How do you think each character would end up being like following the island? (Maybe Piggy/Simon as hypotheticals!)
i definitely think ralph would struggle the most tbh. like, ptsd wasn’t really recognised in the 1950s so assuming the war ended fairly quickly he’d js get shoved straight back into boarding school like nothing happened 😭 i think he’d struggle sm there. i can honestly see him turning to substance abuse as an older teen just to cope.
i also think his personality would change quite a bit. he’d become more erratic, more angry, more violent at times and just generally more despairing. he’d carry an insane amount of survivor’s guilt, especially over piggy and simon 😔
the only thing i can’t decide is whether he’d end up bullying people or defending people who got bullied. part of me thinks he’d stand up for them because it’d remind him of piggy and simon but another part of me thinks he’d end up taking his anger out on other people. i’m genuinely not sure.
jack’s actually rly interesting imo. i think he’d have loads of cognitive dissonance after getting home. like… how do you js go back to normal life after all that 💀
i honestly think he’d suppress most of it. maybe blame the devil or smth idk 😭 assuming everyone kept quiet about what happened (which i think is honestly pretty likely because nobody wants to rat themselves out over simon’s death) then he’d basically be able to pretend none of it happened.
i think he’d become obsessed with getting that authority back. if he went back to leading the choir i can see him becoming way stricter than he ever was before. i actually don’t think island jack was cold at the start. he was definitely an asshole at times but he was also pretty chill 😭 i think it’s after the island that he’d become genuinely cold and a lot more authoritarian.
i can lowkey see him getting involved with extremist politics as he got older asw. considering it’s the 1950s i don’t think that’s a huge stretch.
i’ve always thought that at the end, roger was crying because seeing the naval officer reminded him that the punishment for murder in the uk was death. obviously he wouldn’t have known he’d probably be treated differently because he was a kid but i genuinely think that’s what terrified him.
honestly tho i think he’d get away with piggy’s death. firstly, adults would probably struggle to believe that a bunch of schoolboys actually murdered someone on an island. secondly there’s literally no forensic evidence and i doubt any of the other boys would back ralph up. jack definitely wouldn’t because it’d make him look bad and i think most of the others would js wanna forget the whole thing ever happened. it’d basically be ralph’s word against roger’s. also they'd assume "piggy" was meaning a pig.
that being said… roger is NOT having a good time after they get rescued 💀 i honestly think he’s annoyed more than anything because he genuinely enjoyed having the power to hurt and kill people. now suddenly all the rules are back and he has to go back to killing ants 😭
i can definitely see him becoming a delinquent and bullying people. i think he’d constantly chase that same thrill through reckless and impulsive behaviour. i actually don’t know if he’d become a serial killer tho. i know loads of people think he would but i’ve never fully agreed. roger is terrified of authority and once society’s rules come back i think he conforms to them.
honestly i think he’d end up going into law. sounds weird but hear me out 😭 i think he’d like understanding the system because then he could manipulate it to benefit himself. i can also see him doing some genuinely sadistic stuff that technically isn’t murder. like slipping things into people’s drinks or other really fucked up things.
a lot of people glaze roger but he’s genuinely a deeply disturbed kid 💀
i actually feel rly bad for maurice 😭 i think he’d carry loads of guilt, especially because simon was literally one of his choirmates. then obviously he also sat there and watched piggy get killed.
i think he’d definitely have some aspects of ptsd, just nowhere near as severe as ralph’s. tbh i think if he’d ended up in a genuinely supportive environment he’d probably recover pretty well. the issue is… it’s the 1950s 😭
he’d get sent straight back to boarding school and probably end up dealing with the fagging system immediately which i think would remind him a lot of castle rock. i can definitely see him having outbursts because of that.
if it got bad enough i wouldn’t be surprised if people started talking about sending him to some kind of institution 💀 although i don’t actually think it’d get that far. i think he’d mostly keep himself composed.
i do think he’d carry guilt over simon for the rest of his life tho. i can honestly see him quitting choir because it’d remind him of him every single time. 😔
physically, i honestly think piggy would be left with lifelong injuries. assuming he somehow survived 😭 he’d almost definitely have a traumatic brain injury from both the boulder and the fall. depending on where the damage was, he could have vision problems, balance issues or even trouble walking. i also think he’d end up with chronic pain from spinal injuries and all the other damage from the fall.
personality-wise tho… i don’t think piggy would ever forgive them. i think he’d hate roger and jack with everything in him. i also think he’d carry a lot of resentment towards ralph. not because ralph wanted him dead but because ralph was the one person piggy trusted most and, from piggy’s perspective, he failed to protect him. i can imagine piggy constantly thinking “why didn’t you warn me?” or “why didn’t you stop them?” whether that’s fair or not, trauma isn’t exactly rational 😭
i also think he’d lose a lot of faith in people after the island. before everything happened he genuinely believed adults would sort things out. after surviving all that… i don’t think he’d trust anyone that easily again.
physically, simon would probably have a lot of scarring from the attack and depending on how long he went without oxygen while drowning he could also have some brain damage. maybe memory problems, slower thinking or difficulty concentrating.
i don’t think simon would come back hating everyone but i also don’t think he’d instantly forgive them like a lot of people seem to think. he’s compassionate but he’s still human 😭 imagine waking up knowing every single boy you knew beat you nearly to death.
i think he’d become a lot quieter and more withdrawn. i can see him avoiding pretty much all of the boys, including ralph, not because he blames ralph the most but because they’d all remind him of what happened.
he also quits the choir, definitely... and probably move schools because seeing them is genuinely so painful for him :(
i do think he’d eventually let go of the anger but i don’t think he’d ever forget it. i honestly can’t see him becoming close friends with any of them again.
lowkey tho… i think piggy and simon would probably become closer after the island 😭 they’re the only two who actually survived being victims of the final violence and i think they’d understand each other’s trauma in a way nobody else could. i can honestly imagine them being the only two who don’t feel the need to pretend nothing happened.
