“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
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In Chapter 4 when Gene reaches the conclusion that Finny is trying to distract him from his schoolwork and hurt his grades so he can be better than Gene, Gene says to himself, “The way I believed that you’re-my-best-friend blabber! The shadow falling across his face if I didn’t want to do something with him! His instinct for sharing everything with me? Sure, he wanted to share everything with me, especially his procession of D’s in every subject.” (45) This quote proves that Gene is resentful because it presents his hatred of Finny upon assuming Finny is attempting to wreck his studies. Also, it shows a very hateful reaction from Gene about ever believing Finny was truly a sincere friend. In all, this quote shows resentment is one of Gene’s main characteristics by explaining how much hate he can sometimes show towards Finny. Also, later in Chapter 4, the reader can see Gene’s resentment when he realizes that Finny was not trying to wreck his studies but is actually a near-perfect person who was never in rivalry with him or ever jealous towards him. In this instance, he tells himself, “It wasn’t my neck, but my understanding which was menaced. He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he. I couldn’t stand this.” (51) This quote shows Gene’s resentment because it displays how jealous Gene
In Chapter 4 when Gene reaches the conclusion that Finny is trying to distract him from his schoolwork and hurt his grades so he can be better than Gene, Gene says to himself, “The way I believed that you’re-my-best-friend blabber! The shadow falling across his face if I didn’t want to do something with him! His instinct for sharing everything with me? Sure, he wanted to share everything with me, especially his procession of D’s in every subject.” (45) This quote proves that Gene is resentful because it presents his hatred of Finny upon assuming Finny is attempting to wreck his studies. Also, it shows a very hateful reaction from Gene about ever believing Finny was truly a sincere friend. In all, this quote shows resentment is one of Gene’s main characteristics by explaining how much hate he can sometimes show towards Finny. Also, later in Chapter 4, the reader can see Gene’s resentment when he realizes that Finny was not trying to wreck his studies but is actually a near-perfect person who was never in rivalry with him or ever jealous towards him. In this instance, he tells himself, “It wasn’t my neck, but my understanding which was menaced. He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he. I couldn’t stand this.” (51) This quote shows Gene’s resentment because it displays how jealous Gene