Roger

Question 1

What does Roger represent?

Answer 1

Pure evil, sadism and suffering.

Question 2

How do Roger’s savage motives differ from Jack’s savage motives?

Answer 2

Whereas Jack uses savagery and violence to flourish in his leadership, Simon just finds pleasure in hurting other people.

Question 3

How is he described?

Answer 3

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.

Question 4

Roger is described as having black hair. How may this be indicative of his personality?

Answer 4

His hair is black, black being a colour associated with death and evil.

Question 5

What do Roger’s actions regarding stone throwing tell us about him and society?

Answer 5

• The fact that he aims to miss, but still throws stones at the littluns shows that he wants to be cruel, and that evil comes from within, but civilization mitigates these feelings and he still fears the consequences of being cruel.
• He loses this conditioning in Jack’s tribe and kills Piggy with a boulder. The stone-throwing being a foreshadowing.

Question 6

How is Roger showed to be dehumanized in Jack’s tribe?

Answer 6

• Roger is made to be seen as the torturer who plays a key role in all dictatorships
• “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