Skip to main content

Which character is more evil--Jack or Roger? Explain, using quotes, the different kinds of evil behavior each demonstrates and which is ultimately...

Roger is obviously evil. He is a bully; from the beginning he takes pleasure in bothering Henry by throwing rocks at him without hitting him. When he turns his aggression on the sow, he seems to take an unhealthy pleasure in jamming his spear up the animal's rectum as "the terrified squealing became a high-pitched scream." When he learns that Jack has tied up Wilfred and beat him for no apparent reason, he sits still, "assimilating the possibility of irresponsible authority." He uses that authority to roll the boulder onto Piggy, murdering him. He does so "with a sense of delirious abandonment." There is no doubt that Roger's acts are immoral.


As horrific as Roger's deeds are, however, Jack's are even worse. Jack, as one of the oldest boys on the island, has a responsibility to set an example and lead the other boys in a way that will create a safe and functional society. However, he shows himself to be ultimately selfish and short-sighted, caring more about hunting and winning the power struggle with Ralph than for the success of the boys' society. Jack lacks a moral compass. When he dons his face paint, he is "liberated from shame and self-consciousness." When Piggy scolds Jack for letting the fire go out, Jack "stuck his fist into Piggy's stomach" and "smacked Piggy's head," causing his glasses to break, and then mocks Piggy when he complains.This shows how Jack is willing to resort to violence to cover up his own failings. Later, Jack undermines Ralph's leadership and leads a feast that gets out of control, murdering Simon. Then he steals Piggy's glasses, leaving him all but blind. He beats Wilfred for no stated reason, and he sets up the boulder to defend Castle Rock, knowing it could be deadly. He sets a tone with the boys of violence and fear; it is his "irresponsible authority" that gives Roger the green light for murdering Piggy. After Piggy falls to his death, Jack exhibits no remorse but shouts, "See? See? That's what you'll get!" He then leads all the boys in a man-hunt for Ralph, intending to kill him. As Samneric reveal to Ralph, "They hate you, Ralph. They're [Jack and Roger] going to do you." As the older boy and the leader who sets the parameters for his "tribe," Jack is even more evil than Roger.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more