“Beauty” by Jane Martin is a story about jealousy and discontent of the two main characters. The two main characters, Carla and Bethany, are the opposite of one another. Carla is a beautiful but unsuccessful model with no brains and personality. On the other hand, Bethany is an accountant with high income and success in writing short stories but she is not satisfied with her appearance. Both girls want what the other have: Carla wants to be smart and Bethany wants to be beautiful. The writer uses “the genie” to reveal Bethany’s desires to be beautiful and her discontent of her life. She sees beauty as a major importance in life “Beauty is a real deal” and she believes that it will bring her much good than she already has. However, Carla is the one who knows the disadvantages and problems of being beautiful and tries to tell Bethany not to wish for it. But of course, she does and she finally gets what she wants. The message hidden in this story is people only see the bad side of their life and the good side of the others’. Also it shows that people value the appearance more than what is inside. See Bethany for example, she has a successful career, a personality and intelligence, but she is unsatisfied with her looks and wants to be beautiful. And she failed to see the good things she already has inside her. And that causes her to make a shallow decision by wishing to be like Carla. And Carla herself is not satisfied with her life. As we can see that they are envious of each other’s lives. As in real life, we can learn from Bethany and Carla that jealousy can only bring us troubles. Also this story suggests that being discontent in our life can make us unhappy and that leads to being jealousy of others. Just be satisfied with ourselves and look at the good side of our life and what we have, or not we will face a similar situation, like Carla and
