Taking Part in a Trial
Lord of the Flies
Juan Diego Jimenez
Roger, is he fully guilty for the murder of Piggy or is he Jack’s pawn? Should the death of two boys be forgotten? This is what I will prove today. I will provide you with evidence, facts, actions and even quotes from the accused, a.k.a. the Executioner, which will prove to you, beyond any reasonable doubt, that Roger is guilty of this crime. That he is fully aware and responsible for his actions.
When the boys’ first crash landed on the island, Roger was seen as an antisocial recluse, hiding his true intent to wreak havoc amongst the boys. Quote from Golding pg. 22. “A slight furtive boy whom no one knew who kept himself with an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy.” Unquote. At that time, he gave the impression that he was lost and confused like all the others. Later it seemed he gained more confidence to speak about.
Ladies and gentleman, I would like to remind you that he is the one that had the idea to vote for a chief, and not make Jack immediately the leader. This shows that Roger already had something against Jack, which later I will explain about their rivalry.
Now I would like to demonstrate that Roger is a loner and uncommunicative by nature which explains why he is so cruel. To start off, he smashes a sand castle of three littluns: Henry, Percival and Johnny. What was Roger’s true intention? In what way is this beneficial to Roger and the others? Well it seems that to Roger, this is what satisfies him. And the others, they can’t do anything about him.
There was another time where Roger and the others were hunting pigs; suddenly Roger sees steaming pig poo and excitedly points it out. This shows how his savagery kicks in and he isn’t bothered by disgusting things.
After the sand castle incident, Roger follows Henry from a distance, and starts throwing rocks at him, but purposely missed. Again, what is the point of this? Now he really did leave a message to the boys. He could have hit Henry if he wanted to. By throwing rocks he was able to calculate with precision which shows ample control of his actions and his impulsivity as well.
Furthermore, Jack announced that he was having a feast, and everyone was invited; Roger didn’t appear at the feast. Roger was never one to get along well with the others, even though it seems that it could be difficult for him, he just doesn’t put any effort on getting along with others. Even though these are small pieces of evidence, this all adds up to why Roger is so cruel with everyone, and shows he is an independent person who has a mind of his own.
As the story progresses, Roger is now recognized and feared when he kills Simon. It’s quite odd how Simon was mistaken for the “beast” when really he’s completely the opposite; the only “good” character when all of society collapsed. Also how he helped steal the glasses from Piggy, his tribe members started fearing him.
Before I start talking about Piggy’s murder, I would like to state more factual material after Piggy’s death. Now after the pig kill, Roger sharpens both ends of his spear. This is very important because this shows that this is premeditated malicious intent. Roger wanted to do the same thing they did with the sow; cut his head off and stick it on the spear. Instead, his target was Ralph.
After the Piggy incident, Roger tortures Sam and Eric to join the tribe. This shows that at this point, Roger’s cruelty is out of control; which causes him to cause pain and kill. And actually Roger did convince Sam and Eric to join the tribe. When Roger committed the act of killing Piggy and torturing Sam and Eric, Jack was up to a point where he feared Roger. So Jack announces that the tribe goes back to the fort, but immediately sends Roger back to be on guard duty.
Obviously Jack doesn’t want to be anywhere near Roger; no one would want to be stuck on an island with Roger. Also how Roger walked past Jack and slightly pushed him with his shoulder, Jack didn’t do anything to him because he was afraid. If anyone else had disrespected Jack like this, he probably would have hit him or some kind of punishment.
At the scene of Piggy’s murder, it was clear that Roger was indeed the one that pushed the boulder that killed Piggy, also that Jack wasn’t expecting Roger to do this, and he didn’t even order Roger to do this. Jack was all small talk, but Roger actually did commit this crime. All the way, Roger’s full intentions were to kill someone and leave a message to all the kids stuck in the island with him.
Now, listen to how Jack reacted to this: “See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I mean that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone…” In other words, he wasn’t ready for this and was completely shocked, basically babbling about it. “The conch is gone…”meant that society has been distorted which marked the end for any hope for civilization to be restored.
This evidence is proof to you, beyond reasonable doubt, that Roger is capable and fully responsible of killing Piggy.
