Quote 1
Roger
gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them. Yet there
was a space round Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which
he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of
the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents
and school and policemen and the law.
This passage from Chapter 4 describes
the beginnings of Roger’s cruelty to the littluns, an important
early step in the group’s decline into savagery. At this point in
the novel, the boys are still building their civilization, and the
civilized instinct still dominates the savage instinct. The cracks
are beginning to show, however, particularly in the willingness
of some of the older boys to use physical force and violence to
give themselves a sense of superiority over the smaller boys. This
quotation shows us the psychological workings behind the beginnings
of that willingness. Roger feels the urge to torment Henry, the
littlun, by pelting him with stones, but the vestiges of socially
imposed standards of behavior are still too strong for him to give
in completely to his savage urges. At this point, Roger still feels constrained
by “parents and school and policemen and the law”—the figures and
institutions that enforce society’s moral code. Before long, Roger
and most of the other boys lose their respect for these forces,
and violence, torture, and murder break out as the savage instinct
replaces the instinct for civilization among the group.
