Roger Lord Of The Flies Character Analysis Essay

From the beginning of Lord of the Flies, Roger has been described as a “furtive boy… with an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy” (22). Throughout the book, he doesn’t really stay with the group, but prefers working alone. The name ‘Roger’ has French origin and means “famous spear” or “famous fighter” which leads to Roger’s violent tendencies and his ease of hurting others. William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies, doesn’t tend to stray from stereotypes within the book, such as a smart blonde or a rich, lazy immigrant. Instead, he exemplifies them, using Jack as a hot-head because of his red hair and displaying Roger as a covert sadist because he keeps to himself.
    Roger can mainly be outlined as dark, unsociable, with a bad

vibe emanating from his core. Page twenty-two describes, “boy whom no one knew, who kept to himself with an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy.” This illustration aids in showing Roger’s consistent character and how believable his personality is. His temperament is reliable because throughout the book he is described similarly. For instance, “He was not noticeably darker than when he had dropped in, but the shock of black hair, down his nape and low on his forehead, seemed to suit his gloomy face and made what had seemed at first an unsociable remoteness into something forbidding” (60). Other than aiding his consistency within the story, this quote emphasizes Roger’s role in the plot. A character continuously being described as dark and forbidding provides the readers with a reason to be suspicious and alarmed.
    At first, Roger’s moral constitution was still intact. He didn’t agonize over the right thing to do, he just knew. In particular, Henry, one of the smaller boys on the island, was walking along the beach with Roger following him. When they both stopped, Roger began throwing stones around the littlun. During this event, the author explains, “Yet there was a space around Henry... into which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong… was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law” (62). Roger knew that if he hurt Henry, or anyone, it would be wrong, because he was raised civilly, and taught that it dishonorable. However, later in the book, Roger loses that sense of civilization. Ralph and Piggy went to confront Jack and his tribe of savages after they stole Piggy’s glasses. Roger then purposefully pushed a boulder in Ralph and Piggy’s direction, “...with a sense of delirious abandonment” (180). From there on, Roger didn’t hold any thought to the standards of society and right and wrong.
    William Golding details Roger focally through what the other characters say about him and his relationships with them.

For example, on pages 188-189, Samneric showed how fearful they are of Roger, “You don’t know Roger. He’s a terror― And the chief― they’re both― terrors― only Roger―.” The discussion ended there when someone began climbing up the wall to check on Samneric, leaving ‘only Roger’ hanging in the air, a heavy blanket of foreboding. On page sixty-two, Jack calls Roger’s name. Once Roger looks up, “a darker shadow crept beneath the swarthiness of his skin. Also, at the end of chapter eleven, “Roger edged past the chief (Jack), only just avoiding pushing him with his shoulder.” These are subtle suggestions that Roger has a problem with Jack. Golding also reveals Roger through his actions. One page 135, Roger brutally murders a sow by sticking a spear straight up her hind end. He and the other boys proceeded to laugh about it saying, “Right up her ass!” Beforehand, Roger was indifferent, poking anywhere he had the chance, “Roger ran round the heap, prodding with his spear whenever pig flesh appeared… Roger found a lodgment for his point and began to push till he was leaning with his whole weight. The spear moved forward inch by inch and the terrified squealing became a high-pitched scream”

(135).
    Roger’s strong points are his courage, strength, bravery, and listening skills.

From the start, Roger was portrayed as a quiet character, barely muttering his first name in chapter one. His courage and bravery give him the power to fearlessly hunt pigs and guard Castle Rock. Roger’s strength provides him with the opportunity to threaten the other boys, with supplies him with his authority. His weakness, however, is how quickly he became a savage and let go of civilization completely. The boys weren’t on the island for a month; two weeks at most, and all except for Samneric, Ralph, and Piggy lost their sanity and

civility.
Of course, Roger’s change was encouraged by the other boys, receiving laughter when he made a kabob out of the pig’s rear, or being allowed to cartwheel and whistle along the beach after stealing Piggy’s glasses in chapter ten. Roger’s change was quite rapid, going from keeping a safety ring around Henry when throwing rocks in chapter four, to carelessly hurling a boulder on Piggy in chapter eleven. His evolvement attributes to his complex personality and plays a major role in the story; he eventually became cruel enough, in chapter twelve, to use Jack’s idea of a stick sharpened at both ends as a means for Ralph’s head. Roger doesn’t try to prevent this change or slow it down; instead, he runs with it and completely lets his original self go during his “sense of abandonment” on page 180. He turned himself into a ruthless killer.
If Roger were taken from Lord of the Flies and placed in another story, he would relatively react in the same way. In The Hunger Games, teenaged characters are taken from their homes and forced into an arena with orders to fight to the death if they want to live. There are no grownups, just twenty-four tributes who get rewarded when they make a kill. Lord of the Flies has a similar situation: kids doing their best to survive on an island without any adults, who congratulate each other when one makes a kill. Roger would presumably act as Cato in The Hunger Games: a merciless character who is only concerned with the prizes one would get for killing someone, not how that someone may feel, nor the humanity of it all.
    Roger is comparable to the other characters in Lord of the Flies. He’s similar to Jack; they’re both bullies who enjoy power. On page fifty-nine and sixty, some littluns were building sand castles on the beach, “These castles were about one foot high and were decorated with shells, withered flowers, and interesting stones… and the three children, kneeling in the sand, were at peace. Roger and Maurice came out of the forest. Roger led the way straight through the castles, kicking them over, burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones.” Roger knocked over the littluns’ sand castles laughing, with no regard to their feelings or toil. Jack also acts in a cruel way; Piggy humiliated him in front of his tribe and he reacted in the only way a bully would: brutality. He punched Piggy in the stomach, called him a fatty, then hit him again, breaking his glasses. Both Jack and Roger also love power. When Jack split from Ralph’s group with the other boys, he made himself chief, receiving all clout. “Jack rose from the log that was his throne and sauntered to the edge of the grass… Power lay in the swell of his forearms: authority sat on his shoulder and chattered in his ear like an ape” (150). The way he saunters means he knows how much power he really contains, and he loves it. Roger also has an experience with control, “Roger took up a small stone and flung it between the twins, aiming to miss. They started and Sam only just kept his footing. Some source of power began to pulse in Roger’s body” (175).
    Roger is dark, unsocial, and callous. The other boys are scared of him; he has brutally murdered two kids on the island, and partaken in a manhunt for the ex-chief, going so far as to “sharpen a stick at both ends” for previous leader’s head (190). His only strengths are the ones that prove him to be barbaric, and his uncivil ways are his weakness. Roger’s a fighter and well-known among the other boys, hence his name’s meaning ‘famous spear’. The kids on the island encourage him to act the way he does, but he doesn’t mind because he enjoys the attention and power. All in all, Roger is a perfect example of the ‘serial killer’ stereotype.