The novel, Lord of the Flies, was written by William Golding in the year 1954. Golding delves into the darkness that every man has in their hearts. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Sigmund Freud’s Theory of Personality can be found throughout the novel. Although each boy goes through vast mental changes, each varies from the others. The human mind, portrayed by Golding in the novel, shows the vast physiological effects of the boys: Jack, Ralph and Simon all portray different consequences that trauma and drastic life changes has on the mind. Golding’s novel clearly shows the demise of virtuous characters into more diabolical beings as they lose guidance from their parents and the structure they once had. The boys, in the beginning, have a sense …show more content…
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the pioneer of psychoanalysis, a system of psychological therapy investigating the interaction of the conscious and unconscious elements in the mind. The “id” is categorized as the part of one’s personality that is obsessed with meeting our natural primal needs. It is believed that Jack represents the “id” of the group. It is present from birth and when the id has a desire for something, that desire must be satisfied at once. This person operates on the pleasure principle. It can be inferred that Ralph represents the ego which is the personality responsible for dealing with reality. This personality attempts to express the desires of the id in a socially acceptable manner. The superego is the last part of the personality to develop. Simon and Piggy can be considered the superegos in the novel. This is where the sense of right and wrong is contained. They also strive to suppress some of the immoral urges of the id (Jack). It seems that almost all of the boys begin to act on the id of their personalities. An example of this is the brutal killing of the sow (Godling 147-150) and the killing of Simon (Golding 168-170). The longer Jack is on the island, the more primitive he becomes. He abandons the fire, his only job, to pursue hunting. When he steals Piggy’s glasses, he has no regard for how his actions are affecting others, “exulting in this …show more content…
Ralph never seems to succumb to the violent ways of the barbarians. He holds his own and follows his conscience. Unlike the other boys, he is not intimidated by the fear that Jack places on everyone. Jack’s need for dominance is what leads him to lose his innocence. His loss of innocence is followed by the loss of his conscience due to the demise of his ability to reason. Golding proves his beliefs through Jack’s character. Golding establishes that will power is only viable in a civilized society, not a primitive one. As Jack loses his conscience, he begins to morph into a savage. He feels no sympathy and has a need to be in power. “I ought to be chief because I’m chapter chorister and head boy,”(Golding 62). In a sense, Jack could be considered a schizoid. He has delusions and withdraws from social relationships unlike many of the other boys. He is deluded from a society without adults. Simon is the most self aware in the group. He is a great public figure and leader for the boys, but he prefers solitude. There are signs in the novel that Simon may suffer from epilepsy. When visited by the lord of the flies, Simon hears voices telling him about the beast within all of us and then proceeds to faint. Simon is the embodiment of forethought and vision in the novel. This can be inferred as he relays to the boys, the message from the pig’s head on a stick. Simon’s
Ralph establishes discipline, and order, and shows affection towards the other boys. Prioritizing the group's welfare, Jack is becoming more and more savage, thinks less of others, and thirsts for
Every child comes into this world as a selfish, manipulative, cruel and stubborn being. It is the parents and society that teaches children how to function in a civilized world, and societal laws that keeps them under control. William Golding wrote this novel in the early years of the cold war and the atomic age. In William Golding's classic novel Lord of the Flies, Golding uses Jack, a young savage who looks to lead a group of stranded kids on an island with no food, no rules, and no adults. The effect freedom has on Jack has turned him into a savage because he does not have to listen to anyone since there are no adults on the island.
In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, young boys get stranded on an island with no adults in the midst of a war. The boys were orderly and civilized in the beginning but then as they began killing pigs they slowly became savages and lost their civilization. The boys began turning on each other and the evil within them became present. Golding uses a variety of literary devices including personification, symbols, metaphors, and irony, to project the theme that pure and realistic people in the world can be unheard and destroyed by evil.
Upon arriving, Ralph’s primary ambition is to get off the island safely, considering the expected immaturity in reaction to the boys’ sudden loss of authority. He manages to maintain this intention regardless of his job or worth in society among the boys. As evil challenges his capability to retain this quality by the irony of the fire, breaking of the conch, and overall destruction of civilization, demonstrates his level of mental strength considering all of the odds against his favor. Having the, “voice of someone who [knows their] own mind,” and instituting an independent attitude towards his goal, Ralph displays competence and trust in his capabilities rather than depending on that of others. As displayed in his immediate need for order, Ralph establishes a plan to get off of the island.
Ralph has always had a sense of self control. He begins to show savagery in chapter 8, when the bigguns join Jack’s new tribe. However, he shows savagery much more after the murder of Simon. The text says,”...leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit,tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.”.
As time wears on, the boys become increasingly bestial and savage, and are led by Jack to lash out against the remaining civilized group, led by Ralph. Through the actions he performs throughout this novel, it is apparent that Jack is an arrogant tyrant because he is egotistical
One of Freud’s theories is that the “Id – Ego combination dominates a person’s behavior until social awareness leads to the emergence of the superego, which recognizes that
As the novel develops, the boys are left to their own devices and morals to survive on the island. Golding implies that when this happens, people naturally revert to cruelty, savagery and a human evil that he believes is in everyone. When Jack kills the mother pig, he is in great triumph over outwitting a living thing. This shows that he has become a savage through his time on the island, and his inner evil has taken over him. It also shows that Jack has become more violent over time, as if killing pigs is normal to him.
The Peer Pressure Factor of Lord of the Flies William Golding’s Lord of the Flies paints two stark and opposing images of reality. On the one hand, the novel suggests that certain characters have venerable attitudes, making them seem like the protagonists, like Simon or Piggy. This can be seen from the motivating forces behind Simon’s decisions, or by the civilized behavior portrayed by Piggy. On the other hand, the novel also suggests that a deep built-in mechanism exists in every human being, one that prioritizes survival over morality. Just by observation, the novel demonstrates Jack’s exercise of hunting instincts, his combat of the social recourse from Ralph, his influence on everyone else to join him, and his eventual takeover of the
The human brain. Such a creative and wonderful part of the human body… but could it be responsible for the death of two boys? Yes it could. The Lord of The Flies is a realistic fiction novel, written by William Golding, about a group of young school boys that are stuck on a island untouched by mankind.
Lord of the Flies dates back to 1954 when a famous novelist, William Golding decided to write a book which could show an unusual version of the human beings. Born into an environment where his mother was a suffragette and later experiencing World War II where human ruthlessness was at its peak, made him better inclined in to writing a piece where he could explain his readers how human beings react in different situations. The setting of the novel depicts a situation where the human behavior is rational. The novel hence persuades the readers to realize the importance of ethics and civilization and how their absence can disrupt the society .Furthermore, the novel shows a negative aspect of the mankind and explains the reason it develops savagery
In the midst of the 1950 's, the Cold War begins. While in that period, William Golding creates Lord of the Flies published in 1954. This is a novel about young school boys crash landing on an island. The boys on the island let the fear of something inside of them be in control. In the story, there are lots of events that take place and characters that take part.
In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, he created this book about a group of proper british boys to show that even the most civilize of all can turn inhuman and go savage. Also being in the war helped Golding to see what people were capable of even if they were good at heart. The themes in Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, were influenced by his childhood, his experiences in the war, and his view of human nature. Golding’s early life influenced the theme in Lord of the Flies.
During Simon’s encounter with the Lord of the Flies, Golding reveals the central issue concerning human nature. Simon reaches the realization that they fear the beast because it exists within each of them. The Lord of the Flies tells Simon that the beast is inside each boy and cannot be killed. The boys go from behaving like civilized young men to brutal savages. “What I mean is…maybe it’s only us.”
Ralph is first introduced as the fair boy who is a natural born leader. He applies Piggy’s intelligence to think of a way to summon the other survivors on the island. Ralph follows through with Piggy’s idea and uses the conch which emits a loud sound that can be hear through the island. The sound eventually lures the group of boys towards them. His leader instincts are best portrayed when he’s able to side with Jack after offering to share his power: “The suffusion drained away from Jack’s face.