How Does Gene's Envy Affect The Relationship Between Gene And Finny

My Separate Peace “Envy is Ignorance; imitation is suicide” (370). A Separate Peace written by John Knowles took place at Devon school in 1942. Knowles depicts Gene progress from innocence to experience by creating a character that is at war within himself and finding himself in through this war . A Separate Peace illustrates how Genes’s envy and imitation affects him, his relationship with Finny and Gene’s achievement with finding peace.

Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affected him; Gene’s imitation affected him by making him a follower of Finny, Knowles states, “ What was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this” (Knowles 17). Why was Gene up there? It was stupid but Gene still followed Finny,

Gene’s envy and imitation affected his relationship in different ways. The novel says, “ that I will never stumble through the confusion of my own character again ” (Knowles 59). Gene states this after the incident when he decided to try on Finny's Clothes. As he puts the clothing on, a layer of confidence is overcome by Gene. Later in the novel, Finny speaks on the connection and he informs Gene that it is vital he become a soldier. Their relationship was affected due to FInny viewing Gene as a part of him. Knowles tells us, “ aid alone had never seemed to him in the category of help…Phineas had thought of me as an extension of himself” (Knowles 17). This shows that Phineas was close enough to Gene that any time Gene helped it was like his conscious. Gene envied Finny but later on in the novel we see the advancement of maturity in Gene. The relationship of Gene and Finny was affected by Gene conforming to Finny and Gene maturing. Maturity lead gene into his achievement of

Gene shows us his realization through his experiences. The novel states, “ wars were not made by generation and their specialities, but that wars were made by something ignorant in the heart” (Knowles 193). Here Gene comes to the realization the war he was battling through himself was due the ignorant jealousy in his heart. This helped not only realizing the kind of person he is but, it also assisted him with understanding a war. Another reason Genes achievement of peace was developed from crises that formed maturity and understanding of his ideas. The development of the protagonist mind and character from childhood to adult…maturation and recognition of one's identity and places of the world” (Alton). Gene's character throughout the story developed as he grew older. It was not till later that he realized the ignorance in his heart caused him to do immature things. Gene felt like he had to conform to Finny because Gene grew up in the south; he did not have a lot; however FInny was raised by wealth. Ultimately the achievement of Peace is not within the community it is the maturing within himself