Anger Essay, Research Paper

Andrew English

English Essay

Anger has always been one of the most predominant emotions among human beings. Quick to rise, and even quicker to lash out, the simple emotion of anger has the power to destroy and create. Some only see the side of anger that causes meaningless death and destruction; however, for those who seek it, there is another side. Anger has been the motivator for many who have been oppressed, and refuse to allow their servitude to continue. People who are forced into slavery and subjugation can only rely upon anger for their oppressors to keep them vigilant for a chance to escape or revolt. The two-faced emotion of anger shows its malevolent face as often as it shows its beneficial one. The cold rage that anger can pull a person into has ended or ruined many lives. With little or no warning, anger can strike a man down, showing no remorse and giving no restitution.

When a slave lies in the dark on his hard bed of dirt, wind whipping through his tattered blanket, anger keeps him warm. A building rage accumulates in him, and drives him to seek freedom, a freedom he deserves. This scene repeats itself throughout time, all over the world. Anger sends adrenaline surging through a mother’s body in a time of crisis, giving her enough strength to lift a car off her struggling child. Without anger lives would be lost, tyranny would go unopposed, and inhumanities would be quietly accepted. Anger becomes a powerful tool in the hands of those who know how to shape its energies into a useful form.

There are people who cannot direct the energy given to them by anger. They allow anger to consume them, to run their lives. These people fall victim to the essence of anger: a mindless, uncaring rage. Lashing out at the people around them, destroying what they can without remorse or regret, these people, consumed with anger, are recorded in the annals history as symbols of true evil. Those are the most extreme examples of the potential destructive power of anger. Yet the more common and isolated instances of anger’s wrath are just as devastating to the individuals who suffer through them. An enraged husband may misunderstand a situation and, blinded by anger, try to strike back at his wife, whom he believes has been unfaithful. If he had been in possession of all his faculties he could have seen that he had merely misinterpreted the matter and there was no need for action on his part. Yet instead his blood runs like molten iron through his veins, he only sees the infidelity of his partner until death. His actions destroy the love between them which had been nurtured for years. Anger destroys love: the greatest tragedy of our time.

Anger, the most powerful and feared emotion of the soul’s repertoire, destroys and creates in the same breath. A swaying balance is a representation of anger; every shift toward an apocalypse is countered with a swing in the direction of new life. Moving from one person to the next anger is an ever present force in our world, and has been since the beginning of time. No one can defeat anger since it is not a foe, and no one can embrace anger since it is not an ally. Anger is a great objective cycle: destroying what it creates and creating what it destroys.