In A Separate Peace Finny Character Analysis

How does Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him and his relationship with Finny, if “envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide.” In a A Separate Peace by John Knowles, is a story about a flashback of when he was a student at Devon Academy. The character Gene goes back to Devon Academy and visits special places of when he went to Devon. A Separate Peace illustrates how Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him, affect his relationship with Finny, and Gene’s achievement.

Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him. One way that Gene is affected is that he starts getting jealous of Finny, which causes Finny to get hurt. In the story, the author says, “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone…,” (Knowles, 60). This evidence proves that Gene has gotten Finny hurt, but did not mean to. Before they had gone to the tree, Gene was still jealous of Finny, so who knows if it were intentional or not. Another way that Gene is affected is that he feels guilty for Finny getting

One achievement that Gene made is that he found out that it wasn’t Finny who was the enemy, but himself. In the story, Knowles says, “Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there,” (Knowles, 204). This indicates that Gene’s war was never Finny or the war, but himself. It proves that all it took was for Finny to die for Gene to realize it. Anther achievement Gene made was being equal to Finny. In the text, it states,”He’s developing into a real athlete,’ he said matter-of-factly,’ We’re aiming for the ‘44 Olympics,” (Knowles, 121). This proves that Gene is finally going to be equal with Finny as being athletic. He can finally prove to Finny that he can do the same as him. Throughout the things happened, Gene has really made some achievements out of