Jealousy: Books and Real Life

In a perfect world, people would all get along in harmony. Everyone would be happy with what they have, and everyone all gets along. But in this world that we live in, some people are jealous of what other people have. Everyone is jealous of someone else. That boy living in the better house. That co-worker who makes more money than you. That leader which everyone listens to, but not you. Jealously resides in everyone. In “Lord of the Flies”, a group of boys are stuck on an island, but a boy named Jack is jealous that he doesn’t have the power he was always used to getting. Similarly, in “All Summer in a Day”, the group of children are jealous that they haven’t seen the sun, yet a child called Margot has. In both “Lord of the Flies” and “All Summer in a Day”, they show the contrast of jealously, and its varying results.

In both stories, the children and Jack start to become jealous. Even both of these books explore this idea of jealousy, the way they are portrayed and how it escalated to the state that it is are different.

In “Lord of the Flies”, when the boys are on the island, a chief was to be picked between Jack and Ralph. Other than Jack’s choirboys, the unanimous vote for Ralph as leader was the start of the problem. When deciding on who should be the chief, Jack immediately says with “simple arrogance, ‘because [he was the] chapter chorister and head boy.” (Golding, 22) Since Jack was what seems like to be born into a leadership role, he doesn’t seem to understand the importance of a chief during survival situations. All of Jack’s leadership roles before were merely for the point of having a leader. Ralph is a sympathetic ruler who understands the group of boys, and has the compassionate personality to help the boys when they are in need, while Jack, on the other hand, is the opposite.

In “All Summer in a Day”, the jealously from the other children started when Margot, as she often does, talks about the sun. Margot was the only child that remembered what the sun looked like, as she only came to Venus five years ago from Earth. The other children are jealous of the luxury Margot had to see the sun, and often mistreat her because of this. Margot is staring at the rain behind the window when she was shoved by William. But “she did not move; rather she let herself be moved only by him.” (Bradbury, 2). This shows that this has happened to Margot before and she has accepted the abuse that the kids give her. This could all stop if Margot stopped talking about the sun, but she believes so strongly in the sun that she was willing to take the abuse, just so she could prove them wrong about the sun and its feeling. But how jealously came to Margot was different from Jack’s, as Margot’s was self-inflicted, as she constantly talked about the sun, which probably led to the gradual build up of jealousy from the other children.

As both texts progress, the after effects of the jealousy is shown. In “Lord of the Flies”, Jack starts to manipulate the boys to join him out of jealousy. He uses tactics such as fear, violence, fun and threats to make the boys on the island follow him. Almost immediately after Ralph sets a task for the boys, Jack immediately goes off with his choirboys to go and hunt. After Jack comes back from hunting, he exclaims that “[he’s] killed a pig - [and he] stole up on them - [and they] got in a circle” (Golding, 69). This shows how jealousy has lead to a rebellious attitude from Jack, and decides to go against the grain. His jealousy eventually leads to the overthrow of Ralph, and he takes over the mountain top. The tribe that he has created now from the fear of the beast that the boys had. As it escalates even more, it leads to the death of Simon and Piggy.

While on the other hand, in “All Summer in a Day”, the jealousy of the children lead to the torturous scene of them pushing Margot into the closet. The children “surged about her, caught her and bore her, protesting, and then pleading, and then crying.” (Bradbury, 3) The jealousy of the children led to the imprisonment of Margot, where she is trapped and unable to see the sun. Even though Margot is trapped and it seems like it is the children who do it, the book sway to the fact that Margot is the reason why this happens. As stated earlier, this self inflicted jealousy from the children is because of Margot, as she always talks about the sun. This makes it believe that the author is trying to show that it wasn’t the children’s fault that Margot was thrown into the closet, but her own fault.

In real life, everyone is jealous of someone else. As seen in these texts,, everyone has different ways of coping with this jealousy. Other than hurting and abusing those who caused the jealousy, other solutions could be made. Often voicing your anger is a good first step for people. Both Jack and the children, they internalized this jealousy, therefore it built up to the disastrous events caused by them. The large concept of jealousy can often be overcome with the help of others, but without consultation it creates an extremely large problem.