Roger

Created by

annabel 🌟

Cards (38)

"[a] slight, furtive boy whom no-one knew, who kept to himself with an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy. He muttered that his name was Roger… "
Roger: derived from the Germanic, meaning ‘spear’.
"You don't know Roger. He's a terror" (Samneric)
"And the chief - they're both-"
"-terrors-"
"-only Roger-" (Samneric)
While Jack wants power because he likes the thought of being in charge, Roger wants power because he likes the idea of hurting others.
“He was not noticeably darker than when he had dropped in, but the shock of black hair, down his nape and low on his forehead, seemed to suit his gloomy face and made what had seemed at first an unsociable remoteness into something forbidding.” (p.63).
A sadist!
He did terrible things…
Kicking over the littluns’ sandcastles: “kicking them over, burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones. Maurice followed, laughing, and added to the destruction” (p.62).
Wants to harm Henry but still held back by “taboo of the old life”: “round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Roger's arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.” (p.65).
Tortures the sow on the first kill – pushing the spear up the pig’s behind (p.149);
Sharpens a spear at both ends (on Jack’s orders) and places the pig’s head upon it: the Lord of the Flies – an offering to the Beast (p.150);
Is happy to hear that Jack intends to beat Wilfred and hurries to the camp to take part. Doesn’t partake in this but is raised to ‘second in command’ and ‘chief torturer’ (p.176).
"Ralph was a shock of hair and Piggy a bag of fat." dehumanises the boys he intends to kill (p.199).
Kills Piggy “with a sense of delirious abandonment” (p.200);
Hurts Samneric, forcing them to join Jack’s tribe (p.202); then, again, to get them to confess where Ralph is hiding (p.213);
When hunting Ralph, he again sharpens a stick at both ends (of his own will…) (p.211)
Represents darkness / evil - ‘an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy’
‘furtive boy whom no-one knew’ ‘shock of black hair… something forbidding’
‘You don't know Roger. He's a terror’
A sadist - ‘Ralph was a shock of hair and Piggy a bag of fat’
‘with a sense of delirious abandonment’
A bully - ‘kicking them over, burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones’.
The importance of society’s rules and expectations - ‘taboo of the old life’
‘Roger's arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins’
Roger is a sadist who enjoys hurting other boys.
Early on, his behaviour is still subject to the conditioning he has received back home - indeed, he is the one who suggests a vote for chief.
As the novel develops, Roger becomes more merciless and cruel; he relishes the role of torturer in Jack's tribe and shows no remorse when he intentionally kills Piggy.
His unspeakable cruelty likens him to the Gestapo.
'Let's have a vote' ch1
'He kept to himself with an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy' ch1
'I've been watching the sea. There hasn't been any trace of a ship. Perhaps we'll never be rescued.' ch2
'Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed, threw to miss' ch4
'When Roger opened his arms and saw him [Jack], a darker shadow crept beneath the swarthiness of his skin' ch4
'Roger ran round the heap, prodding with his spear' ch8
'Roger found a lodgement for his point and began to push till he was leaning with his whole weight' ch8
'Roger ceased to be a pig and became a hunter' ch9
'A full effort would send the rock thundering down the neck of the land. Roger admired. "He's a proper chief isn't he [Jack]?" ' ch10
'Roger sat assimilating the possibilities of irresponsible authority' ch10
'Someone was throwing stones: Roger was dropping them, his one hand still on the lever' ch11
'Roger advanced upon them as one wielding a nameless authority' ch11
'And supposing [thought Ralph], instead of them, he met the Chief, or Roger, who carried death in his hands?' ch12