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Lord Of The Flies: Roger's Evolving Characterization

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Roger’s Evolving Characterization
In the novel, The Lord of the Flies, William Golding explains how civility can be lost when power is abused. Roger is one of the boys who is stranded on the island, and is isolated from the war raging outside their small world. At the beginning of the book, Roger was presented as a sly, secretive boy who displays cruelty towards the weak and vulnerable boys. While Jack has a thirst for the power to be in charge, Roger desires power because he likes the idea of hurting the boys around him. Once he joins Jack's tribe, he slowly turns into the hangman of the group by torturing Samneric until they join the tribe, preparing a stick to impale Ralph's head on and eventually causing Piggy's death. From being a quiet, furtive boy, Roger evolves to become a brutal murderer …show more content…

By analyzing Roger’s evolving characterization throughout the novel, Golding conveys the message that human beings must have rules, authority and government in order to maintain a stable environment. As Roger gains the feeling of superiority, he progressively becomes more violent and reveals his dark side. Golding leaves a message for the reader about human nature through Roger, explaining how if one is given power, then they will most likely take advantage of the power that they are given, and abuse it by taking step too far and possibly hurting someone. Throughout the novel, Roger loses his respect for human life and civility. His actions illustrate that without rules, order, government and authority, the boys on the island become disorderly and violent. Even today, the importance of law, order and stability are important to run a well functional governement. Without these factors, government will fall into anarchy and anarchy will lead to the loss of civility and decline of

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Roger chose to torture the boys, and eventually he chose to kill Piggy. The experience of the island pulled something ugly out of him specifically, but in all the ways that matter, he was fully aware and in control of his choice to murder another person. The other murder, Simon’s, is different in that no one person chose to kill the boy. No one in particular summoned the malice to beat him to death, but the group as a whole lost their individual values and assimilated into the group. Chapter 2 of Opening Skinner’s Box explains that people abandon their core beliefs in order to satisfy some primal need to conform.

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Despite Roger being “a terror” (175) and the one the boys fear the most, Jack still wields the most authority as chief, proving that fear alone cannot be effective. Jack remains in authority, using the boys’ desire for fun and meat and the threat of torture. Ralph loses his authority, and Piggy is unable to gain a position of authority,

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Golding compares the Lord of the Flies to a toy, flashing back to Simon’s hallucinations, using the element of imaginary. The death of Piggy and the shattering of the conch prove that corruption takes over when democracy is lost. With the island only being inhabited by corrupt savages, Ralph gives in and fights like a barbaric animal in an attempt to restore order. The irony is, in his attempts to restore democracy on the island, he is acting as if he were one of Jack’s savages; using the spear from the boar head to fight like a mad man. Democracy is taken over by selfishness, savage-like behavior, which causes corruption to take

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