Comparing Gene And Finny In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

Finny was the top athlete at the school; even broke the swimming record without any preperation. However, his grades were barely passing, which was something he envied of Gene. Gene was one of the best students in his school and was determined to get valedictorian. Unlike Finny and his grades, Gene was a good athlete as well. Finny is very charismatic, slightly selfish, and always can get himself out of trouble. Gene is a bit more reserved and shy than Finny. Early on in the story, Gene becomes obsessed with being equals with Finny and envy of him. He starts to believe that Finny makes up games and clubs to sabotage his studying and grades. After he makes Finny fall, he realizes he was wrong and Finny wasn't trying to hold him back at all.

I think waves of guilt washed over Gene and gave him a deep sense of how he messed up Finny and how badly it affected him. When the mention of Leper comes in Gene rightfully panics, worry that they will believe him, but tries to tell himself that no one would believe a crazy person like Leper. Even thought it never does, Gene gets scared that they will eventually come to the conclusion that it was all his fault and "prosecute" him. The trial reminded Finny about the accident and its impossiblity. I feel that he pushes back the idea that Gene could've caused it and does his best to forget it. Despite what he said Finny does care about the accident, but doesn't want to accept it. He tries to avoid it by running away from it, and he runs straight into another fall and break, which is the cause of his

Later he realizes how irrational he was and that if anything the scales were tilted in Gene's favor. Finny was jealous of Gene and his grades. Since Gene was good at it, he thought it came naturally to him, and didn't realize that Gene had to work alot for it. I think Gene was also jelous that Finny didn't have to consciously work for his althletic preformance like he did with academics. The jealousy blinds Finny from the fact that Gene needs time to focus on schoolwork instead of play, and in turn this causes Gene to feel like Finny is trying to stop him from studying. Gene gets so paranoid about it, he eventually shakes the limb while Finny was on it, making him slip and fall on the ground. Finny breaks his leg from the fall and can't play sports. He later breaks it again and dies during the surgery to set his broken bone. Leper is another character affected by jealousy. In the novel he is jealous of Finny and believes that he is practically one of Gene's best friends as well. In the Assembly Hall, he doesn't tell Brinker all the exact details, and I think it's because he doesn't want to tattle on Gene or make Gene upset with