William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

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Throughout history, it has been noted that when an individual is isolated from civilization, various psychological effects take a toll on that person’s well-being. Sigmund Freud, an Austrian psychologist, believed that when a person is isolated from civilization, a darker “savage” side naturally takes over (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. pag). William Golding shared this belief and used it as inspiration to write one of his most well-known novels, Lord of the Flies. Freud’s findings on the human mind led him to believe there are three main parts: The id, the ego, and the super-ego (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. pag). Jack, Ralph, Simon, and Piggy are not only the main characters in Golding’s Lord of the Flies, but also embody the id, ego, and super-ego characteristics of Freudian psychology. Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 to Jewish Galician parents in the Moravian town of Pribor in the Austrian Empire (“Sigmund Freud” n. pag). During his education in the medical field, Freud decided to mix the career fields of medicine and philosophy …show more content…

Golding served in the Royal Navy on board a destroyer, later becoming an officer after participating in the Normandy Invasion on D-Day (“William Golding” n. pag). He believed the atrocities of war caused the inner id qualities of man emerge, which he pointed out after the war when he said, “The basic point my generation discovered about man was that there was more evil in him than could be accounted for simply by social pressures” (“William Golding” n. pag). Golding’s shared beliefs with Freud led him to base the characters of Lord of the Flies on the three main Freudian principles. Jack, the leader of the savages, represents the id; Ralph and his desire for civilization represents the ego; and Piggy and Simon with their conscience and morality represent the

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