The Hangman's Horror: Roger, Sadism, and Psychopathy in Lord of the Flies

(Quotes: “Bobbie Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones and the other boys soon followed his example selecting the smoothest and roundest stones.” [pg147] “The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready. Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, she held her hands up desperately as the villagers moved in on her, ‘It isn’t fair,’ she said. A stone hit her on the side of the

Henry is trying to show how one’s default or natural response to the hardships they were facing at the hands of British rule might be to turn their head the other way.

perfect example of this is when he kills Piggy with the giant rock. Roger also

Although not mentioned much at the start of the novel, by the end, Roger becomes Jack’s right-hand man. The following quote best captures Roger’s merciless savagery, Golding writes, “‘High overhead, Roger with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever… The rock struck Piggy a gleaning blow from chin to knee… the body of Piggy was gone.”’(Golding 181). Roger, in this scene, murders Piggy in cold blood. Roger clearly knows it is wrong to kill; but, with “abandonment” pushed the rock. Roger, who was first seen throwing stones at Henry, throws the rocks in the area around Henry. This demonstrates that he still has traces of civilization left and that the thought of rules exist. Roger; although, slowly afterwards loses most of his civilization. Once again seen with Jack after they kill the mother pig, Roger, tortures the pig with no remorse. During this sick scene, Roger stabs the pig in whatever place he can find. After all of this, the first thing Roger asks is how are we going to cook it. Finally, when Roger kills Piggy he reaches his final transformation into savagery; therefore, without parental supervision, Roger’s extremely corrupt human nature emerges. Along with Roger’s exhibition of corruptness, Ralph also displays the true human

William Golding contends in his novel “Lord of the flies” that the dangers of evil which lurk inside all of us savagery are through the character Roger. When one considers the word savagery, specifically within the frame of william golding’s novel, savagery comes as a result of freedom and no consequences. In the novel when Roger gets stuck on the island he isn’t certainly evil in fact he is a very shy kid . Although as the story progresses we see him descending into it evilness and savagery. We see that when Roger is walking on the beach with mauris after kicking the kids sandcastle, “Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed threw it at henry….threw it to miss.”(Chapter 4) This was a sign of savagery growing inside of him. He wanted to hit

“Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed, and threw it at henry—threw to miss. The stone, that token of preposterous time, bounced five yards to Henry’s right and fell in the water. Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them. Yet there was a space round Henry…. Into which he dare not throw… invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life…. Roger’s arm was conditioned by civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.”

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

Roger in the quote is throwing rocks at Henry who is younger than him, he is doing this because he is now somewhere where there is no one to punish wrong doings; however, he seems to avoid Henry, later in the quote Golding specifically wrote “Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law”. (Golding 87) Roger is reminiscing what it felt like to live back where he used to which had parents, school, policemen and laws. Even though none of those are there

Albeit low, the tension thickens as the boys strive to hold the conch and to speak their opinions. Golding mainly portrays the beginnings of the tense environment that the island will become through the internal tension each of the boys express. This is especially evident in Piggy, when he is speaking and the silence becomes “so complete that they could hear the unevenness of [his] breathing” (34). His struggle to claim the conch so he could voice his opinion makes him anxious and nervous. The battle to display dominance while holding the right to speak only grows more difficult as the novel progresses, and the conch’s power only grows with the continuation of the novel’s plot and the emergence of the savagery within the boys.

The self-restricted actions of Roger before savagery fully settles on the island are the result of the imposed order of everyday human life. Roger is playfully throwing stones at Henry, but does not allow any of them to hit his target. To show the importance and connection of Roger’s actions, Golding writes, “Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to threw them. Yet there was a space around Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life” (Golding 62). Roger, throwing rocks at someone to begin with, has a desire to hurt people. The “taboo of old life”, however, is able to completely restrict this desire from doing any harm, being “invisible yet strong” as well as making Roger unable to “dare” to throw a stone close to Henry. This language makes it seem as if Roger, having gone through the civilization of “old life”, is forced to

After falling off the boat, Rainsford started to swim to land, to where he heard the gunshot. While swimming, Rainsford ran into some jagged rocks that he decided to swim and climb through. “Jagged crags appeared to jut into the opaqueness, he forced himself upward hand over hand.”(10). By taking this action, Rainsford decided not to let the rocks get in the way of his journey of finding where the pistol shot came from. Even though this part of his journey was tough he did not let nature get in his way. Conclusion sentence.

He “led the way straight through the castles, kicking them over, burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones,” only to remain, “watching the littluns.” Maurice, however, “still felt the unease of wrongdoing.” Jack’s only fault was yearning for power, which corrupts those who wield it. Roger is corrupted and malevolent without ever thirsting for this power, and is therefore more evil than Jack. Roger keeps to himself, much like Simon, and remains consistently evil throughout the novel. Near the beginning, he “picked up a stone, aimed, and threw it at Henry-threw it to miss,” held back by “the taboo of the old life.” Later, he did not miss and “with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever,” releasing a huge boulder and killing Piggy. Under the weight of the boulder, “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.” The main symbol for the democracy, equality and justice was indirectly destroyed by Roger. To him, “Ralph was a shock of hair and Piggy a bag of fat,” thus dehumanizing and objectifying them. When Sam and Eric were cornered by Jack’s group of savages, Roger demonstrates his enjoyment for hurting others by “[advancing] upon them as one wielding a nameless authority.” It was not for the sake of supremacy or control, but for unbridled sadistic pleasure. When Ralph finds Sam and Eric, they say that Roger is “a terror”. He also points out that Jack is a terror, but the twins respond with “only

Roger changed because of how he was thinking about running to being so trustful and good. On page 32 it says he could make a dash for it down the hall because, the door was open. Then, Roger and Mrs. Jones were trying to win each other trust. On page 32it say that he did not trust the woman not to trust him. And he did not want to be mistrusted now. On page 32-33 it says that “Do you need somebody to go to the store,” asked the boy, “Maybe to get some milk or

“Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones. The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready; there were stones on the ground with the blowing scraps of paper that had come out of the box Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. "Come on," she said. "Hurry up."( (Jackson)

Henry was barely eighteen years of age when got to the thrown. He has been prepared ever since the death of his brother Arthur. At this age, he was not the kind of person you would