Friendship A Separate Peace has a very unique description of friendship. Throughout the book, Gene is jealous of Finny’s looks and what he is able to do. Gene has a lot of ambivalent feelings toward Finny. He wants to be Finny, but at the same time he is jealous of him. They are supposed to be best friends, but Gene envies him and thinks he is trying to make him look bad. After Finny’s accident, Gene struggled with guilt and his life was changed because of it. “I spent as much time as I could alone in our room, trying to empty my mind of every thought, to forget where I was, even who I was. One evening when I was dressing for dinner in this numbed frame of mind, an idea occurred to me, the first with any energy behind it since Finny fell from the tree. I decided to put on his clothes” (Knowles 29). In other words, for a brief moment, Gene felt relief from his guilt and loses his identity. He was physically trying to become Finny by trying to look like him. Another aspect that effects finding Gene’s identity …show more content…
In Ephesians 2:10 it’s says “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” This verse explains that everyone’s identity needs to be found in Christ not others. As you see in A Separate Peace Gene’s focus is becoming like Finny instead of becoming Christ like. In James 3:14-16 it says “But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” This goes a long with the jealousy Gene had for Finny and what his envy caused him to do. He has to live with the fact that he let jealousy overcome him and kill his best