Analysis Of John Knowles's Ode To Jealousy

Jealousy is just another part of everyday life. As shown in Bobbie Ann Mason's "Being Country", it's not always easy to look at the bright side. For example, when Mason's family was eating dinner, she called it "fuel for work". Instead of looking to the negative side, she could've been grateful that she had food. Rather than looking at the positive side, we as humans like to generate an invalidating conclusion from unfortunate events in our lives to people that seem more fortunate. Envy and desire were two feelings that I experienced while growing up. Accepting these feelings weren't hard, turning them into ambitions were.

One of the enemies that Gene created for himself was jealousy. Gene was jealous of everything about Finny. The openness which Finny possessed was one of these things which Gene envied. One incident of

From the outside, Devon looks like a brilliant school. However, with the combination of Devon’s rigorous academics, and competitive, hardworking, driven students, Devon can lead to an overwhelming amount of envy and can result in something horrifying. Two best friends, Gene, and Finny have always had a thrive for competitiveness between each other. However, Gene had a secret, he hated seeing happiness through Finny’s eyes and hated the thought of Finny succeeding. He had built up the idea in his mind that Finny’s thoughts were no different than his, and that they had a mutual hatred. The immense amount of envy that was contained in Gene’s soul was responsible for Finny’s death. Although he feels guilty for the “accidental incident” that spiraled

As Gene and Finny start to become closer, Gene begins to feel jealous, envious, and suspicious of Finny. Finny’s athleticism, friendly demeanor, and ability to escape trouble all strike Gene’s inner

This irritated Gene and he told Finny that he needed to study to get a good grade on the test. Finny then got frustrated that Gene wouldn’t play and made fun of him for trying hard at being the smartest kid in their school. Gene looked over at Finny and could tell by the resentful look in his eyes that he has been jealous of him and wanted to try to be the best out of the two of them. Gene felt betrayed and deluded that his friend was only trying to make him work less just so he could be the better one. The change in feelings towards Finny would end up leading Gene down a dangerous path of anger, jealousy, and eventually

It is then that Gene soon finds out that Finny has never been jealous of Gene’s academics. In the quote, Finny says “Why didn’t you say you had to study before? Don’t move from that desk. It’s going to be all A’s for you” (Knowles 58), thus showing that he is not jealous for Gene’s skills in academics, but, rather, recognizes it as Gene’s strength. This makes Gene fearful after realizing that there has never been a rivalry between the two.

Gene constantly struggles with his friendships. His paranoid personality highly affects his friendship. Gene convinced himself that Finny is out to get him. Gene thinks, “I found it. I found a single sustaining thought. The thought was, You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. . . . I felt better. Yes, I sensed it like the sweat of relief when nausea passes away; I felt better. We were even after all, even in enmity. The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all” (54). Gene convinces himself that his whole friendship with Finny is just a “deadly rivalry” between the two of them. He places blame on both parties, although the blame lies with him. Gene’s insecurity also challenges his friendship with Finny. Finny wears a pink polo to class one day. Gene thinks, “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything....because of the extraordinary kind of person he was. It was quite a compliment to me, as a matter of fact, to have such a person choose me for his best friend” (29). Gene’s insecurities about himself are shown because he believes that he could never be able to do something like wearing a pink polo to school, but Finny could. One can’t have a healthy relationship with someone if they constantly feel less than. Gene’s friendships are also affected by jealousy. When Finny gets away with wearing the school tie as a belt to

In contrast, while at the beach, Finny refers to Gene as his “best pal” (Knowles 48). Gene’s failure to respond to this comment demonstrates his skepticism of Finny. Gene does not reply to Finny’s sincere gesture because he thinks Finny is setting him up for failure and sabotaging him. Often in life, competition, leading to jealousy is present in relationships. Gene’s personal hatred and envy cause him to betray his friend, and assume the worst about him. However, with time, Gene finally comes to the realization that he and Finny are “even after all, even in enmity, [and] the deadly rivalry was on both sides after all.” (Knowles 53) Gene never had any proof of Finny’s hatred but due to his savage personality, Gene sets out against him anyway to satisfy himself with a way of being equal with Finny. Gene’s urge to destroy goes a little overboard, and once he finds he is of the same rank as his friend, being emulous, he intentionally injures Finny to surpass him in power. Envy and rivalry had taken over Gene’s mind, which he realizes only after it is too late. Gene had imaginatively created a monster out of Finny. Ones jealousy

This jealousy can potentially cause conflict in the future. Gene and Finny are even polar opposites in their academics. Before it was bedtime the two boys studied, “Under the yellow study lights we read our Hardy assignments; I was halfway through Tess of the D’Urbervilles, he carried on his baffled struggle with Far from the Madding Crowd…” (7). Gene is clearly more successful in his academics where Finny struggles more. Despite this, one would think that Finny would have some yearn for Gene’s book smarts but quite the contrary happens, where Gene has a jealousy for Finny’s athleticism. There potentially could be a conflict that arises from what Gene considers Finny mocking him. Finny helps Gene in the way of pushing him towards “letting loose” or having fun. Finny boasts, “‘Oh yes I did. I’m good for you that way. You have a tendency to back away from things otherwise.’” (5). Finny pushes Gene to have more fun and enjoy himself, something Gene yearns to have, but this recklessness could potentially get the two in trouble, jeopardizing their friendship. Despite the drastic differences between the two, Gene and Finny still managed to meet in

Never underestimate the power of jealousy and the power of envy to destroy. Never underestimate that.”- Oliver Stone

First, jealousy can be seen in most friendships. Gene is jealous of Finny because of his ability to talk his way out of his predicaments. Gene thinks, “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him a little, which was perfectly normal” (18). Gene is jealous enough of Finny’s charisma that he would end up hurting him. Jealousy is one of the ways that hurts people’s friendships. So, jealousy is a normal part of friendship, which can be seen in A Separate Peace.

Jealousy is a trait that seems to have lingered through human nature for centuries, and caused the closing of some human relationships. In A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses character growth to elucidate the theme of “ Jealousy destroys human relationships”. The first example of John Knowles using character growth to convey the theme is when he starts to show Gene’s lack of trust and constant paranoia towards Phineas. Gene says, “ I was starting to feel like Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him” (25). Because of Phineas’s great tactics of solving issues and of his loveable personality, Gene’s hatred grows quickly towards Phineas. Another display of this is when Gene says, “ He wanted to share everything with me,

In everyday life jealousy occurs over an outfit, how you look, or a skill someone is really good at, and for some people jealousy will make them do negative things--things they would otherwise not do. In Ray Bradbury’s, Kij Johnson’s, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s short stories they all represent jealousy throughout their stories. In “All Summer In a Day”, the children are jealous over Margot seeing and remembering the sun, were as they can’t remember. In “Ponies”, it talks about how Barbara is jealous of TheOtherGirls, and will do anything to fit in with them. In “Harrison Bergeron”, the society is based over the past years of people being “not equal”, so the Handicapper General made everyone equal so there would not be many outburst, but Harrison decides to rebel. In “All Summer In a Day”, “Ponies”, and “Harrison Bergeron” we learn that jealousy can make people act differently-- they could even go as far

To start, jealousy is one of the main emotions that influence us. Gene is jealous of Phineas when he breaks the school record for swimming. As Gene is contemplating his friendship with Phineas, he thinks, “You did hate him for breaking

William Shakespeare’s, Othello, a character named Iago said “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy: It is a green-eyed monster.” In present day, this quote would mean the word jealousy. Shakespeare is believed to be warning people people that jealousy widely effective and could cause havoc. In The Tragedy of Othello, by William Shakespeare, the feeling of jealousy can make people change their feelings towards something and make them pursue what they want.