Commonality And Rivalry In John Knowles A Separate Peace

People can form a bond through commonality and rivalry. In the novel “A Separate Peace” John Knowles describes friendship throughout the novel as a combination of admiration, respect, jealousy and resentment. During the course of the novel two young boys named Phineas, a prodigious sports player and Gene, a sedate and latent character. Both of these 16 year old boys experience many different emotional and physical events. A significant part of the novel revolves around an incident on a large tree after Gene jounced the limb of the tree with Phineas on it which causes him to break his leg. This pair goes through many emotional problems like guilt which affects the overall friendship of the two. Many different factors can say if Gene’s and Phineas’s
When Gene “jounced the limb” (28) it maimed Phineas. This was no accident as this was an act out of Gene’s envy for Phineas. Gene was so caught up in how Phineas thought of him and that jealousy consumed Gene. The rivalry becomes stronger with jealousy and Gene admits this when he says that “He (Phineas) had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us, I was not of the same quality as he” (28). This rivalry grows and become detrimental to Phineas as he receives the anger presented from Gene. This main event sparks Gene’s negative result as he suffers
When Gene confronts Phineas in the infirmary he tries to admit that he caused the accident but this only makes Phineas angry. Gene stops the contentious conversation when he realizes that he was just “injuring him (Phineas) again. It occurred to me that this could be an even deeper injury than what I had done before” (34). This shows that Gene still cares for Phineas because he wants Phineas to recover and be himself again. A friendship is a mutual relationship. Their relationship is somewhat one-sided. When Finny tells Gene that he’s his best friend, he means it. Although inane, Finny is loyal, trusting, and caring. He genuinely enjoys Gene's company and persuades the more cautious Gene to accompany him when jumping out of the tree, breaking a swim record, or skipping class to go to the beach. This may seem like a good friendship but ultimately it is a relation built on jealousy and