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Lord of the Flies: id, ego and superego

Conflict of the Mind The Id, Ego, and Superego in Lord of the Flies Beneath the calm exterior of every person lies a constant raging battle that has the ability to consume a person. This battle is one of the mind, which is in constant conflict of itself. The three divisions of the mind, id; ego; and superego, is the reason behind the conflict. These divisions however are not structural parts of the brain but aspects of the way our mind thinks. Discovered by Sigmund Freud in the early 20th century, it is believed that three divisions are constantly battling for control of the mind, this is known as the dynamic model. Sigmund Freud's revolutionary ideas have set the standard for modern psychoanalysis that students of psychology can learn from, and his ideas spread from the field of medicine to daily living. Freud’s theories are clearly illustrated William Goldings’s novel Lord of the Flies, where control of a deserted island is fought over by three young boys, each representing a division of the mind. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Sigmund Freud’s theory of the personality, the id, ego and superego, are illustrated through the personalities of the characters in the story. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, men could only grunt kill and mate. They did this because they did not possess enough intelligence to do much of anything else. This form of thinking is known as the id, our most primitive behavior which we fall back on when reasoning fails. The id wills us to act on our primal urges and satisfy our needs regardless of anything or anyone (Berry p. 57). From the id we get the pleasure principle, the force that makes us want things that feel good. The id will attempt to persuade us to think in our basic instinct mode only. It will urge us to satisfy ourselves by whatever means necessary (Henningfeld p.2). This need to satisfy itself by whatever means is what makes the Id unfit for society. The id is ...

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Lord of the Flies: id, ego and superego. (1969, December 31). In Retrieved 07:40, May 26, 2015, from