Codependency In A Separate Peace

The movie, “A Separate Peace” was made in 1972, directed by Larry Peerce, is based on the novel also named “A Separate Peace”, by John Knowles in which, both explore the theme of codependency. Codependency is a learned behavior that affects someone's ability to have a healthy relationship, and it can also be called “relationship addiction” because people in that type of relationship try to keep it even if it is harmful and often one-sided. A codependent relationship threatens to take away from someone's own identity. This happens because the relationship is one sided, which means that one person is always trying to make someone happy and not trigger them many times, which causes them to not express themselves how they should. Gene and Finny's …show more content…
Another example of their relationship becoming codependent would be Gene skipping his exam to make Finny happy, which would be an example of sacrificing yourself to make someone happy. The last sign of their relationship being codependent is Gene getting jealous when Finny gets along with others. This is an example of someone being scared of being rejected or abandoned. At this point in the movie, their relationship was good but was starting to show signs of codependency. By the middle of the movie, their relationship becomes codependent. One of the main examples that show this would be Gene skipping his classes just to make Finny happy. Another example of this would be when Gene was studying and Finny wanted to go to the tree to jump in the lake but Gene had said no then changed his mind even though Finny told him to stay. That would be an example of walking on eggshells. Another example of their relationship becoming codependent would be when they are playing Blitzball, and Finny tends to make all the rules around Gene and this highlights Finny's controlling behavior. Lastly, after the incident that happened with Finny falling out of the tree, Gene states that he was thinking about Finny all