“Lord of the flies” written by William Golding is a power allegory about Id, Ego, and Super ego. Most of the dystopian novels given turned out to be an allegory. Allegory is a word that originated from the Greek word “Allegoria,” which is a definition for a story with multiple meaning that can be analyzed through its internal (symbolic) and external properties. A huge characteristic about an allegory is that the characters usually represent certain part or a social value that existed within the era of the author of the book. “Lord of the flies was an allegory of a human being’s war between Id, Ego, and Super ego and I will explain the theme of this book and the social situation of William Golding’s time based on the four steps of seeking theme.
The setting begins off at the Coral Island, which is a deserted island that the boys fell onto due to a plane crash (in process of escaping from nuclear war). This coral island is a place isolated from civilization that only holds pure nature in it. By putting ‘boys’ instead of ‘adults’ the author tried to reveal more about human instinct (Id) with characters that are not are too young to have a complete morality and ego developed.
The Characters in this story were mainly Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon. Ralph and Jack were the main characters of the conflict, and Piggy and Simon was an intellectual part of the island society. Ralph is an athletic boy, whose skills and leadership is evaluated by the boys and a leader who applies democratic systems. Jack is a boy who used to be the leader of a choir group, he comes to conflict with Ralph and supports the idea of dictatorship because he thinks that comments from the younger kids are useless. Piggy is the smartest among the group who is ignored by most of the kids because of his fat looks. He could be representing ‘the scientists’. Simon was a boy with naturally powerful Super ego that was in the core of this story by knowing the truth of the terror that they faced, and realizes that the true terror is themselves, a human. Simon was a boy who was spiritually awakened. You can divide this character into two groups and see the whole conflict as Id (Jack) versus Ego (Ralph, Piggy, Simon). Id, Ego, and Super ego are a philosophy that was declared by German psychologist Sigmund Freud. “Id” means the natural instinct of a human that is stated to be very sinful and barbaric (similar to the Christian faith of looking at basis of men very sinful). “Ego” is a morality that controls the “Id” of a human; it’s a social reality principle. “Super Ego” is term for altruism that is defined as most ‘civilized’ thoughts as a human being within a society that seeks for community and perfection. The “Super Ego” in this story was unable to develop within the kids because a factor called ‘terror’ restricted the development and also stimulated the “Id” of the kids. Jack and the other kids represent the “Id” of a human that lives based on the natural instinct of survival and death in this case of the story. Ralph, Piggy, and Simon are the boys who protected their ego but are wiped out by the “Id” of Jack, which can be pointing out the powerfulness of human’s natural instinct and its brutality.
Climax of the story would be when Simon sees the lord of the flies, and go through a mental conflict within him that reminds us of his realization that “The true terrors are us, human”. This pointed out the ‘source’ of the savagery going on with the boys and created thesis to point out the true face of a human being.
The resolution of getting saved by the navy can be defined as corruption being calmed by insanity. However, there is an irony here because the boys get saved from their own corrupted society by the navy that seems to represent civilization and sanity. Nevertheless, the civilization that they are saved by has even larger scale of brutality such as a war.
The overall theme about this story is “The evil and sinful natural instinct of a human makes us ‘The Lord of the Flies’”. Lord of the Flies, a term that is directly translated from Hebrew, which means “The evil and terror” (basically means the king of insects but is translated into evil because of insect’s filthiness), this is stated at the instruction content of the novel. The thing that we should be truly terrorized against is ourselves. William Golding was a person who dwelled in the era of World War 2 by looking at the symbolism and characterizations. This theme is important for teenagers because it creates a foundation to look back at ourselves as ‘humans’, and the ‘civilization’ that we tend to call ourselves.
Here are few questions for teenagers to think about…
1) How do you think of the human instinct coming over morality in this novel?
2) Referring to the irony that the resolution creates, what is the true meaning of savagery and brutality? The society also shows the more ‘civilized’ we get, the larger the scale of brutality gets.
3) What would have happened if all the children on the islands were girls instead of boys? Why didn’t the author keep sexual balance? Is it just done to contrast the mood of blocking Super ego and Ego? Do you think the story would have been different if they were all girls? (This question is just one of my crazy imaginations, you can ignore this).
I actually didn’t explain about the William Golding’s time revealed through novel here because I decided to apply that one for the character explanations…
This novel seems to remind us that we are heirs of Cain…
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