Roger Flashcards
‘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. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law.’
The quote shows the beginnings of Roger’s cruelty to the littluns, an early step in his descent into savagery. At this point in the novel, their civilised instinct dominates the savage instinct. Cracks are beginning to show, however, particularly in the willingness of some of the older boys to use physical force and violence to give themselves a sense of superiority over the littluns.
Roger feels the urge to torment Henry, the littlun, by pelting him with stones, but the socially imposed standards of behavior are too strong for him to give in completely to his savage urges. At this point, Roger still feels constrained by “parents and school and policemen and the law”— figures and institutions that enforce society’s moral code.
