Lord of the Flies

Throughout literature we can see how alliances and new friend ships are formed but as likely as that is we can also see a betrayal and hatred form. In the Lord of the Flies by William Golding a group of boys are flying to a destination when all of a sudden their plane crashes on a deserted island with no humans but them. One theory throughout this book is the theory of defense mechanisms. For example some of the boys on the island are kind and warm hearted and by the end of the book they turn into savages and killers. Lord of the Flies can be analyzed through defense mechanisms. One of many defense mechanisms that arise within this book is the defense mechanisms is displacement. We can see displacement when one of the characters by the name of Jack gets mad at the group leader Ralph. Instead of hurting jack or someone else he goes and tries to kill a pig. While trying to kill the pig Jack misses and hits a tree. “…he flung the foolish wooden stick that he carried, saw it hit the great snout and hang there for a moment…” (Golding, 77) Within this quote we see how determined jack is to kill the pig but gets mad when he doesn’t achieve his goal.

Another theory that arises within the Lord of the Flies by William Golding is Freud’s psychosexual stages. By analyzing Freud’s psychosexual stages we can see that the boys are within the genital stage, But the boys are fixated within the Phallic stage the superego is born. At this time your libido becomes sexual and you also begin to search for your perfect mate through the model of your parents. In the Lord of the Flies we can see that the boy’s libido is sexual because when the following quote is analyzed through Freud’s psychosexual lens we see that the underlying message is about how the boys are trying to satisfy their libido. “He giggled and licked them while the boys laughed at his reeking palms. Then Jack grabbed Maurice and rubbed the stuff over his cheeks.” (Golding, 95) In this quote we see how the boys have