Personality In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Lord of the Flies Personalities
In Lord of the Flies by William Golding their was several different personality traits throughout the characters. These traits were defined by Sigmund Freud a psychologist who was an influential thinker of the early twentieth century.(Thornton). Jack represents Id in Freud’s personality theory which defines him as the character who acts for the short term and pleasure immediately. Ralph represents Ego which acts as the middle ground between Id and Superego or the realistic trait. Lastly Piggy represents Superego, this is the ethical standard personality and makes one feel guilty if broken.
Jack represents the Id trait almost perfectly. According to verywell.com “The id acts according to the pleasure principle, which is the idea that needs should be met immediately.” (Cherry) This describes Jack very well since he never prepares himself for the future and only acts in the now. An example of this is when he was assigned the duty of keeping the fire going during the night, but he left to go hunt.(Golding) He was only thinking about what he wanted to do right then, not what was better in the long term for them as a group. Another example would be when Jack

It acts similar to the Id, but in a realistic way. So it works to find pleasure without harming itself or the Id.(Mcleod) The character the represents the Ego the best is Ralph since he sometimes acts like Jack and enjoys hunting, but keeps the realistic goal of finding rescue. The first example of this is when Piggy tells Ralph not to tell anyone his name. Ralph immediately tells the whole group his name.(Golding) This shows that Ralph obtained pleasure without hurting anyone really.. Another example would be when Jack stole Piggy’s glasses and Ralph confronted him to give them back.(Golding) Ralph knew the difference of right and wrong and knew that stealing was wrong. This shows that Ralph acted as the Ego throughout the