Freud and the Flies: A Connection between the Freudian Theory of Psychoanalysis and Characters in William Golding's Lord of the Flies

In the years preceding 1939, Sigmund Freud, who is considered the "father of psychoanalysis" (Morgan 2), prepared a summarized version of his theories of psychoanalysis in An Outline of Psychoanalysis. Freud's theory breaks the psyche (mental life) of an individual into three portions: the id, the ego, and the superego, each with its own distinct function (Freud 13). In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the main characters have distinct personalities that clash with each other, much like …

…of this with his vivid imagery: "...his head opened and stuff came out and turned red." His splattered cranium represents the triumph of the id on the island. After Piggy is killed, the boys are akin to animals; they are no longer governed by rational thought or moral standards. They burn the island in an attempt to kill Ralph, failing to realize that without rescue they themselves would die of starvation on barren, ashen ground.