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A Separate Peace Gene's Envy Character Analysis

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“Envy is ignorance; imitation I suicide.” Emerson’s quote that can be applied to Gene. Ralph Waldon Emerson’s A Separate Peace takes place at Devon, an all-boys school, during WWII. Gene is described as a rule-following student, who is academically-focused, and is influenced easily. A Separate Peace, illustrates how Gene’s envy and imitation affects himself, his relationship with Finny, and contribute to him not finding his peace.

First, Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny has an impact on himself. Gene becomes full of envy, anger, and fear. “…we’re all liable to corruption from within by our own envy, anger, and fear” (Alton). It’s this very corruption that poisons Gene. He envy’s Finny’s success, get angry because he feels Finny is trying to kill his studies, and fears that Finny will outshine him. Gene becomes his own enemy. “Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (Knowles 196). Gene was taken over by a mindless impulse. He believes that after Phineas’ death, he was able to overcome that very …show more content…

Gene gets upset with the fact that he thinks Finny is trying to sabotage his grades. “He was no better that I was, no matter who won all the contest” (Knowles 56). This initial change had an enormous impact on their relationship. Gene wants to be at Finny’s level all the time; so they are at equal levels. This sudden change will be the reasoning for the accident. Gene imitates Finny’s actions to keep a strong bond with him. “Otherwise I would have lost face with Phineas, and that would be terrible” (Knowles 34). Throughout the book, Gene constantly conform to Finny. This all roots from Gene’s characteristic of being easily influenced. He feels that if he does not do what his friend wants, that it could hurt their relationship. Gene and Finny’s relationship is affected by Gene’s envy and imitation of

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Finny throughout the story pushes and pressures Gene to do things like jumping out of the tree when Gene doesn’t want to, but he does because Finny keeps pressuring him to do it. An example of Finny pushing Gene to do something he doesn’t want to do is when, both boys go to the beach, even though Gene doesn’t agree because he wants to study for a trig test the following day. Finny goes on to say, “ I hope you’re having a pretty good time here. I know I kind of dragged you away at the point of a gun, but after all you can’t come to the shore with just anybody and you can’t come by yourself, and at this teen-age period in life the proper person is your pal…” (Knowles 48).

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After this point, compared to before it, Gene’s nature becomes much worse, darkening and filling with anger and guilt. Starting at the beginning of the novel, Finny and Gene’s relationship

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but I think Gene found peace in the story by his conflicts. What is envy? Envy is a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else 's possessions, qualities, or luck. Gene was struggling with covetousness toward Finny and Gene wanted to be another Finny. For example, the book states that, “since Finny fell from the tree.

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He is basically, through rhetorical questions, saying that he does not want to do what Finny does, but it’s like he cannot help it. This is affecting who Gene is as a person because he is not thinking for himself. Is Gene really even himself if Finny is doing the thinking for him? If he is not thinking for himself, he is not being true to himself. Another way that Gene is affected is that he allows his imitation of Finny get in the way of his schooling.

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Gene would grieve for a long time without getting Finny’s forgiveness, for he felt very guilty. He got Finny’s remission before he passed away sadly. “Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us” (59). Gene realizes that the accusations in his mind about Finny trying to sabotage him were false. Gene has accepted both his own guilt and the gift of Finny's friendship.

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Gene believes that Finny and he hate each other, until he realizes Finny’s pureness, which Gene can not stand. At first, Gene believes that Finny wants to exceed him, and that the two are rivals. Everyone at Devon likes Finny. The teachers adore him, the students look up to him, the athletes aspire

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671 Words | 3 Pages

Gene started to wear Finny’s clothes that he had left there, holding himself like Finny, and eventually gaining Finny’s old status. People looked at him the way they had used to look at Finny. “I was Phineas, Phineas to the life,” Gene stated about himself. He himself knew what he was becoming and it was exactly what he had envied for for so long, though he knew what he had done to hurt Finny and felt extremely guilty about the situation. He decided to go visit Finny at his home on a break and check up on him as well as attempt to tell him what had actually happened that day at the tree.

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As their friendship grows, the reader eventually sees Gene become slightly envious due to the personality traits that Finny had in which Gene did not. The following quote from A Separate Peace is a perfect example of supporting evidence that Gene had began to have a “friendly” envy for what Finny had. “It was hypnotism. I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal.

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He was on “active duty” at school when he was emotionally insecure and paranoid of Phineas. His “enemy” was the jealous and warlike aspect of his personality, which he “killed” by achieving a separate peace within himself. Gene mistakenly ruined Finny’s life because

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741 Words | 3 Pages

One way Gene’s jealousy and imitation is an effect on his relationship with Finny is that it caused lots of jealousy towards Finny because of his abilities, appearance, and actions. An example of this is when Gene stated “He had gotten away with everything. I felt a sudden stab of disappointment. That was because I just wanted to see some more excitement; that must have been it. " (Knowles).

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463 Words | 2 Pages

As the two boys start depending on each other, their identities becomes more linked to each other. Jealousy created this urge for Gene to be exactly like Finny so he can have some fame. During the story, Gene dresses in Finney’s clothes and sees himself looking exactly like him (91-93). Finney’s death, separated them physically, but truly Gene’s identity from Finney’s.

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606 Words | 3 Pages

Gene’s envy and imitation not only affects himself, but also their friendship as a whole. As Gene continues to question Phineas and his true intentions, their friendship begins to decline. Gene begins to believe that Phineas is out to destroy him, and becomes less trusting. “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies,” (Knowles 53). Gene convinces himself that Phineas hates him, and wants to destroy his grades.

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1042 Words | 5 Pages

  Nevertheless, Phineas reveals to Gene after he’s returned to Devon School, saying that he “used to be aiming for the Olympics” (Knowles 117), but since he was handicapped, it was his job to coach Gene instead.  This is another example of just how detrimental the relationship between the two boys was; Finny began to live vicariously through Gene, who had no objections to this due to his insecurities and desire to be more like Phineas since the very beginning.  The two friends morph into one, indistinguishable personality; Gene is trying to lose more of his true, over-evaluating self, and becoming more like his naïve

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466 Words | 2 Pages

He goes back to his old school, Devon, and visits the two sites where his life changed. Gene copes with his feelings and realizes he has forgiven himself. “I began at that point the emotional examination to note how far my convalescence had gone” (Knowles 11). The narrator matures after seeing the sites where Finny died and fell from the tree, and he knows he never meant to hurt Phineas. Gene also remembers growing up when confronting Finny to tell him he had jounced the limb.

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954 Words | 4 Pages

Gene’s thoughts have a great effect on the development of envy and lack of trust in Gene’s relationship with Finny. For example, Gene decides to lie to Finny after he visits him so he can leave, “Now I had to get out of there. There was

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