Lord of the Flies character cards

Leadership:

• background= natural leader: "mildness about his mouth and eyes"
• repays boy's trust by instigating sensible and familiar procedures that organise themselves: "we'll have to have "hands up" like at school "I'll give the conch to the next person to speak"
• priciples based on democracy so is a fair leader: "we'll have a vote"
• fustrated when nobody else shares his sense of responsibility and focus on priorities: "but nobody else understands about the fire...without the smoke signal we'll die here"

Not saint nor devil:

• kind and sensitive as checks on littluns and supports piggy when jack is aggresive
• contrast: casually cruel to piggy and inner capacity for violence shown in excitement of pig and simons death.

Intelectual capabilities:

• difficult to think clearly "shutter that flickered in his brain" "curtain flapped in his head"
• makes poor jugement particularly with jack and at the end recognises piggy's intellectual superior and needs him.

First appearance:

• Head of choir=need to dominate "controlled" the choir and "shouted and order"
• he was showing aggresive signs "ready to turn to anger" "off-hand aurthority" top of pecking order in school so used to being in charge

Power:

• assersion for power is violent and aggresive: slams knife in tree, snatches piggy's glasses and calls him "a fat slug". Until he kills the pig civilised behaviour stops him from going too far.
• "painted and garlanded" he rules by fear (beating of wilfred) with the promise of meat.
• "power lay in the brown of his forearms: aurthority sat on his shooulder and chattered in his ear like an ape"

Relationships:

• relationship with ralph soon becomes a struggle for supremecy and he desires to win
• oposes ralphs ideology and dismisses those benath him. "batty" and no sypathy for littluns
• hates being humiliated (losing vote=vulnerable side shown) and turn this into fuel for aggresion

An Outsider:

• different from others in his social background in his talk and physical characteristics and develops a fussy, whining dull and unattractively adult-like character.
• others="like a crowd of kids" "what's grown-ups going to say?" his references to home=teases

Knowledgeable Thinker:

• thinks clearly/logically "Piggy, for all his ludicrous body, had brains" makes good suggestions
• understand the situation "if we don't get home soon we'll be barmy"

Weaknesses and Limitations:

• shies away from truth on simon's death "accident" and "asked for it" he minimises role played "we was on the outside. we never done anything"
• understands jack but no imagination for simon calling him "nuts" and "cracked"
• asthma: can't bllow conch even though know-how and last up the mountain. glases: no: can't see
• believes in decency, fairness and the values of the conch which he protects till his death
• kind to littluns and loyal to ralph and courage earns him an epitaph from ralph "true, wise friend"

Misunderstood:

• physical frailty, medical conditions, suffers from fits/faints. small/skinny so no manual work.
• thought of as "a bitqueer" "funny" "cracked" and finds it hard to communicate his insights. "to speak in assembly was a terrible thing to him"

Like a Saint:

• performs unselfish acts of kindness like helps the littluns get fruit, build shelters, gives piggy his glasses & his own meat, goes back through the forest to tell piggy the others will be late.
• compasionatley loosens the parachute and "freed the figure from the wind's indignity"

Intuitive:

• Understands human nature. recognises the beast "what i mean is...maybe its only us"

The final sacrifice:

• his mission to tell the others that the figure on the mountain is not the beast causes his death and noone else on the island ever finds out the truth.

roger is a chilling figure whose true "terror" emerges at the end. He develops from being the slightly sinister, furtive boy always at Jack's side to become the torturer and executioner who releases the rock the kills Piggy.

• they form a distinct group and lead their own "passionately emotional and corporate life"
• They are frighted, vulnerable and difficult to control/organise.
• Percival's inability to remember his name and address, which is the last connection to his previous life, shows the distortion of reality and enormity of the experience on the island.