Roger

NOTE BREAK DOWN BY CHAPTER - PROGRESSION WITH KEY QUOTES (MUST BE ON THE QUOTES PAGE)

Roger

His name, which is Germanic in origin, means ‘spear’

furtive, intense, secretive

desire to hurt others

sadistic and irresponsible

ruthless and coldly violent

enjoys the freedom of being out of control

Detailed notes on Roger:

Roger is black-haired with a fringe that covers his forehead and makes him look sinister. He has an extremely cruel and sadistic streak in his nature which attracts him to Jack’s way of doing things.

Roger is an uncommunicative, moody and secretive loner, preferring to use power as a weapon of evil. Although all the boys are involved in Simon’s death, it is Roger alone who murders Piggy.

Early in the story, Roger repeatedly bullies the children by ruining their sandcastles, throwing sand in their eyes, and throwing rocks at them.

During the second successful pig hunt, Roger is the most aggressive and violent. After killing one of the sow's various piglets, he continues to brutally torture her. Roger then shoves his spear right up the pig's posterior. Afterward, he sharpens a stick at both ends of Jack's command and helps in sticking the pig's head on the spear, as an offering to the Beast.

After another boy named Simon discovers the truth about the Beast, he stumbles into the circle of savages where Simon is stabbed to death. Neither Maurice nor Jack feel any remorse or regret for their actions.

The day after that, on top of Castle Rock, Robert tells Roger that Jack is going to beat Wilfred. Roger hopes to torture Wilfred and hurries towards the rest of the tribe to do so. Even though he doesn't get the chance to hurt Wilfred, he becomes Jack's 'second in command', the chief torturer of the boys.

Killing Piggy

"High overhead, with a sense of delirious abandonment, Roger leaned with all his weight on the lever": he pushes a boulder off the cliff and onto Piggy, killing him. After that, while Samneric is captured, Roger hurts them and forces them to join Jack's tribe. And before they start the hunt for Ralph, he hurts them again and makes them tell where Ralph is hiding.

The night before the hunt for Ralph, Roger sharpens a stick at both ends (completely on his own will), when Jack plans on hunting and killing Ralph. Roger plans on cutting off Ralph's head and impaling it on the stick as another offering for the Beast. Roger and Jack's dark intentions are only stopped at the sight of the naval officer. There, Roger's sadistic pleasures reign back as reality sets into them all.

Personality

Before the shipwreck, Roger is described as being reclusive shy and quiet. However, this was a mere facade to hide the true nature of the character as the taboo of civilization clung to him and prevents him from actually hurting the other boys.

He is the most violent, sadistic, and perverted boy on the island. Upon being stranded, he is just a quiet dark-haired boy, but as the boys start descending into savagery, his true colors start to show.

Roger represents bloodlust and evil at its worst; it is even worse at it may seems, as Roger is only a kid. He revels in inflicting pain on others and was only restrained by the rules of society, rules that do not longer apply in the story.

These represent science and clear-sightedness but they are soon broken. Like the science of the atom that has been perverted for nuclear war, they are perverted by Jack and the others to become a mere instrument for making a fire.