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Roger is pure evil. Sadistic, unabashed, total and utter evil. At first monitored by society, Roger's true intentions towards his fellow humans are unleashed when he realises that society no longer has influence in his new world. Most chilling is our first encounter, where Roger throws stones at the littluns with an intention to miss - not because he doesn't want to hurt them, but because he doesn't want to get into trouble for doing so. Roger and Jack are both evil characters, but where Jack does offer benevolence at times to the boys (usually when they appease him), Roger simply does. not. care. It is Jack's rule that unleashes Roger's sadism, culminating in murder, with a sharpened stick up a pig's bottom along the way. (Take into account this act at the time of publication and it becomes even more shocking). The part Roger plays is in direct contrast to that of Simon. Where Simon is pure and good, Roger is impure and evil. Where Simon protects, Roger destroys... even when it comes to people. ***SPOILER ALERT*** Taken from Cliffsnotes: Roger represents the sadist, the individual who enjoys hurting others. His evil motives are different from Jack's, who pursues leadership and stature and enjoys the thrill of the hunt. Roger just likes to hurt people. He is described in Chapter 1 as a boy "who kept to himself with avoidance and secrecy." His secret is that he is, in some ways, more evil than even Jack. All his life, Roger has been conditioned to leash or mask his impulses. The "irresponsible authority" of Jack's reign offers him the chance to unleash his innate cruelty. Initially, in a mean-spirited prank, Roger throws rocks at the unsuspecting littlun, Henry, but he throws them so that they miss, surrounded as Henry is by "the protection of parents and school and policeman and the law. Roger's arm was conditioned by . . . civilization." Once he joins Jack's tribe, he has lost that conditioning and eventually kills Piggy with one boulder, which was not intended to miss. Roger carves out a distinct niche in the tribe as the hangman, the torturer who plays a key role in all dictatorships, and relishes the role of a killer. From his point of view on top of Castle Rock, "Ralph was a shock of hair and Piggy a bag of fat" — not other human beings. Mentally dehumanizing those not in his group frees Roger from the restraints of decency, an effect he feels as "a sense of delirious abandonment" when he releases the rock to kill Piggy.
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In a Nutshell...During a nuclear war, a group of boys are stranded on an island after their plane crashes during an evacuation. In the absence of adults, the boys work together in order to create their own, crude version of society. However, when you're only 11 and everyone wants to be in charge, how will it end? ArchivesCategories |