?A Separate Peace? By John Knowles Essay, Research Paper

In ?A Separate Peace? by John Knowles, Gene?s jealousy towards Finny leads to Gene feeling negative emotions. Gene?s jealousy towards Finny leads Gene to feel insecure with himself. Not only does Gene?s jealousy lead to insecurity, it also leads Gene to deny many things that have been happening to him. In addition to insecurity and denial, Gene?s jealousy also leads him to feel hatred towards Finny. In ?A Separate Peace? by John Knowles, Gene?s jealousy towards Finny leads to Gene?s insecurity, denial, and hatred. Gene?s jealousy towards Finny leads him to be insecure with himself. The beginning of Gene?s insecurity starts when he says, ?Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies. That explained blitzball, that explained the nightly meetings of the Super Suicide Society, that explained his insistence that I share all his diversions. The way I believed that you?re-my-best-friend blabber! Sure, he wanted to share everything with me, especially his procession of D?s in every subject?(Knowles 45). Gene is studying in his room when Finny starts to say some mean things to him. Finny leaves the room and Gene starts to think about what Finny may be trying to do to him. Gene is starting to be insecure and is not highly stable or well adjusted. Gene?s jealousy leads Gene to feel insecure about himself and makes Gene say and think bad things. Gene is insecure because of his jealousy towards Finny; Gene is so jealous that he makes some wrong decisions. In the passage, Gene is thinking some bad thoughts about Finny and he is feeling insecure. He is thinking that Finny is out to make Gene a bad student and that Finny wants to make Gene like him. The jealousy that Gene is feeling leads to insecurity because he is thinking that he is not good enough for Finny or himself and he wants to be like Finny. Not only does Gene?s jealousy towards Finny lead to insecurity it also leads Gene to deny a lot of things. When Gene and Finny are talking about the war Finny says, ?Have you swallowed all that war stuff? No, of course I- I was so committed to refuting him that I had half- denied the charge before I understood it; now my eyes swung back to his face. All what war stuff?(Knowles 106)? Right away Gene denies something when Finny is talking to him. Gene even says that he is denying what he is saying. Gene is denying things because he is jealous of how Finny denies reality or the truth about the war, so therefore once again Gene is trying to be like Finny. Gene feels denial all through the book because he feels so much jealousy towards Finny, which one of the ways that he expresses the jealousy is by denying things. In addition to insecurity and denial, Gene?s jealousy also leads him to feel hatred towards Finny. Gene starts saying to himself, ?I forgot whom I hated and who hated me. I wanted to break out crying from stabs of hopeless joy, or intolerable promise, or because these mornings were too full of beauty for me, because I knew of too much hate to be contained in a world like this?(Knowles 47). Gene is thinking about how much hatred is in the world. He is thinking about the hatred that he feels towards Finny and towards his whole life. Gene is jealous towards Finny and forms a certain hatred towards him because of the jealousy. A lot of things that Finny does to Gene makes Gene hate Finny even more, but no matter what, Finny will have a certain appeal towards Gene. Gene hates Finny, but he also loves him. Gene wants to be Finny, but the fact that he is not Finny makes Gene mad and makes Gene form hatred towards Finny. Gene?s jealousy towards Finny leads to Gene?s insecurity, denial and hatred. Gene feels insecure about himself because he is jealous of Finny. In a way, Gene wants to be Finny but he also wants to be himself. Gene feels he is not good enough for himself or good enough to be Finny?s friend. Gene is so jealous of Finny that he goes into a state of denial. He starts to deny things that he would not have denied before. Gene starts to deny the war just like Finny does. Gene begins to deny whatever Finny denies. In a way, Finny is trying to make Gene go along with whatever he thinks or says. Then Gene forms a hatred towards Finny because Gene is so jealous of how great Finny is in everything but school. People get jealous all the time and they will form certain hatred in them just like Gene does. Finny still has an appeal towards Gene, but because of all the jealousy that Gene feels towards Finny, he begins to form hatred towards him. He begins to hate how Finny can get away with everything and how Finny is so perfect at sports. He is showing how jealous he is by being insecure with himself, denying things, and showing a hatred towards Finny.