This has been a lingering thought of mine regarding how Roger is typically depicted: isn’t it kind of odd that this kid who is a “natural sadist” and is also a supposed symbol of violence mostly drawn as black/blasian
Forgive me, for I’m just a bit confused where it came from. Please let me know if there’s anything wrong with what I’m thinking as well. Thank you!
Hello I'm going to approach this with care!
When people draw or interpret roger as a person of color, it usually isn't coming from malicious intent, but from the way he is physically described in the book: "The dark boy" (pg 21); "he was not noticeably darker than when he had dropped in" and "shock of black hair" (page 71); "swarthiness" (pg 74). These descriptions make him racially ambiguous to many readers, especially compared to boys likw ralph and jack, who are described in more conventionally anglo saxon way.
I can't fully speak on Golding's behalf, especially because overt racial prejudice is not a major focus of the novel itself...and if you sat there and said it's problematic for one of the only racially ambiguous characters to embody extreme cruelty, it is also worth acknowledging that Simon (another character many readers interpret as nonwhite coded) represents the novel’s strongest moral good. Simon functions as a Christ figure in the story, while Roger functions as one of its clearest symbols of unrestrained violence, true evil. Because of this, I dont think Golding was assigning morality based on race..rather I think their physical descriptions contribute symbolically to the roles they play within the book.
And simon works super interestingly in this context.. as a Christ figure, he mirrors many aspects of Jesus. his isolation, his spiritualness, his retreat into the forest (like the garden of gethesemane) before death, and ultimately his martyrdom. Historically , Jesus himself was a Middle Eastern Jewish man, not the fair skinned, blue eyed image that's often normalized in western art and religious imagery. By describing Simon in racially ambiguous ways, Golding may intentionally be challenging the traditional westernized depiction of holiness and purity. And this also connects to some of the novel’s broader themes like the influence of british colonial culture, imperialism, and social conditioning/indoctrinationof the boys’ worldview.
Anyway, I like to think Roger and Ralph work as important contrasts on opposing sides. at first, the novel reflects the hierarchies and assumptions the boys inherit from their society prior to arriving on the island...But as civilization collapses, violence becomes less tied to conventional ideas of superiority and more tied to power itself. So once ralph becomes hunted, lotf stops being only about the oppression of marginalized groups and becomes a broader statement about domination: the impulse to conquer eventually turns on everyone, even those who once benefited from the system
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