to ensure everyone’s survival until help arrives, and he attempts to
remind Jack’s tribe of this fact. The group has far too much liberty, and as a result, abuses it to
justify their irrational behaviours. The ego and its everlasting faith in logic lie above the id in
order to meet personal wants and social norms by means of compromise.
The third and final level of the human psyche is the superego, which is presented by
Simon; after all, he is the epitome of altruism, sageness, and self-martyrdom. Simon’s purity of
heart opens him up to doing favours for nothing in return. The littluns “lugged him towards the
trees” for him to pick off “the fruit they could not reach”; only until he was sure that “he had
satisfied them” did he stop and be on his way (57). The littluns lack the physical capability to
obtain what they desire. Simon fulfills it by doing the dirty work, but he goes the extra mile and
does the ‘right’ thing by attending to each boy’s wants rather than only making a fraction of the
effort, leaving the children malcontent. In addition, Simon has a perception at par with that of an
adult’s. He is the first and only person to suggest that the boys are the beast, regardless of his
anxiety to do so: “Maybe, maybe there is a beast…What I mean is…maybe it’s only us” (95-96).
Innate evil lies within human nature; however, it is also human nature that puts the fault in an
external force rather than in an individual self, attested by the boys laughing off the suggestion.
Lastly, Simon makes the ultimate sacrifice – his own life – in his desperate last shot at shedding
light on the truth. After his ordeal with the Lord of the Flies, Simon rushes back to the boys to
convey his discovery, “crying about a dead man [the dead parachutist]” (168), only for the evil
within them to rise to the surface, with “no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and
claws” (169). Simon genuinely takes honesty to heart, and, though weakened by an epileptic fit,
he still treks the long way back to warn everyone, only to be met with his cruel fate at the hands
of mere children. Together, these three traits indicate Simon’s very essence is the way of the
civilized world, which perishes when he does.
The id, the ego, and the superego can be traced throughout Lord of the Flies to illuminate
this work as a possible psychological allegory. Jack represents the remorselessness of the id to
achieve individual satisfaction; Piggy is the objectivity of the ego that incessantly struggles to
mediate between the id and the superego, which is demonstrated by Simon’s dependable
morality. As leader of the group, Ralph can be seen as the ‘individual mind’ representing the
mindset of the island entity, for he is the one having to deal with these three dueling forces. Like
Ralph, the individual mind must find its own centre in this trio of chaos. With time and
experience, only then can a person unlock the key to a healthy personality.
Works CitedGolding, William. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1954. Print.