In Boileau-Narcejac’s novel Vertigo, Roger, the protagonist, is a shell of his former self, blinded by his own insecurities, fixations, and fears, leaving him an easy target for manipulation. Seeing the opportunity, Gevigne, the novel’s antagonist, uses Aristotle’s art of pathos to persuade and demean Roger’s image for his own selfish gain, leading to Roger’s downward spiral and unhealthy obsession with Madeleine. With Gevigne’s expertise on Roger’s broken past, his use of pathos follows Roger throughout the course of the novel, stripping him of any logic, whether it be with the use of friendship, pity, or confusion. From the start of the novel, Roger is already at a low point in his mental stability, fixated on the death of his former partner due to his vertigo. He feels responsible--hopeless, even in his career and journey. Roger himself states that he is “a prey to the mysterious inner pendulum which swung from despair to hope, from misery to joy, from time to audacity” (Boileau-Narcejac 73). This proves that Roger is an easily suaded individual, for his lack of self esteem makes it that he relies on others for his worth. Leeching onto Roger’s rampant emotional instability, Gevigne provides a sense of normalcy and familiarity to Roger by returning into his life, entrusting him with a daring secret. To begin his appeal to pathos, Gevigne proclaims that he always “thought of [him] as one of [his] oldest friends” (Boileau-Narcejac 19). By establishing this connection,
One of the most intricate themes in the novel is the survival instincts of human nature. The savagery that will soon overtake the children is first seen in Roger as he throws rocks towards Henry. “Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed and threw it at Henry-threw it to miss... Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them. Yet there was a space round Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw... Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Roger was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.” (Golding 62) As Roger throws these stones, the foundation of his character is built. He turns out to be one of the most ruthless boys who will hurt or kill
Maurice continues with the original plan and goes swimming, but Roger hides in the forest and starts to throw rocks at Henry. His intent is not to hit him, but rather to scare him and feed into the fear of the beast. This evil act is significant to Henry and the rest of the impressionable littluns, because in their eyes it is another offense from the beast which is the embodiment of all the boys fears and insecurities. Even though Roger obviously takes pleasure in hurting other people, he is still “conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins” (82) and therefore decides to only throw the rocks in his general direction. Roger’s behavior at the beach demonstrates an overall negative presence which is Golding’s way of portraying Roger as the shadow archetype. This furthers the theme of all people are inherently evil by describing how the only reason Roger does not throw the rocks directly at Henry is because he has not forgotten all of the rules modern society has set. The rules most of society follow are to never hurt anyone unjust and to be respectful and kind. In this situation Roger is not fully savage and still has societies basic rules lingering in the back of his head when he only throws the rocks near Henry and not directly at him. Although, Roger was more civilized, he becomes full savage and forgets all of the rules of civilization when he malevolently kills Piggy. After Jack and the
Roger, the quiet, introverted child, was very clearly molded by social ethics. At one point in the novel, Roger was throwing stones at little’uns, but feeling forced to miss. “Here, invisible yet strong,
When stalking Henry, Roger “picked up a stone, aimed, and [...] threw it to miss. [There] was a taboo of the old life [...] [his] arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was left in ruins” (62). Roger “threw to miss” mainly because he still had some empathy within him and knew that it was wrong to hurt Henry. He was thinking about the consequences when throwing; similarly, this would be the kind of behavior he would exhibit at home when about to break a rule. The adhesive effect of civilization is strong within him as he throws because he intends to miss; however, the action of Roger throwing the rock is already detrimental which signifies the growing of evil in him. The consequences were imposed by adults in “old life,” but now, there are none to impose restrictions on him. Slowly, he realizes that there is no wrong in doing such things because of the lack of real authority and begins to regress in qualities. The adults in Roger’s “old life” taught him to not throw rocks, but not the difference between right and wrong. The “state of nature” is shown when Roger performs the malevolent action of destroying sand castles and subsequently contemplating of whether to harm Henry with rocks or not. In expressing his regret, Roger is indicating that the difference between good and evil is not one that he is familiar with. Some will argue that Roger is evil because he was the one responsible for Piggy’s
Roger’s character resembles the fall of innocence. At the beginning of the novel Roger is shy and when asked to introduce himself he muttered his name and was then silent again acordding to http://blog.yssd.org/ . Roger decides to throw rocks at Henry (one of the younger children). His morales stop him from harming the child. At that time he was still the innocent young boys he was back home. Roger , having to turn to survival instincts, he starts to feel rebellious. As the novel progresses Golding
To begin with on page 32 it says that she trusted him with her purse. Roger sees that she trusts, and how forgiving she is. And on page 32 Roger says “ I only wanted some blue suede shoes.” The reason he tried to snatch her purse was for some shoes, which shows stealing, and so she tries to fix him and succeeds. At the table she talks to him about her job, and sees that she is actually kind. So to him he begins to think, and then at the end when she hands him some money, he sees its better to just ask. At the end we come to find out he has goodness in him when he says thank you and walks away. Plus not to forget she is really stern with him. So lastly, he thinks about what all she has said, and starts to have a little bit of manners which
In this magnificent quote of the story one can interpret the fact that Roger can not hurt Henry because civilization is protecting him. This means that Roger still feels remorse about hurting a child because in his hometown he would have been disciplined not to do such thing. However, his trials to hurt him demonstrates that Roger is starting to become savage. Furthermore, in this quote one is able to observe the foreshadowing of the hunter and choir member Roger becoming uncivilized because he is attempting to hurt a person younger than him with a stone which could be considered brutal. Additionally, the theme which the author is trying to interpret in this section is humans becoming savage or just savagery. His feeling of guilt is what prevents
When one is separated from societal order, their darker thoughts will then begin to bloom and their behavior will become more aggressive. Near the beginning of the novel, Roger is described as a boy who “...kept to himself within an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy” (Golding 16). This quotes portrays Roger as a child
This quote shows how Roger’s upbringing, of which he could get in trouble for hurting little Henry, affects exactly how he decides to handle the situation. “Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them. Yet there was a space round Henry … into which he dare not throw.” (Golding 62). This shows that he still wants to fuel his inner beast yet has been taught not to by the society he grew up in.
To begin with, Roger progressively transforms from a mysterious boy to a barbarian over the course of civilization to regression. Roger avoids social contact, initially, until refinement unravels among several boys, and he gets unruly--walking into the littluns’ sandcastle purposely--after relieving his signal fire duties. Afterwards, Roger continues bothering the kids, more particularly--Henry--as he “stoop[s], pick[s] up a stone, and thr[ows] it at Henry--threw it miss” (Golding 62). Roger gives in to the lack of civilization on the island by having the idea of harming a mere, young boy. However, civilization embeds a part of him, and it prevents him from hitting Henry literally. For example, he “pick[s] up a stone” (Golding 62) with the intent of using it to hurt a person since over time, the island gradually loses its authority and order. Consequently, these boys influence one another dramatically by their thirst to hunt or simple goal of survival. In this case, Jack, a power hungry tyrant, barbarically impacts Roger and his viewpoints. However, at home, society reminds Roger such actions are not acceptable, so he “threw it to
He symbolizes the idea that the strong survive, so the strongest must govern. One of the most moving examples of the remnant of civilization happens when Roger starts to throw rocks at a boy named Henry. While throwing these stones, he purposely misses, because, “there was a space round Henry, perhaps 6 yards in diameter, in which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life” (56). Despite his time away from strong authoritative figures, Roger is socially conditioned to avoid hurting other people.
This is a moment that represents the original perception of Roger but what actually turns out to be. Originally Roger was a character that Junior thought he would have much contact with. He was a popular, athletic Senior who kind of scared Junior at first. But then Junior punched Roger when he made an extremely racist joke. From that moment on, Roger respected Junior. Junior did not quite understand why he respected him at first, but then his grandma gave him some words of insight. She said that he respected Junior because Junior stood up for himself. He showed bravery and punched Roger; something many people would be afraid to do. From his experiences with Perception vs. Reality, Junior realizes that you shouldn’t judge a book by his cover; he shouldn’t be quick to categorize people just from their original
The Alfred Hitchcock film; Vertigo is a narrative film that is a perfect example of a Hollywood Classical Film. I will be examining the following characteristics of the film Vertigo: 1)individual characters who act as casual agents, the main characters in Vertigo, 2)desire to reach to goals, 3)conflicts, 4)appointments, 5)deadlines, 6)James Stewart’s focus shifts and 7)Kim Novak’s characters drives the action in the film. Most of the film is viewed in the 3rd person, except for the reaction shots (point of view shot) which are seen through the eyes of the main character.(1st person) The film has a strong closure and uses continuity editing(180 degree rule). The stylistic (technical) film form of Vertigo makes the film much more
In conclusion, Roger bullies the young which then triggers him into becoming a
There exists the idea that the period occupied by sentiment was one of refined and intellectual emotion. However, it seems that if this notion ever existed, it was quickly overcome with literature occupying the theme of farce, either ironically or obliviously. A specific example we can point to to clearly demonstrate this idea is A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Laurence Sterne. While some contemporaries adored Sterne’s work on a serious sentimental level, many other critics, both past and present, see it instead as a conscious farcical parody of the idea and concept of sentiment that was so revered and admired at the time. In A Sentimental Journey we see various elements of farce through the different aspects presented to us as readers, ranging from the characters within the story, with a focus on Mr. Yorick, our main character, and farce is even present in the form of the book itself. And it is these factors we will examine that highlight the farcical nature, not only of A Sentimental Journey, but most likely a great deal of sentimental literature written of the time.