'Thank You Ma' Am, By Langston Hughes

It all began when a young boy named Roger came upon an old lady walking along the road. Her name was Ms. Jones. He decided to try run up and take her purse away from her. The weight of the purse and the boy, caused the boy to fall, and not follow through with his plan.

The Character of Roger is portrayed in the book as one of the antagonists, but not main one as is Jack is. When the reader is first introduced to Roger he is described as a boy with “black hair...[that] seemed to suit his gloomy face and made what seemed” to be “an unsociable remoteness” now look like a boy full of “forbidding”(Golding 60). This first moment of meeting Roger shows the reader that this character will not be the savior, but rather one of the causes of destruction. Not only is it shown in Rogers appearance that he is one of the villains, but after being on the Island without authority for a short period of time it comes to light that he has a darker side when he is shown to be intentionally trying to hurt one of the boys; “Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed/ and threw it at Henry, (Golding 62).” When Roger is throwing rocks at Henry, he does it in a way where he is hidden so that the younger boy is not fully aware of what is happening and finds it to be a sort of game.

As I was reading, many clues lead me to the assumption that Roger doesn’t have someone at home to tell him what’s wrong from what’s right. Therefore, Roger doesn’t have anyone to disappoint. A quote Roger said that reasons my assumption is, “There’s nobody home at my house.” Roger isn’t representing anyone at home but himself and no parent figure to tell him what to do, so he does whatever he desires. These two factors of nobody being there for Roger buttress why Roger will perform addition illegal form of act.

Some people may argue that Roger is guilty, that he had full control of his actions, but even great people don’t always have a complete realization of what they have done. Ralph, the boys’ elected leader, even forgot why he had made a fire. After spending such a long period of time on the island, “Ralph tried indignantly to remember. There was something good about a fire. Something overwhelmingly good…” (Golding 163). Roger also spent a long time on the island, and had forgotten what civilization and humanity was. Hence, he was surely out of his wits and is in no way responsible for the death of

Roger stalks Henry as a prey and gathers stones to throw at the boy, but when he throws them, he purposely misses. Deep down, despite his mercilessness, the "taboo of the old life" is still present, as well as "protection of parents and school and policemen and the law," (pg. 65). At this point of the novel, the inhumanity in Roger further develops, yet proceeds with insufficient guilt.

Throughout the novel, Roger’s evil aura becomes larger and more apparent. The beginning of his evil tendencies start out small, but gradually reaches to the point where he becomes responsible for Piggy's death. By then, all of societies conditioning of repressing his sadistic side is gone.

He “led the way straight through the castles, kicking them over, burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones,” only to remain, “watching the littluns.” Maurice, however, “still felt the unease of wrongdoing.” Jack’s only fault was yearning for power, which corrupts those who wield it. Roger is corrupted and malevolent without ever thirsting for this power, and is therefore more evil than Jack. Roger keeps to himself, much like Simon, and remains consistently evil throughout the novel. Near the beginning, he “picked up a stone, aimed, and threw it at Henry-threw it to miss,” held back by “the taboo of the old life.” Later, he did not miss and “with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever,” releasing a huge boulder and killing Piggy. Under the weight of the boulder, “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.” The main symbol for the democracy, equality and justice was indirectly destroyed by Roger. To him, “Ralph was a shock of hair and Piggy a bag of fat,” thus dehumanizing and objectifying them. When Sam and Eric were cornered by Jack’s group of savages, Roger demonstrates his enjoyment for hurting others by “[advancing] upon them as one wielding a nameless authority.” It was not for the sake of supremacy or control, but for unbridled sadistic pleasure. When Ralph finds Sam and Eric, they say that Roger is “a terror”. He also points out that Jack is a terror, but the twins respond with “only

Lastly, this is the reason why I think Roger will be helpful and kinder to his elders. I also

To begin with, Roger progressively transforms from a mysterious boy to a barbarian over the course of civilization to regression. Roger avoids social contact, initially, until refinement unravels among several boys, and he gets unruly--walking into the littluns’ sandcastle purposely--after relieving his signal fire duties. Afterwards, Roger continues bothering the kids, more particularly--Henry--as he “stoop[s], pick[s] up a stone, and thr[ows] it at Henry--threw it miss” (Golding 62). Roger gives in to the lack of civilization on the island by having the idea of harming a mere, young boy. However, civilization embeds a part of him, and it prevents him from hitting Henry literally. For example, he “pick[s] up a stone” (Golding 62) with the intent of using it to hurt a person since over time, the island gradually loses its authority and order. Consequently, these boys influence one another dramatically by their thirst to hunt or simple goal of survival. In this case, Jack, a power hungry tyrant, barbarically impacts Roger and his viewpoints. However, at home, society reminds Roger such actions are not acceptable, so he “threw it to

Roger does progress into a more personal form of torture and terror, he “stooped, picked up a stone, aimed, and threw it at Henry- threw it to miss” (Golding 64). This more personal form of terrorization and torture shows he is becoming more inclined to accept his capability and forget the social conditioning he received as a young boy. Regardless of the social conditioning he received, Roger still exemplifies, how even in the society he has conformed to, he did intentionally hurt other boys. What Roger does on the island is similar to what he did back at home and that is why he is still refraining from completely letting his evil shine through. According to psychologist, James Blair, psychopaths treat “morals as mere conventions” (Prinz n.pg).

Roger and his savage tendencies are seen being suppressed, only being unleashed when order and rule ceases to exist. Roger often has urges to hurt others that were suppressed due to societal conditioning. Roger so desperately wanted to throw rocks at Henry but “invisible yet strong was the taboo of the old life.” Roger still

Roger is just an evil, bully in the story, who does evil things to innocent people. "Roger stopped, picked up a stone, aimed and threw it at Henry" (page 64). Henry is not doing anything wrong, there is no reason for Roger to throw the rocks at Henry, which is evil because he is picking on him and picking on people is evil. In addition, Roger is the one who literally killed Piggy, "High overhead, Roger with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever" (page 180). Piggy is not an evil person, but Roger kills him anyway not caring about any of the other boys mentally or physically. As a result, Roger by far has the most evil in

Roger has shown multiply signs that he came from somewhere or someone that taught him the manners and to be respectful, despite trying to steal a pocketbook he knew it was wrong and felt poorly after the incident

The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause” (James, Brainyquote.com). This ties directly back to Roger’s decision, because he intentionally missed his shot just to avoid commotion or even guilt that might never be resolved. Furthermore, his wise decision has saved him from becoming a savage and if that happens, there is almost no hope to return back into his usual self. Currently, Roger is still protected by civilization and society because he has not been removed from his governed self long enough to turn into a bloodthirsty

Roger, the quiet, introverted child, was very clearly molded by social ethics. At one point in the novel, Roger was throwing stones at little’uns, but feeling forced to miss. “Here, invisible yet strong,