Jealously Kills In A Separate Peace, By John Knowles

Jealously Kills Envy and imitation could impact life for eternity. Ralph Waldo Emerson states that “envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide” (Emerson 370). In the novel, A Separate Peace, John Knowles writes about two boys living in New Hampshire during World War II. The boys become best friends, but the traits of envy and imitation haunts them for life. One of the boys is named Gene, which is the narrator of the novel. He is the non-athletic, book-smart type of teenager. Throughout the novel, Gene is the one to develop envious traits towards his best friend, Phineas. In A Separate Peace, Gene demonstrates the acts of envy and imitation towards Phineas, but he realizes how it affects their friendship, so Gene accepts the past and finds peace

Gene’s jealously towards Phineas really gets into his head whenever he decides to push Phineas out of a tree. Phineas breaks his leg from the fall. Once he gets out of the hospital, questions start to form that affects Gene and Phineas’ friendship. Gene realizes that Phineas might have a clue about how the fall was not an accident. In the novel, it states “Have you ever thought that you didn’t just fall out of that tree? This touched an interesting point Phineas had been turning over in his mind for a long time. I could tell that because the obstinate, competitive look left on his face as his mind became engaged for the first time” (Knowles 101). This is the start of their friendship going downhill. This is the first time Gene notices Phineas being engaged in the idea of the fall being purposefully. Another way Gene and Phineas’ friendship is affected is whenever Phineas finds out the truth about what truly happened with the fall. Phineas is hysterical when he finds out the truth, so he runs down the marble stairs and falls and breaks his leg again. Phineas’ mind is filled with hurt and confusing thoughts. In the novel, it states “I had never seen Finny crying… He plunged out the doors. Then these separate sounds collided into general tumult of his body falling clumsily down the white marble stairs” (Knowles 106). Gene never made Phineas

Gene found his peace because he becomes mature and finds his true self. In the novel, it states “Looking back now across fifteen years, I could see with great clarity the fear I had lived in, which must mean that in the interval I had succeeded in a very important undertaking: I must have made my escape from it” (Knowles 1). Gene looks back fifteen years ago to find closure and acceptance. Gene’s acceptance shows a strong level of maturity. Gene also accepts that he is his own enemy. Throughout the novel, Gene thought Phineas was his enemy. In the novel, it states “All of them, except Phineas, constructed at infinite lost to themselves these Maginot Lines against this enemy they thought they saw across the frontier, this enemy who never attacked that way- if he ever attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy” (Knowles 123). Gene realizes that Phineas was never his enemy. Gene knows that he is his own enemy. He knows that he is the reason for the fear he lived in, and he accepts these facts fifteen years later. After living the teenage years of wanting to be someone else, Gene finds himself and his lack of peace throughout the