LORD OF THE FLIES ESSAY

Due Date: December 18th, 2015

Jack and Roger are two antagonistic characters of the novel Lord of the Flies,
written by William Golding. Jack is autocratic and manipulative. Whereas Roger,
is sadistic and murderous. All things considered, Roger is more depraved than
Jack because Roger was homicidal while Jack was merely cunning and
aggressive.

Jack is autocratic. He arrived on the island with previous experience of having

control over others by leading the choir in a dictatorial manner. In the beginning
of the novel, after Ralph was elected by the boys to be their leader, Jack
repeatedly attempted to take over his place. Later in the novel, he created his
own tribe based on savagery. He ruled his tribe with an autocratic attitude. For
instance, Robert said, I dont know. He didnt say. He got angry and made us tie
Wilfred up. Hes been hes been tied for hours, waiting... (page 176). This
shows that Jack is autocratic because the members of his tribe beat up Wilfred
obediently without any questions or a given reason. If they disagreed, they
wouldve been in Wilfreds position or even worse, get murdered. Jack is not only
autocratic, but also manipulative. He expressed this characteristic throughout
the novel. He frequently challenged the power of the conch, proclaiming that the
conch doesnt matter on certain parts of the island. Yet, he used the conch to his
advantage when he called his own assembly to challenge Ralph. Towards the
end of the novel, he manipulated the members of his tribe into believing that

the beast was disguised as Simon. He said, I expect the beast disguised itself.
(page 178). He spoke the quote above to conceal their action of the homicide of
Simon. In short, Jack was an autocratic and a manipulative character throughout
the novel, although it was more evident as the novel progressed.

In comparison to Jack, Roger is sadistic. He derives pleasure from hurting

others whereas Jack enjoys leading the boys and hunting. At the beginning of
the novel, he was described as secretive. All his life, he has to cloak his
impulses. Although, the irresponsible authority of Jacks rule aided him to be
his true self and accept his urges to hurt people. At the start of the novel, it was
mentioned that, Roger threw it at Henrythrew it to miss.(page 64). This
showed that Roger had evil desires but was leashed by civilization. In addition to
being a sadist, he was also murderous.
As he leaned all his weight on the lever to push the rock on Piggy, it was stated
that he felt, a sense of delirious abandonment. (page 200). This proves that he
felt released from his suppression of civilization. He was in his true form, a
murderer. As the novel advanced, his purest form, a sadist and a murderer, was
portrayed slowly but surely.

In a nutshell, Roger is more evil than Jack in spite of the fact that Jack was the
main antagonist in the novel. He was more wicked because he murdered Piggy
and his sadistic ways were shown throughout the novel. Jack was autocratic and
manipulative to benefit his own interests. Even though towards the end of the

novel, Jack developed the desire to kill Ralph, he wasnt as severe as Roger. In
conclusion, Roger is more depraved than Jack.