Destructiveness of Jealousy Depicted in Lord of the Flies and Woman Warrior

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Within playwright William Shakespeare’s fantastic work The Merchant of Venice, the character Iago cries out, “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green ey’d monster” (Enotes). Jealousy is justly called a beast, and it is a hideous creature that is illuminated in William Golding’s novel The Lord of the Flies, and by Woman Warrior, the memoir of Maxine Hong Kingston. Through the use of the literary elements of plots, characters, symbols, and additional plots, both pieces illustrate how, by torturing people and driving them to rash decisions, jealousy is the most destructive emotion. Jealousy builds up in a plot until it explodes, like a bomb, through the trouble that it induces. In The Lord of the Flies, Jack and Ralph both contend to be chief. “‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with a simple arrogance” (Golding 22). The speaker’s arrogance opens the door for a greater jealousy when Ralph is voted to lead. The envious emotion festers inside of the jealous chorister until it drives him mad. Jack turns savage as the plot thickens, and calls for Ralph’s blood. Jealousy turns Maxine to violence, as well. Kingston’s memoir depicts her younger self with a girl that refused to speak. “I squeezed one cheek, then the other, back and forth until the tears ran out of her eyes as if I had pulled them out” (Kingston 177). The violence narrated here is explained to be the result of Maxine’s hatred of the silent girl, but any reader can easily envision the green eyes. Jealousy is visible in the envious tone used to describe the other child’s attributes. The destructive force of Maxine’s jealousy is the source of her agenda to torture. Neither Maxine nor Jack could handle the fierce bite of jealousy, so they unleashed it on o... ... middle of paper ... ...long with the expected feelings of anger and betrayal, plagued Elin Nordegren with the news of her husband, Tiger Woods, having intimate relationships outside of their marriage; Tiger ended up dazed and bloodied in a crashed car, and many fingers point at Elin for assaulting him. Along with the real world, the novel and the memoir emphasize that jealousy is a destructive emotion. Jealousy twists characters’ hearts, harms through symbols, and causes dreadful turns in the plots. Bottled up, the green-eyed monster can trigger craziness. Unleashed, the beast creates destruction. Works Cited ENotes. 2010. Enotes.com, Inc. 16 May 2010. Golding, William. The Lord of the Flies. New York: A Perigree Book of Penguin Group Kingston, Maxine Hong. Woman Warrior. New York: Vintage International

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