Lord of the Flies as a Psychological Allegory

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Lord of the Flies as a Psychological Allegory
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What is an allegory?

• A story that serves as an extended metaphor or
  symbol for another story or concept.
• LOTF is considered an allegory for many things,
  the main three being
• World War II
• Religion the Bible
• The psychology of the human personality today,
  this is the one we will focus on.

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Sigmund Freud
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Sigmund Freud

• Austrian neurologist
• Best known for his theory of the unconscious mind
  the practice of psychoanalysis
• What concept from Antigone is he responsible for
  creating?

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Freuds Psychoanalytical Theory of Personality

• Personality is composed of three elements
• ID
• EGO
• SUPEREGO
• The three elements work together to create
  complex human behaviors

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The ID

• Present at birth
• Entirely unconscious
• Includes primitive and instinctive behavior

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The ID

• Driven by the pleasure principle
• Strives for immediate gratification of all
  desires, wants, and needs
• If needs are not satisfied immediately, the
  result is a state of anxiety or tension
• Example baby whos hungry cries because he is
  not fed
• Important early in life because it ensures all an
  infants needs are met

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The ID

• Realistically, all your needs cannot be
  immediately satisfied
• If people were ruled entirely by the ID (the
  pleasure principle), we would grab what we wanted
  in order to satisfy cravings
• This behavior is disruptive and socially
  unacceptable

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The EGO

• Responsible for dealing with reality
• Develops to ensure that the IDs impulses can be
  expressed in an acceptable manner

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The EGO

• Operates based on the reality principle
• Strives to satisfy the IDs needs in realistic
  and socially appropriate ways
• Weighs the costs and benefits of an action before
  acting on or abandoning impulses
• EGO will allow the behavior but in an appropriate
  time and place

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The SUPEREGO

• Last component of the personality to develop
• Aspect of the personality that holds all the
  moral standards and ideals that are acquired from
  society
• Sense of right and wrong
• Provides guidelines for making judgments
• Begins to emerge around age 5

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The SUPEREGO in two parts

• The Ideal Ego
• Includes the rules and standards for proper
  behavior
• Obeying the rules leads to a feeling of pride,
  value, and accomplishment
• The Conscience
• Also includes information about what is viewed as
  improper behavior by parents or society
• Improper behavior is often forbidden and leads to
  poor consequences, punishments, or feelings of
  guilt

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The SUPEREGO

• Operates according to the ideal/moral principle
• Acts to perfect and civilize behavior
• Works to suppress all unacceptable urges of the
  ID
• Struggles to make the EGO act on idealistic
  standards rather than realistic ones

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The Interaction

• With such conflicting emotions, conflict arises
  among the ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO
• EGO is the strongest because of its ability to
  function despite these dueling forces
• A person with ego strength is able to effectively
  manage these pressures, while those with too much
  or too little ego strength become too
  self-righteous or too disruptive
• ID EGO SUPEREGO

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As an Allegory for LOTF?

• Which character does only what he wants and is
  therefore representative of the ID?
• Which character tries to be realistic and is
  therefore representative of the EGO?
• Which character is most idealistic and is
  therefore representative of the SUPEREGO?
• What conflicts occur between the characters who
  represent the ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO?