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Gene's Growth In Tension Between Finny And Gene

663 Words3 Pages

The dual nature of all these things come full circle, as describe in a double character between Gene and Finny and also a double character in Gene. Gene’s dynamic character allows for a double character in Gene; his ignorant, suboranance to Finny makes him envious allowing for erratic actions against Finny. The friendship that holds Gene and Finny together is unhealthy, but also fruitful, the two fall together and also build up one another. The friendship of Gene and Finny is critical to Gene’s change of heart, including his jealous attitude of Phineas. The two are constantly together, Gene follows Finny in his every move, he is almost a puppet. Gene does not realize that he is being controlled by Finny and neither does Finny because he …show more content…

The growth in tension between Gene and Finny has become a large deficit further attributing to Gene’s changing character. As Gene lives in the life of Finny he begins to realize that his world is careless and unrestrained, Gene believes he is just being used in Finny’s fantasy world. This in return leads to jealousy and spite towards Finny because of his superior lifestyle opposed to Gene’s. At first Gene seems to go along with the idea of freedom and no rules, explained here, "Mr. Prud'homme, the teacher in charge of Gene's dorm, is a summer substitute, not a seasoned Devon master. When Gene and his roommate Finny realize that Prud'homme has not bothered to read the school's disciplinary code, they commit one rule violation after another" (Pitofsky 7). Gene begins this growing resentment of Finny because he can get away with anything because of the inexperienced teachers. Gene is jealous and does not think this is right. “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. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little” (Knowles 17). Gene has become envious of Finny and how he can get away with breaking school rules constantly without notice. "He had gotten away with

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It is not surprising, that Gene is jealous of Finny. Finny always manages to get away with any type punishment for breaking major rules, and Gene who follows all the rules, he is very jealous of that. One noteworthy illustration

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Comparing Gene And Finny In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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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.

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This also shows that Gene isn 't good at telling people exactly what he wants to do and this doesn 't help him later on. We see that one of Gene’s struggles is to do what other people want and not what he does but when Gene does do what he wants to do then it doesn 't end well, while Finny on the other hand says exactly what he wants to say. An example of Finny’s weakness is, Finny has certain moralities that he lives by and his weakness is that he would never believe that one of his best friend’s broke one of his morals, we see this when Gene and Finny are talking they say, “‘I jounced the limb. I caused it’

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Gene’s relationship with his “best friend” Phineas describes how the relationship resulted in the killing of Gene's enemy, his own youth, and innocence. Gene is plainly described in the novel as envious of Finny, he is also depicted as the position of much hatred and dismay by his peers. Therefore, the fact that Gene kills his own youth is likely considering Finny’s success, Gene’s jealousy towards

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The Relationship Between Gene And Finny In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects Gene greatly. Gene’s feelings cause him to be much more aggressive. For instance, on page 191, Finny told Gene, “it wasn’t anything you really felt against me, it wasn’t some

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Since Finny cannot play sports anymore because of his broken leg, he tells Gene that he has to do it for him. Gene realizes that this is his destiny; to become an extension of Phineas. Another way he is affected is that he starts to lose his own ways by copying Finny. When Finny was in the hospital wing of the school, Gene put his clothes on and said “that I would never stumble through the confessions

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The article states,”In the end, Gene realizes that his real enemy is himself and his impulse towards mindless destruction-and he believes he overcame this enemy only after causing Phineas’s death”(Alton). This statement shows that after all that’s happened, Gene realized he was the problem and his own enemy. While being his own enemy, he caused Finny’s death. This completely changed not only Gene, but their relationship. After Gene and Finny;s relationship was affected, Gene achieves the Peace he is looking

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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 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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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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“Gene’s symbolic fall comes when he gives in to ‘some ignorance inside’ and shakes the limb on which he and Finny stand” (Hamm). Gene’s shaking of the limb resulted “out of a sudden awareness that Finny was not jealous of him, was not competing” and “[his understanding of] his inferiority to Phineas and his own moral ugliness” (Holborn, Ellis). Gene’s fall from innocence is exhibited by the shaking of the limb on which Finny and him stood because it is not only the moment that Gene gives into his jealousy and envy towards Finny, but also his reaction to the manner in which Finny’s goodness sheds light on Gene’s distrustfulness and Gene’s realization that he “is not capable of maintaining the spiritual purity that distinguishes Phineas and so must as he discovers his own savagery betray Phineas” (Holborn, Ellis). This new knowledge that Gene now holds is detrimental to his innocence, as it sparks a malicious intent within Gene to become better than Finny and creates a one sided competition within Gene that can never be won until he accepts the unfairness of the world outside the idyllic summer of 1942. It

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Because Finny refused to tell anyone, but Gene, about his record-breaking achievement, Gene is baffled as to why Finny would not want to. It seems as though Gene is imagining himself in Finny’s shoes as he mentions, “Was he trying to impress me or something? Not tell anybody? When he had broken a school record without a day of practice? I

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A Separate Peace Character Analysis Essay

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“Then a second realization broke as clearly and bleakly as dawn at the beach. Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies.” (24) Gene thinks this after going to the beach with Finny and ruining his grade because of the lack of studying due to his time spent having fun. This is just one example of how Gene thinks there's some sort of ongoing competition between themselves, causing Gene to be extremely jealous, self concerning and over analyzing about every situation instead of just enjoying the fun the two have as Finny does. Even though Gene acts like this he is still very friendly and a good person.

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Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him. Throughout the story Gene has a difficult time making decisions for himself, as a result he turns towards Finny to influence his decisions. In the

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Finny used to ask Gene to go and do other things instead of studying. Gene normally did what Finny asked. Gene decided that Finny was trying to hurt him when they story states, “Suddenly he turned his fire against me, he betrayed several of his other friends,” and he was doing things on his own (102). The second stage of Finny and Gene’s friendship is betrayal and guilt.

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