“Envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide” (Emerson 370). A Separate Peace written by John Knowles is set in a boarding school, Devon, in New England. Gene, about five-feet nine inches, weighing about 150 pounds, was a student at Devon school and was very gullible to others. In A Separate Peace, Gene has envy of Finny and imitates him which affects him and their relationship, but in the end he gains his inner peace. To begin with, Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects him throughout the story. One way Gene is affected is when Phineas jumped off the tree and convinced Gene to do the same. Knowles writes, “What was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this?” (17). Gene was on the tree limb being
