Gene's Jealousy In John Knowles A Separate Peace

Although Gene and Finny are close they seem to have a sense of rivalry with everything they do. Gene is the main one to be pretty envious of Finny throughout the a majority of the book. Gene is jealous that Finny can get away with breaking almost any rule during the summer session.Gene even decides he won’t jump off the tree until Finny does it because he doesn’t think he will have a good chance of getting away with it. He also doesn’t seem to do it until Finny thinks that it is okay and has decided to create the Super Suicide Society.

This jealousy is shown when he says, “I was not of the same quality as him. I couldn't stand this” (Knowles 59). Gene might have wanted to see Finny fall as a way to finally feel superior to him. However, after Finny has fallen, Gene immediately jumps in after him to

According to the novel, “Gene emulates Phineas: he joins him in climbing the tree and jumping into the river, being—for dime, and taking a forbidden trip to the beach” (Alton). Gene just does everything Finny tells him. Such as when Finny told Gene to jump from the tree, and Gene went ahead and jumped. Gene changes more and more like Finny. Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect his relationship with Finny. One way his relationship is affected is when his feelings led to him pushing Finny of out of the tree. In the novel Gene states “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, then my knees bent, I bounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swig his head around…” (Knowles 60). Gene had so much jealous built up that he ended up pushing Finny out of the tree. This causing Finny to break his leg for the first time. Another way the relationship is affected is when Gene thought Finny was trying to mess up is studies. Gene states, “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies” (Knowles

Gene thought that Finny was his enemy, but he realized that it wasn’t Finny that he hated, it was himself. Another way Gene is affected was his loss of identity. Gene states, “He got away with everything because of the extraordinary kind of person he was” (Knowles 28-29). Gene was amazed how Finny got away with everything and the type of person he was. Therefore, he wanted to become Finny. In addition, Gene’s envy and imitation of finny not only affected him, but it affected his relationship with Finny. One way their relationship is affected is when Finny finds out Gene caused the accident, causing Finny to hate him. Gene states, “I would have liked very much to do that myself; it would have meant a lot to me. But Phineas might begin to curse me out with every word he knew, he might lose his head completely, he would certainly be worse off for it” (Knowles 107). Gene wanted to help Finny but he knew Finny was mad at him. He did not want to make him more angry by helping because Gene caused the

North, right, black, left, south, white. At first glance, these seem to be a jumble of words. However, if you rearrange the order into ‘north, south, left, right, black, white” the words become opposites. Disparity is much more discernible when contrasting elements are placed right next to each other; in other words, juxtaposition. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the main characters Phineas(Finny) and Gene were developed through juxtaposition, making their differences especially apparent.

Genuinely, Gene admits “it was just some ignorance inside [him]” causing him to betray Finny (182). Gene understands that the enmity between him and Finny never existed since Finny does not act upon Gene, as a result Gene feels like an infinitesimal importance to Finny’s life. Due to Gene feeling insignificant, he carelessly jounces the limb like a child would do. After coming to the realization of what he has done to Finny, Gene confesses to Finny that he had deliberately jounced the limb even though he might lose Finny because Gene acknowledges the fact that Finny deserves the right to know what has happened to him which indicates Gene’s growth into adulthood. Since Gene accepts the fact of causing Finny’s maimed leg, he willingly obtains the responsibilities from his actions. Out of Finny’s infirmary window, Gene sincerely tells Finny, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” as a self realization that people do make mistakes (175). His apology amplifies his maturity because Gene did not find others to blame on for his

As you can see, Gene had much reason to push Finny out of the tree. It was from jealousy from Finny's athleticism, his popularity, and his ability to talk his way out of almost anything. Only Gene knew that Finny was the only person at the school that could accomplish so many things, and Gene did not want to deal with Phineas

At the start, Gene is instantly jealousy of Finny, creating a fake friendship that is fueled by competition. This is shown when he wants to do something so he is good at, so he “was becoming the best student in the school: Phineas was without question the best athlete, so in that way we were even” (Knowles 55). This proves that their friendship is fueled by competition because it shows that Gene always wants to be even. This

To be correct, Finny only does all these things because he believed that Gene did not need to work as hard as he was working. He actually thought everything Gene does came to him naturally, kind of like his athletic abilities. Another way their relationship is affected is that Gene’s jealousy led to hi pushing Finny out of a tree. Finny eventually tells his “friend” that “it was just some kind of blind impulse you had in the tree there….it wasn’t anything you really felt against me, it wasn’t some kind of hate you’ve felt all along. It wasn’t anything personal” (Knowles 183).

Gene starts to develop paranormal feelings toward Finny. The author states “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies” (Knowles 53). One night while Gene is studying, Finny disrupts his train of thought. Gene then starts to think that Finny is out to get him, while in reality he is only being a friend. Finny got angry with Gene when he finds out the truth of how he fell out of the tree.

Gene thought at one point that Finny was trying to ruin his grades because Finny always made him come with him to the meetings and to play games. This drove Gene to the point where when he and Finny were on the limb of the tree, Gene bounced the limb making Finny fall and break his leg. “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb” (Knowles pg. 60). Gene immediately regretted it and tried to tell Finny the truth, but Finny didn’t believe him. “I deliberately jounced the limb so you would fall off” (Knowles pg. 70). Besides that though Gene kept the truth from Finny and was planning on never telling him. The fact that Gene kept the truth from Finny just made it worse, and when Finny found out the truth he stormed off and fell down a flight of stairs which broke his leg again. Sadly, this led to Finny’s death. When the doctors were putting his bone back in place, a piece of bone marrow went and punctured his heart. Gene never forgave

The relationship that he had with his so called friend Finny was based off of jealousy. Gene was insecure of who he really was and that translated into their friendship (McGavran). Gene and Finny are total opposites. Finny is a friendly guy who is good at athletic events and does not even have to try. He never gets in trouble and that bothers Gene. In chapter 2, Gene hopes that Finny will get in trouble because he is not wearing his tie the way it should be. However, he becomes disappointed because it gets out of it (Knowles 20). Gene on the other hand is very smart and not outgoing. Nothing really comes easily for him (McGavran).

After Finny fell down the stair, shattered his leg again, and had to have an operation, Gene rushed to the hospital. Finny refused to talk to him the first time Gene was at the hospital, but Gene left and walked around the college campus as if he was a ghost. Gene went back the next morning right before his surgery and explained to Finny everything that had happened when fell out of the tree and how he would have never done it one purpose. Finny accepts the fact that it was all a complete accident and forgives Gene. Finny fears betrayal which is what he felt when Gene jounced the branch. He could not, at first, accept the fact that his best friend in the world would have purposely injured him. In this situation, Finny had to forget about being betrayed by Gene and come to a consensus on that it was a complete accident and he should not hold it against his best friend in the world. Throughout the book, Gene fears evil especially after the death of Finny. He tries to explain to us that there is a point in everyone’s life when they realize that there is evil in the world and they must fight their inner demon to control themselves. Gene felt that the death of Finny was because of his own hatred and jealousy towards Finny. Also, during the beginning of the book Gene feels that Finny was evil when Gene convinced himself that Finny was deliberately trying to destroy his academic career. Because of this, he fears evil because of what happened to Finny and he thinks that evil can affect

Gene was attempting to be top of his class academically, but he was continuously being distracted by Finny. Oneday Gene decided to ask Finny if he would be upset if Gene was top of their class. Finny responded by saying, “‘I’d kill myself out of jealous envy’” (Knowles 52). Although Phineas said that in a joking manner, it is clearly that he really would be jealous if Gene was top of their class. Finny loved to be first, and he didn’t like when people threatened his position. After pondering on Finny’s comment, Gene realized, that he may have, “deliberately set out to wreck [his] studies” (Knowles 53). Finny clearly had extreme envy of Gene for better academically. It is unhealthy for friends to be jealous of each other, especially when taken to that extreme. Finny was being unsupportive and selfish, just so that he could be better than Gene.

As humans we tend to make certain things a competition whether it’s sports or academics, Gene seems to take this competition a little too far when he thinks Finny is trying to sabotage his grades like in the situation when Gene explained going to the beach, “‘Going there risked expulsion, destroyed the studying I was going to do for an important test the next day’”(Knowles 20). Finny had talked Gene into going to the beach despite all the things he was risking which gave Gene the idea that Finny was purposely trying to keep him from his studies. When Gene had taken the next day, he had gotten his very first F on a test. This enraged Gene because after that he knew that Finny was up to no good. The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session was also taking up most of Gene’s school time as he described, “‘ As we drafted on through the summer, with this one inflexible appointment every day - classes could be cut and chapel skipped”’