Xil wrote:
Every boy on the Island was british and white except for Roger, who was black. If I can remember correctly its during the negotiation between Jack's Tribe and Teh Ralph/Piggy coalition that Piggy uses a not-so-polite term in reference to Roger. Although, you'll only find this in the earlier versions of the book as when it came up for review(atleast in Canada) they deemed it unacceptable and omitted the statements which refered to him as being so.
Geez Ammer, We read this in March, how could you forget it all ready?
I dont agree with that at all - All the savages have paint on their faces painted, which is what ellicits (sp?) the remark from piggy. If it was directly aimed at roger, it would make little grammatical sense anyway.
Piggy used the word because it was the most insulting thing he could come up with to describe them - Not because roger was black.
Also, think of of the context - A large group of middle class white boys, and one black kid. Do you honestly think that he would have lasted until the confrontation near the end without having a single racist remark directed at him? Or having been excluded/bullied for his skin colour? Remember, the book was written at a time where racist was
acceptable.