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Gene's Worst Enemy In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

853 Words4 Pages

“Sometimes you can be your own worst enemy”-Anonymous. In New Hampshire, Gene attended an all boy boarding school called the Devon School during World War 2. In the midst, of the war, he spends his time at the Devon School; with his best friend Finny. Finny and Gene are the opposites from each other, but it did not stop them from being friends.Gene is more reserve and an excellent scholar.On the other hand, Finny is a tremendous athlete, outgoing, and an average scholar. It seems as though their life is peaceful at the Devon School despite the war going on.However, Gene struggled internally to find peace with himself. In the novel, he says” my war ended before I even put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (Knowles 204)
The reason Gene said that he killed his enemy at the Devon School because he was his enemy.The reason is …show more content…

Gene was jealous of Finny athletic achievements, careless personality, and his natural leadership.“I was starting 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 20)”.Gene trying to justify his ill feelings by saying its natural to be jealous. Despite his reasoning, his jealousy toward Finny comes from the things he wishes he had that Finny does.He starts to resent the fact he will never resemble Finny in any way. One of the major turning points in the novel is when Finny falls from the tree branch that Gene jump on. “ For a moment I was almost taken in by it. Then my eyes fell on the bound and cast white mass pointing at me, and as it was always to do, it brought me down out of Fanny's world of invention, down again as I had fallen after awakening that morning, down to reality, to the facts “(Knowles 98). Gene finds satisfaction that after the incident Finny is longer an athlete or able to talk himself out of

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This causes him to hurt his best friend. Gene grows envious of his best friend Finny. Finny had always been an athletic boy who has held many achievements for this trait. For example Finny had broken a swimming record, invented a game, and tried to join the Olympics. Through all this Finny had never bragged and tried to

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Imagine if you went to an all boy school and had one friend who overshadows you in every aspect of your life. Falling under his shadow all of the time, you could never find peace with yourself. How would you feel? This is how Gene felt standing alongside his friend Finny when he attended Devon School. There were numerous traits that Finny possessed that caused Gene to envy him.

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In the natural world spiders are often one of the most feared creatures. Humans perceive that spiders will harm them but in reality spiders are solely concerned with themselves. Humans frequently have perceived emotions without any logical reason. This concept is made evident in John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, with regard to competition. Competition is created in the mind of Gene between himself and Phineas, without any logical reason.

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Which makes Gene quite an annoyance. When the doctor tells Gene and FInny that Phineas would never play sports again Gene bursts into tears, whereas Phineas tells Gene “What are you looking so sick about?”(65). Phineas understood what happened to him is horrible but frankly Gene feels worse than he does about the situation. This is because Gene is depressed, and feels completely responsible for the situation that ruined his friend’s goals for the

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A Separate Peace, Unit Test Hamza Eldohiri The story “A Separate Peace”, written by John Knowles, was written at the time and takes place during World War II when battles and conflicts amongst nations were evident. Each nation involved struggled and fought their hardest in order to satisfy the good of their nation. Not only is the setting in the story taking place during this time of quarrel, the story also demonstrates areas of self-conflict and an internal battle throughout. The characters in “A Separate Peace”, are described as experiencing this self-conflicting, internal battle. Gene (also the narrator) is specifically depicted as he goes through his battle in life.

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Finny’s and Gene’s Similarities, Differences, and Change Over Time Phineas and Gene have many qualities that compliment each other, but both individuals also have some large differences which become clear throughout the novel. To begin, Finny and Gene both posses individual strengths that influence the other boy. To begin, both boys are very passionate about a certain subject. Finny is passionate in sports and athletics, as demonstrated through his many sports and activities.

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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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“Our minds are a battle ground between good and bad ideas; we are whatever side wins the battle” Bangambiki Habyarimana, The Great Pearl of Wisdom. The struggle between good and evil is found universally. In the novel A Separate Peace, Gene Forrester struggles between his own inner good and evil. Gene's actions often reflect his feelings, leading him to trouble, giving the illusion that Gene is filled with more evil than good. However, Gene's goodness can be found even through dark times.

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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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He still encourages Gene to do the things that Finny no longer can because he wants to see someone else flourish, and most importantly: his friend. After Finny’s death, Gene even declares that “nothing … had broken [Finny’s] harmonious and natural unity” (Knowles 203). Since Gene exclaims this, the reader understands that Finny

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A loving friend turns murderer after his retched jealousness and overanalyzing pushes him to new lows. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the true character of Gene Forrester is shown as he narrates his point of view of the story. Gene Forrester is a relatable ever changing, humanistic, and someone who is always in contention. Although at points Gene seems mentally unstable, he is a round, dynamic character that adapts and is generally mentally sound. Gene being the narrator of his own story shows from his perspective just how he views people and their interactions.

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Gene’s ultimate goal to be more like Finny was never achieved in the story, Finny’s unique personality faced Gene with the problem that he’d never be like him. An example of this is found in the article, which states, “By presenting Gene with his utter uniqueness, Phineas forces him to grapple with questions of identity and to confront the unrealized depths of his own character.” (Alton). With this in mind Gene is forced to find his own character which we know throughout the story is his not his goal. His goal is to become more like Finny, which he can not achieve because it is impossible to become someone.

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Gene and Finny are the main characters in this story, they teach you a lot about their friendship. Finny and Gene’s friendship can be described by their rivalry and loyalty, betrayal and guilt, and confession and forgiveness. The first stage of Finny and Gene’s friendship is loyalty and rivalry. Gene usually does what Finny wants to do.

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Emotions were one of their biggest repelling forces in their relationship. Emotions such as jealousy tears at Gene and Finny’s relationship. Gene’s inability to cope with his envy and their lack to share emotions between one another fuels Gene’s anger towards Finny. His anger eventually leads himself to crazy conclusions and ultimately the death of his best friend. A few chapters in, right before the exams, Gene thinks that Finny is “deliberately sett[ing] out to wreck [his] studies” by distracting him with things like “blitzball”(45).

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Finny not being able to play sports anymore that meant Gene was next in line for the top athlete at Devon. In addition, this incident leads to Finny having several health issues and dying towards the end of the novel. Gene knew that Finny had no admirations towards him and that made him angered. Gene was hurt when Finn died but he still didn’t change once he went to war or when he came back to visit Devon in his elder years. “He had never been jealous of me for a second.

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