Gene And Phineas 'Rivalry In A Separate Peace'

The author made it feel as though Gene was the one that competed so fully in the pair’s relationship when Finny was supposed to be the one with the competitive nature. In the beginning of the novel, before Finny’s accident, Gene felt like Finny was taking advantage of him and making him take time away from his studies to do pointless things. He felt this way because

Finny pushes Gene until he get’s what he wants. As soon as Gene begins to show discomfort, Finny quickly jumps in with teasing and almost forces Gene to jump. “ Come on’, drawled Finny from below ‘Stop standing there showing off.’ I recognized with automatic tenseness that the view was very impressive from here. ‘When they torpedo the troopship’ he shouted, ‘you can’t stand around admiring the view. Jump!’ What was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this? Was he getting some kind of hold over me?” (Knowles 10-11). Finny almost does have a sort of hold on Gene. Maybe it’s not a physical hold but emotionally, Finny is seemingly in control of Gene enough to be able to force him to do things that Gene himself things are stupid. Why would anyone go along with anything they think is stupid? Why would anyone put their own life in danger because someone else asked them to? It’s simple, Finny is a very manipulative boy who seemingly achieves what ever he sets his mind

Because of Gene’s sense of judgement, he built up an alternate reality of a rivalry between him and his best friend, Finny.

Once Gene had delivered the news he thought, “It struck me then that I was injuring him again. It occurred to me that this could be an even deeper injury than what I had done before. (Knowles 70)” In the quote Gene realizes that he was hurting Finny even more than he was already hurt by confessing his actions, therefore changing their relationship. The two boys’ relationship was no longer based off of their compliance, but their want to be each other. Because Gene admitted to pushing Finny out of the tree, both of the boys knew that there was lots of jealousy in their friendship. The jealousy in their friendship is based off of their want to be each other. After the confession at Finny’s house, Gene began to wear some of Finny’s clothes and Finny wanted to become better at school, therefore they now had different roles in the relationship. The different roles they had in the relationship were that Finny started to study more and actually care about school, but Gene became a little more reckless. The change in Gene and Finny’s relationship was the jealousy over wanting to be each

Without peace, people become discombobulated. Before the casualty, Gene believes that he is Finny. They are one piece that cannot be separated. If one of them fails to do something, it is the job of the other to succeed. We see this when Gene puts on Finny’s cloths when he is gone. “I never forgot, and that evening I put on his cordovan shoes, his pants, and I looked for and finally found his pink shirt, neatly laundered in a drawer…. But when I looked in the mirror it was no remote aristocrat I had become, no character out of daydreams. I was Phineas” (Knowles 62). In addition to looking the part, he plays the part. When Finny breaks his leg and can no longer be himself and play sports, Gene takes this role. Finny even starts to train him for the 1944 Olympics, in exchange Gene tutors him. To add on to all of this, the even leap from the tree together, as one. This causes

Gene envies Finny. Gene shows this because when Finny broke the swimming school record without any practice, Finny didn’t want anyone to know. Gene took that as a sign that Finny wanted to show off all the things he could do cause how good he was. In chapter 3 page 44 it states “Was he trying to impress me or something? Not tell anybody? When he had broken a school record without a day of practice? I knew he was serious about it, so I didn't tell anybody. Perhaps for that reason his accomplishment took root in my mind and grew rapidly in the darkness where I was forced to hide it.” This shows that Gene had envy towards Finny because instead of thinking good things about Finny he thinks the worst in

Another way their relationship is affected is because Gene tries to become like Finny. Gene adds,” that I would never stumble through the confusions of my own character again” (Alton 54). After Finny’s fall he asks Gene to become an athlete because he can’t. Gene tries on Finny’s clothes and feels confident. Gene finally realizes his flaws in his own character which led to Finny’s

Finny and Gene have a close friendship in Finny’s eyes at the beginning of the book. Gene is jealous of Finny of how he gets anything he wants and does t have to work for it. Gene feels like they are bonded through competition. Gene always got talked into things he didn't want to do by Finny. In chapter one page 17 Gene says to himself “ What was I doing up here anyway? why did i let Finny talk me

Throughout the book, Gene envies Finny, and this envious mentality changes their future relationship. An example of this is when

Gene begins to sort of compete and have this hatred towards Finny, but in reality he is just competing with himself. One day the secret society go outside to the big tree where they have to jump from and Finny, the super athlete loses his balance and “falls”. Finny breaks his leg pretty bad. To an extent, Gene realized he is the one that caused it. He jounced the tree branch and caused Finny to lose his balance. But he is not quite sure why he did it. Was he jealous? Was it because he thought Finny hated him, but in reality it was just Gene hating himself?

Though Gene is feeling like he is losing his grasp on his relationship with Finny, he is discovering more about himself; he “discovered that his private evil, which caused him to hurt [Finny], is the same evil… that results in war” (Ellis 318). He also learned a lot through Finny that foreshadows their relationship, ironically during the times that Gene cherished the most. Finny used his athletic abilities to make up a perplexing game that overall taught an ideal of warfare: “since we’re all enemies, we can and will turn on each other all the time” (Knowles 39). This sense of warfare creates a desire in Gene to “defeat” Finny during the time before they graduate and leave off for the war. Throughout their years at the Devon school, Gene conceives an idea that Finny is trying to ruin Gene’s school studies and future. Since the beginning of their relationship, especially when they spent more and more time with each other, Finny’s actions perceived him to be trying to drag all of Gene’s attention away from school and toward him; Gene uses this as a justification for his growing anger toward Finny that resulted in the warfare demonstrated in the tree accident. This anger eventually morphs into positivity as Gene “feels [himself] becoming unexpectedly excited” when Finny fails to get his way (Knowles 27). The warfare between Gene and Finny causes mental reflection on Gene, as he tries to find his true purpose and identity at the Devon

At the start Gene only envys Finny. In page 25 he saying “ I couldn’t help envying him that, which was perfectly normal.”. And Gene is correct, it is perfectly normal to envy people, even your best friend. But even something as innocent as envy can turn into something more sinister, hate. There are sing of Gene hating Finny, as seen in page 53 “You did hate him for that swimming record, but so what?”. Another sign of Gene hating Finny is when he becomes paranoid and angry when he believes Finny was trying to sabotage his grades. But none of that compares to when he purposely jounces the limb causing Finny to fall off. However, this theory is not set in stone. Later on in the story Gene begins to feel guilty for what he did and sincerely apologizes. But this is only my view on it.

Respect, jealousy, and some healthy competition are some of the things that are all combined to make a good friendship between two people. A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a flashback fifteen years to when best friends, Gene and Finny, went to Devon Boarding School. These boy’s made many ,good and bad, decisions while they were away at their school in New Hampshire. Friendship, beliefs, sports and academics are three very big concepts while identifying Gene and Finny.

First and foremost, Finny is a devoted friend because he is subservient towards Gene. When Gene spends the night at the beach with Finny, he returns the next morning just in time to take his exam. Of course, because he spent the entire night at the beach, he did not get enough time to study for his exam. Gene flunks the test, but Finny would not himself let Gene be upset over it. Finny engages all day long, “right after lunch there was a game of blitzball” (51). Later in the day, there was also a meeting of the “Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session”.

In society, friendships hold a great deal of value - they are characterized by trust, support, respect, loyalty, and admiration. However, in A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene, the narrator, and Phineas fail to 1. exhibit these characteristics towards each other. Therefore, the relationship between Gene and Phineas is indeed not a true friendship.