An explanation of the Id, Ego and Superego in “The Old Man and The Sea”

In literature, one of the most common themes but important is the interpretation. Interpreting the language helps the reader be able to discover different levels of understandings of the author’s works. It is essential to address the role of psychoanalysis in this aspect. Owing to reading the surface of words written on pages, the reader then has a first attempt to look at the linguistic system. It is, however, so difficult to understand the language that has been used by the author, then the necessity is to start analyzing. Hence, when the language structure makes sense, the reader is able to utilize the levels of understanding by detaching the language from its origin to an external realm. In response to this that why the reader needs these distinctive processes in understanding a written text, a Freudian interpretation concerns these differences based on psychoanalytic criticism, by which every time each reader can use this method to decode any written text and then access the meaning of the work in different levels of psyche in interpreting by themselves.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is an Austrian neurologist who founded and developed the psychoanalytic criticism. In correspondence to the aforementioned levels of understanding, Freudian theories explain and separate the mind into three parts including the Id, the Superego and the Ego. These are three models of the psyche, which aim to expound a plausible interpretation of the unconscious and conscious elements in the mind due to from the most fundamental human primal nature to nurture onto literary psychoanalysis. In this paper, there will be an investigation into a chosen work written by Ernest Hemingway The Old Man and The Sea by reflecting this work through the Freudian theoretical framework of personality the Id, the Superego and the Ego in a search of how the mind, the instincts and the sexuality work. It is then followed by an evaluation of the theoretical value upon the notions of the unconscious and conscious.

At first sight, it is literarily worth discussing the first layer of the mind, which is the Id – the unconscious element having a fundamental impact on each of individual perception. According to Freud (cited by Kurniati 4), the Id is “the irrational, instinctual, unknown, and unconscious part of the psyche.” While Peter Barry, in his book “Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory” calls out the premise of the unconscious motive regarded as the primary self and that as “the kernel of our being” (107). Having said that, the belief here is that there is no connotation in one’s perception in doing a thing or caring about its consequence.

In a certain, it is merely a posture of one’s own fulfilment derived from their desire, wish, or dream. Not to mention about the way of writing by Hemingway, in The Old Man and The Sea, the old man Santiago is sketched at the first time such as a baby born with full of desires about fishing and that should be a real fisherman with a really big fish in the sea. It is totally acceptable with desire, wish and dream or even imagination. Everything seems to be so pure at this level. When all come from instinctual drives, there is no real awareness and that can be seen as the collection of urges in the immediate gratification. If it returns to Freud, this drives duly located in the unconscious, which is now fears, conflicts, traumas, or any kind of unadmitted things are still being concealed. So the assumption of an infantile concept allows the reader to interpret this character – Santiago without strictness as one can see an image of them in this drive (a biological drive). While the author himself is not aware of how the reader will interpret his work. It is known that the work is a product of the creative work that the author has contributed to a level of highly ingenious thoughts. The written text can thus be as simple or complex as the author’s thinking process.

As a result, the majority of the language structure is also a state of mind. This also stated by Rebate, “the depths of the concept of a language that can provide the key to the structure of the unconscious and of a structure that describes the most fundamental codes of society.” (4) Everyone can feel thriving at the very beginning when they first time receive the product (an intellectual work here). So that the success of Hemingway is to create the first step, a start of the long voyages with full of pleasant and enjoyable. Hence it is so often when things come at first with instincts and plus the freedom of thoughts. Of the entire author, the reader and other critics have this embodiment considered a truthful structure of the Id what anyone will experience when interpreting a written text.

Moving to the next level of the psyche, the second aspect of psychoanalysis is the Superego. According to Freud (cited by Kurniati 7), Superego is “ the part of the personality that represents parental values in the morals of society.” With that in mind, the Superego is driven by a desire to follow the rules and do the right things according to society. Continually, the baby is now a bit more growing and has enough interpretations with surroundings. At the very moment, a baby is able to realize that their needs should not be met immediately, and then the Superego appears to let the Id know what is acceptable.

In order to make a comparison, the Id can be seen as an evil pushing us to do things, which are to fulfil our pleasures while the Superego is seen as an angel encouraging us to follow good choices. If it can be called by a name, the Superego should be a preconscious in the level of the psyche. Thus, the construction of the Ego (will be discussed in the next paragraph) is always established after a battle, whereby the Id and the Superego are fighting each other to control behaviours. The Superego is now a premise of the Ego and plays a vital role in the judgment of morals. An example from Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea:

To kill the fish or to befriend with the fish? It is known that the Ego will later or sooner be defined but it is mutilated when the Superego is having a lesson of moral now inside of the old fisherman. Also, from the beginning of the story, the author tells us that the old man has a strong belief in his destiny; it is witnessed through his dream to catch a big fish, his management within more than eighty days in the sea. However, the term that needs to be noticed is “the old man”. His age embodies his own experience and adequately whisper to him what he should act by recalling his experience past.

Now he is going to kill the fish or being defeated are the choices. Momtazi suggests that it would probably be relieved if the old man sees him as a unity in nature instead of being an antagonist fighting with it and caring about how bad luck he is (2). Along with this agreement, Mařáková supposes, “his ego may be hurt” but the imperfection is acceptable in the awareness of one’s personality (21). In the psychic process, this kind of analysis is a so-called defence mechanism so that a person can avoid being painful by other distractions. To Freud, “human reason was not master in its own house but a precautious defence mechanism struggling against, and often motivated by, unconscious desires and forces.” (Lynn et all. 807) This sense makes us feel that the Superego has its own responsibility to console the Ego and punish the Id. As a result, one can achieve and define their self-personality.

The last one – the third portion of the mind covers the Ego in terms of Freudian psychoanalytic criticism. By what has been analyzed above, it is acknowledged that the Ego’s main role is to mediate between the Id and the Superego. Nevertheless, the Ego itself is always being controlled by these two elements. The decisive factor creates an Ego thus absolutely depended on which side it is going to choose or supposed to choose. So experiences are obtained by the Superego, and the Id is what so instinctual, the rest of works needs to be formed by the Ego in an association with defining oneself. According to Freud (cited by Kurniati 6), the Ego “recognizes what is real and understands that behaviours have consequences to living and socialize with other people.” From that perspective, the Ego belongs to the conscious part of the mind.

And now, the “I” – the reader can reach the depths of the concept of the language by the author’s use. When the reader has their elaborateness themselves in preparation with their interpretations from the beginning up to the end of the story, they will give their own typical evaluations on much of the author’s work related to the author, the characters and their own self-personality (how the reader is able to interpret these aspects in a very broad communication: with the author, the characters). This means that the reader has to use his or her own Ego to reflect the work of the author in relation to the mutual understanding the level of psychoanalysis that the author leads (and now it can be used the term “manage” because the author’s thought is consciously constructed by their Superego but developed from the Id).

The values of the work are, hence, mutually promoted thoroughly then bright. By this mean, the reader can now explain why each of the characters has this or that thoughts and actions, and the author’s implications too. In The Old Man and The Sea, some of the last sentences Hemingway writes, “A man is not made for defeat…a man can be destroyed but not defeated.” Then “the old man was dreaming about lions.” (Momtazi) Before this scenario, the old man seemed to falter the long voyage and his failure to catch the marlin. When the game nearly comes to an end, the player is trying to give up, and the exhaustion is crawling in the fatigued old man body, the Ego comes with a lesson of how to overcome a big challenge. The scene when the old man is fighting with the shark is worth it.

Reality is still what we have observed, but the allusion makes us think more about the latent content. It is often that whenever a human person is put into a dramatic challenge then a mythical drive comes to call the deeply inside centricity. The story we have read is now becoming more explicit and it does through images, symbols, emblems, and metaphors. In here, the battle between human and various natural elements in reading Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea has a large contribution to many life’s statements. As the role of the Ego, the old man image can be seen as a lion and the lion can be seen as an emblem for the human’s strength, and lastly, the battle becomes a symbol (of the human conquering the surroundings).

In conclusion, if life is a symbol, then every day is a battle. It just, however, needs a bit modification because it is reality. By reading Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea and its reflection underlying Freudian psychoanalytic criticism, the value of the work is much more fortified through the analysis of the useful interpretation method upon the notion of the level of the psyche: unconscious, preconscious and conscious as mentioned above. Therefore, it is recognizable that the integration of different level of the psyche in each human person and this could be considered a symptom, which is continuing to develop in oneself state of mind. Besides its concrete embodiments, it causes a meaningful lesson that has a tremendous influence on how we need to interpret life truthfully and the use of it into everyday life’s mindset.

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester University Press, 2009, pp. 92.

Hemingway, Earnest. The Old Man and The Sea. http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/oldmansea.pdf.

Kurniati, Azizah. “Between despair and spirit of life reflected in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea (1952): A psychoanalytic criticism.” Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta, 2014, pp. 2-14.

Mařáková, Lenka. “The interpretation of Hemingway´s The Old Man and the Sea (Literary-psychological analysis).” Masaryk University in Brno, December.2011, pp. 7-59.

Momtazi, Saeed. “Destroyed but not defeated: Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea: A psychotherapeutic story.” Zanjan Medical University, pp. 1-9.

Lynn, Paul, and Carol. “Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, edited by Vincent B. Leitch, Norton & Company, 2010. p. 807.

Rebate, Jean-Michel. Transitions, Jacques Lacan, Psychoanalysis and the Subject of Literature. Palgrave, 2001, pp. 4.