Character Analysis Of Jealousy In John Knowles A Separate Peace

Improved Essays
Insecurities and the lack of confidence are more destructive than they may seem at first glance; they both gradually rot away at individual’s sense of self, and poison their thoughts and emotions with negativity. However harmful and seemingly uncontrollable these states may be, constant perseverance can render them harmless. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene overcomes his overpowering insecurities, smallness of self, and jealousy in a deadly struggle against his own twisted human nature. Finny’s confidence and natural athletic success draws Gene to him. Wisps of jealousy for Finny soon invade Gene’s mind, causing him to think to himself about how Finny easily “attracts everyone he meets” (Knowles 40). Gene also “feels a sudden …show more content…
This enlightenment causes him to wish he could completely cut off his broken identity and guilt with a pair of “giant military shears”, throw away his complicated past, and conform to the clone-like sameness of the military. He is soon whisked away from this mentality when Finny insists on Gene fulfilling his athletic dreams for him. Once again, Gene finds himself taking on Finny’s identity in place of his own identity. However, Gene’s final submersion into Finny’s identity does not last long. Gene’s carefully structured world falls apart when Finny dies, forcing Gene to finally begin to develop his own individuality. Gene uses Finny as a way to find security in himself and as a way to forget about his insecurities; but when Finny dies, Gene is left alone with an identity that he relied on his deceased friend for. He finally begins to not rely on others to provide him with purpose or security, but rather takes what Finny’s life had taught him and grows his own sense of self. Though Gene does develop his own sense of self, he carries a part of Finny within himself throughout the rest of his adolescence and into his adulthood. Gene no longer depended on the people around him for confidence and security, but rather became his own

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    A Separate Peace: Rivalry

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “The closest friendships often involve intense rivalry.” The quote above is one of the many main themes in A Separate Peace. Rivalry and jealousy become two very important words in the novel. Gene and Finny become jealous of each other’s qualities. Gene strives to be class valedictorian and constantly worries about his studies, but wishes he could excel in sports like Finny.…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A good athlete, charming, and light-hearted, the boy symbolizes the ideal American boy. Seeing that good nature in Finny lead Gene to contemplate the reality that he was indeed jealous of who Finny was. As a strong minded character, Finny spends the rest of the book after the accident trying to deny that Gene could hurt him this way, not wanting to believe that his own best friend had ultimately destroyed his life. Stubborn to the fact that nothing between them would be the same, Finny simply chooses not to bring up the fall until provoked by Brinker. Finny’s only weakness was ignorance of the malice of…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Jealousy is not common between friends as it only severs the relationship. For example, in A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene’s jealousy first becomes evident when he says, “This time he wasn't going to get away with it. I could feel myself becoming unexpectedly excited at that”. Consequently, their relationship begins to deteriorate because of the incident. Another instance is when Gene states, “In such a nonstop game he also had the natural advantage of a flow of energy which I never saw interrupted”.…

    • 210 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Separate Peace written by John Knowles focuses on the story of the friendship of Gene Forrester and Phineas “Finny”, and emphasizes how their constant friendship/rivalry causes a feeling of envy leading to an ultimately hurtful relationship. In Chapter 2, readers see yet another example of how quickly Finny can get out of almost any situation due to his charismatic demeanor. When he talks his way out of getting in trouble for skipping dinner with Mr. Prud’homme, this can be seen as the moment when Gene’s envy grew to an almost insurmountable level. Gene, much like any other human, was constantly jealous of Phineas.…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.” (Maya Angelou) The story A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a coming-of-age story that outlines the summer adventures of the jealous, intelligent Gene and his athletic best friend Finny at Devon School in New Hampshire. Regardless of their close relationship, Gene still harbors some resentful feelings towards Finny which get worse when Gene assumes Finny is trying to keep him distracted from his schoolwork, and then explode when this resentment causes Gene to jounce a tree limb that causes Finny’s leg to be crippled for life. After the Summer Session and before the Winter Session at Finny’s house, Gene reveals to Finny that he jounced the limb on purpose, but…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Gene’s emotions give the reader a clue to how envious of Finny, Gene really is. Gene yearns to become Finny just as Adam and Eve wanted to become God. He wishes that he had all of the attributes that Finny does. Gene, because of his greed…

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Separate Peace is a novel about coming of age. Join Finny on his journey through the school year. He will learn how harsh life is the hard way. Through blood, pain, betrayal, jealousy and regret. Journey with Finny from his humble happy self to his grisly demise.…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him personally. Gene would always go with what Finny would say because he wanted to be like him. “None of this mattered now, I would have agreed to anything” (Knowles 32). Finny asked Gene to jump out of the tree into the river. Everything Finny wanted Gene to do,…

    • 724 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Gene is now able to understand the fallacies in Finny’s flawless, but unrealistic, world; therefore he is free to address his true foe. He understands that he was symbolizing his desire to be like his best friend by detesting Finny for possessing all the qualities Gene himself craved. Finny’s death causes Gene’s misperception to die as well: "I did not cry then or ever about Finny... I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case” (Knowles 186). Gene now realizes that he cannot become his best friend because the perceived qualities of Finny that he coveted were not realistic and that no one truly existed with the possession of all of those ideal traits.…

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Separate Peace by John Knowles follows Gene, a junior at a boarding school, around the time of WWII, who meets a great friend, Phineas. But Gene has the desire to be like Finny. Jealousy gets in the way of their friendship. The feeling of envy becomes difficult when it’s mixed with love. The bond between Gene and Phineas is a weird one.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Furthermore, while Gene reflects back on the beach scene, he says that there was a “level of feeling, deeper than thought, [that contained] the truth”(48). A truth which can be inferred to be his ardor for Finny. All together, this proves that Gene, as the narrator, is unreliable. The reader has no way of differentiating between the Gene’s viewpoint as an adult or teenager. Perhaps he resolved his feelings and looks back with a clearer sense-of-self; or perhaps he remains just as confused and repressed.…

    • 1459 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Gene feels threatened by Finny’s freedom and instead of discussing his feelings about studying for exams, he hides his resentment and lets his anger turn into something more serious. He realizes that Finny does not does not want him to fail his classes, which makes him even angrier.…

    • 235 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gene’s story in Separate Peace displays a young man’s painful yet necessary growth into adulthood. His effort towards growth brought forward a clearer perspective upon responsibility and his firm place in the world. His first step to manhood is put to the test in the beginning of the novel, where the foolish Gene stands unconcerned and self-absorbed in front of the tree that will assess his true nature. After all Gene’s hardships, have been surpassed, in the end he has been formed into a human who is forgiving of his dull motives. In a nutshell, he will never forget his dirty hands but out of the those come a gain in experience.…

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gene cares very deeply for Finny, going along with him is natural, as natural as anything can get. This gets him into places he’d rather not be in, but as a teen, a child, he is easily pushed into the whims of his company. In the early stages of their lives, Finny does not think of how his actions reflect on Genes life, but then again, neither does Gene. These feelings of inequality, an imbalance in their relationship reach their zenith when Finny, as usual comes up with an idea, and Gene automatically follows. Gene fails a test, and being devoted to academics as he is, searches desperately for an answer to why.…

    • 944 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    By incorporating the full idea of childhood and innocent youth into a living character he showed the readers just how fragile it truly is. Finny stayed with Gene throughout most of the novel, so one’s childhood can stay with them for a very long time, sometimes most of their life, but only if it is fought for. Gene had to work like he was going to be in the Olympics, hold back from enlisting, and go along with most of Finny’s games to keep his childhood alive. After he started experiencing real world problems, though, he wanted to enlist and stop taking part in those games, which started breaking Finny and caused his childhood to start chipping away.…

    • 1841 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays