A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, is a story about two friends named Gene and Phineas who attend a school in New England during World War II. Both boys remain inseparable until their opposing personality traits cause their friendship to fail. Phineas, or “Finny” who displays confidence, acts as a foil to Gene, who struggles with his insecurity and jealousy toward his friend. Phineas and Gene’s friendship conflicts reveal the theme that envy destroys relationships and can lead to negative actions.
Jealousy affects their friendship for the first time when Gene begins to think that Phineas’ goal is to sabotage his academics. Gene’s insecurity causes him to feel threatened by his friend and believe that, “Finny had deliberately set out to wreak my studies.” (43) The truth reveals that Phineas had no plans to hurt his friend, but just wanted to have an fun time. Gene’s competitive nature leads him to acquire negative thoughts toward his friend that will eventually ruin their relationship.
In lieu of these bad thoughts, Gene soon takes action and ends up causing Phineas’ leg to break. While the boys perch on a tree branch, Phineas loses his balance and falls. Gene later admits that, “I deliberately jounced the limb so you would fall off.” (58) Phineas’ good nature causes him to refuse to believe his friend. Gene remains wracked with guilt, but feels relieved that his ‘competition’ was now unable to play sports. Eventually complications from surgery cause Phineas to die.
The Essay on Life School Friend Friendship
"02" WAS FOR YOU, BUT "03" IS FOR ME AND I'M STRESS FREE! "Be careful who you choose to have as friends because sometimes bad habits can rub off," is what mommy preached to me when I was younger and now I see it to be true. I just lost a long-term friendship. As I look back I'm kind of happy that happened. Some say a good friendship is hard to come across, but bad ones aren't missed. When I was ...
To cope with the ‘murder’ of his friend, Gene begins to see Phineas as no longer a friend, but merely a separate piece of himself. “I decided to put on his clothes,” (51) said Gene, after the accident. In Gene’s mind, the boy’s identities merged. That causes Gene to believe in a sense that, “I was Phineas.” (51) Another example occurred at Phineas’ funeral when Gene thinks, “I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral.” (176) Since Finny is now gone, Gene can finally have what he wants; to be Phineas. At the end of the novel, Gene explains that, “I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.” (186) The enemy was Phineas.
Throughout this novel, Gene’s jealousy causes him to see his best friend as the enemy and destroy their friendship, Finny’s talent, and finally his life. Phineas is no longer a threat and Gene sees him as simply part of himself. In this story, Phineas’ positive character traits are used to bring out Gene’s negative ones. Gene is very envious, which destroys his relationship with Phineas and eventually leads to his friend’s death.
