An Overview Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

Emerson states that “envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide.” (370). A Separate Peace by John Knowles, takes place at Devon which is a boy’s prep school in New Hampshire. The reader is introduced to a character named Gene who has no confidence and envies his best friend Finny. A Separate Peace demonstrates how Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects him, how Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects his relationship with Finny, and Gene’s achievement of peace.

In the novel A Separate Peace Gene is affected because of his envious and imitation behavior towards Finny. One way Gene is affected is by changing him to want to be Finny. In the novel it states, “I decided to put on his clothes…” (Knowles 62). Because of the envious feelings he has towards Finny, he decided to put Finny’s clothes on. The novel also states, "I was Phineas, Phineas to the life…I had no idea why this gave me such intense relief…” (Knowles 62). Gene states that putting on Finny’s clothes gave him some sort of relief. Another way

One way Gene finds peace in the novel was maturing. In the article An Overview of A Separate Peace it states, “However, as Gene matures he starts to develop his own identity…”(Alton). Towards the end of the novel, Gene no longer has any envious feelings towards Finny. This is a great sign of maturity and shows that Gene has found his peace. Another reason Gene achieves finding his peace was realizing that he himself is his real enemy. In the article it states, “In the end, Gene realizes that his real enemy is himself and his impulse towards mindless destruction…”(Alton). Once Gene realizes that he is his own enemy, he reaches closer and closer to finding his peace. In the article Alton also states,”...and he believes he overcame this enemy only after causing Phineas’s death.” (Alton). The reader now knows that Gene finally reaches peace once Finny is