Freudian_Terms

The Freudian terms id, ego, and superego are defined as “one’s instinctual needs and desires”, “the conscious mind”, and “the voice or sense of morality, rules, and society” respectively. In every single person there is a part of each: the id, ego, and superego within us. However, each person embodies the terms in very different ways. When the three main characters of Lord of the Flies are aligned with the Freudian terms id, ego, and superego, then Jack’s savagery and primal impulses represent the id, Ralph’s conscious mind represents the ego, and Piggy’s parental voice of morality/society represents the superego. In Lord of the flies, Jack is associated with the Freudian term the id. The id is one’s instinctual needs and desires; it is the immediate gratification of one’s primal impulses. Someone aligned with the id has no morality and acts without the consideration of social norms. Jack is very focus’ on meat and hunting, to a point that it is almost an obsession. Jack is always saying “We want meat” (51) emphasizing that he does not care about getting rescued, but rather hunting and killing. When Jack and the others first kill the pig, they come back to Ralph and Piggy saying “you should have seen the blood!” (70) and acting very excited. Jack then gets angry when the others do not acknowledge his victory because they are preoccupied with the fact that the fire has gone out. “I painting my face—I stole up…” (74) is his response when they ignore him. Hunting is Jack’s primal passion that he must do. Another example of Jack embodying the id is when he says they do not need rules: “bollucks to the rules! We’re strong! We hunt!” (91). Someone who identifies with the id would not want to have rules because they would interfere with his instinctual needs and desires. While Jack is associated with the id in Lord of the Flies, Ralph embodies the Freudian term ego. The ego is the conscious mind; it is in between the id and the superego. Ralph often tries to keep order within the boys; he even decides “we need shelters as a sort of home” (52) so as to keep a more civilized feel on the island. Ralph’s main concern is to be rescued, so when Jack lets the fire go out he yells at him saying “we might have gone home” (70). Ralph attempts to keep his authority by using the conch and “calling an assembly” (75). Ralph is very conscious of what happens on the island and becomes frustrated when the other boys do not consider being rescued a main priority. He complains to Piggy “can’t they understand' Without the smoke signal we’ll die here'”(139) after Jack has gone off with his tribe. While he is striving to keep morality and society on the island (to the point of embodying the superego), Ralph also leans towards the id. There are times when Ralph feels like giving up and giving in to his urge. A person who identifies with the ego tries to keep reason around him. Finally there is Piggy who is aligned with the Freudian term superego in Lord of the Flies. The superego is the sense of morality within us. It is the voice of society, rules and morality; the parental figure that ensures the observations of cultural regulations. When the boys first have the idea to light a fire on top of the mountain, Piggy says “like a crowd of kids” (38) as they run to the top. Also, throughout the book, Piggy repeatedly refers to the conch and using it to keep the rules and society in place. In the beginning it was decided that the conch is what allows one to speak, and Piggy enforces this: “I got the conch, I got a right to speak” (44). Besides the conch, rules are very important to Piggy. “How do you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper'” (45) he tells them after they had been acting poorly. The conch, however, is the most important object to Piggy. When Jack and his hunters come to announce their feast, Piggy admits he “was sure he’d go for the conch” (141). The conch is a talisman to Piggy; it is the only remnant of his old orderly life that he is trying to preserve. At the very end of his life, when Piggy asks the savages “which is better' To have laws and rescue or hunting and breaking things up'” (180) and tries one final time to enforce his sense of morality on the other boys, he is clutching the conch because he still believes it allows him to speak. A person who embodies the superego will try and keep order and act like a parental figure to all those around them. The Freudian terms id, ego, and superego align well with the main characters Jack, Ralph, and Piggy respectively. Ralph, who represents the ego, leans both towards the id at some points and the superego at others. This shows that he is not perfect in any way and can be drawn to his primal impulses. While Ralph does try to keep a sense of civilization and rules on the island, there are times when he would prefer to be hunting or dancing with Jack’s tribe. We as a society can relate to Ralph. We must learn to look past our primal impulses towards savagery, and instead strive to preserve civilization around us. There is a balancing point between the id, ego, and superego, and we must find this point in order to have a functioning society.