my interpretation on roger 🫡
i’ve seen a similar post on here i’ll tag who i was inspired by, but i just wanted to share one of my interpretations about roger and perhaps an explanation as to why he acts why he does, this isn’t canon at all it’s just my interpretation and thoughts and i’m aware the killing of the sow is meant to interpret how boys were taught to treat woman as the female pigs were the only female things on the island.
( tw for SA mention and racism )
alright so we know roger is a part of jacks choir, described as a “quiet furtive boy” (this will be important later), who we don’t see much of until chapter 4 when he’s with maurice and the littluns and towards the end of the book. during the killing of the sow, we all know roger pushes his spear into the pigs ass which the boys all find funny; “a phrase which was received uproariously” but why?
this book was set in the time when the book was written, around 1940-1950, and as we know roger is in a presumably strict catholic choir with jack and the others. around that time period, the church held a lot of power over people and especially schools. this then meant that vicars, priests and other people of the church were extremely respected people. because of this as im sure we’ve heard in instances before, child sexual abuse was in fact alarmingly common and unreported in the church, especially back then when churches had so much power. i’m sure you can see what i’m trying to imply here but it’s a possibility that jacks choir could’ve been in the same unfortunate situation.
now, when i said roger is described as a “quiet, furtive boy”, this could represent how kids that had succumbed to sexual abuse acts in the church were told to stay silent about what was happening, and/or turn a blind eye when it happened to other people. then with the killing of the sow, what roger did isn’t normal and clearly isn’t something that should be the first thing that comes to mind when you see a female pig. this could mean that an adult had told him that that stuff was okay, thus why he did what he did. sexual abuse victims often also become angry and develop personality disorders because they’re confused and scared and they don’t understand what’s happening to them, this also would further explain roger’s ‘sadistic’ behaviour, and inability to communicate a lot.
i’d like to add in something about simon too, how he’s in the forest and watches the killing of the sow take place but doesn’t do anything. in my opinion, this heavily represents seeing something take place (sexual abuse in the church) but being taught to stay silent because it’s the ‘right thing to do.’
alright this is the second part of my essay which is my other interpretation which in my opinion could lead roger to act the way he does. throughout the book, roger is described as having a dark complexion, but sometimes it’s hard to tell whether golding is talking about dark nature-wise or in skin colour. sometimes throughout the book though you can tell he’s of a dark complexion such as; “the swarthiness of his skin” “a dark face appeared” and the fact he’s so dark he doesn’t tan. taking this into account i personally am very convinced roger isn’t white. in chapter 4 when roger throws stones at henry, it quotes “round the squatting child was the protection of parents and the school and policemen and the law” also in the time period when this was set, it was common for policemen to pick on kids that aren’t white because they hold a prejudice against them, the same of which could’ve happened to roger pre-island. it doesn’t say anything else which could have a meaning to racism anywhere in the book but it’s just an interpretation i thought of, that roger could’ve been subjected to racial profiling before the island thus another reason as to why hes ‘uncommunicative’ and rather aggressive.
thank you for reading this! again i’d just like to remind that this is just an interpretation, none of this is canon and it was just a thought of mine id like to share! this was inspired by @shaky-b0n3s post 😎😎
