Jealousy In John Knowles 'A Separate Peace'

In the book, A Separate Peace, the main relationship of the novel is between the very charismatic, and humble Phineas (or Finny for short), and the jealous, overachiever, Gene. The book is mostly set at a boarding school named Devon, there he meets many friends including Finny, who which he becomes good friends with, and even creates a club with. There Friendship can be described with the quote, “Never waste jealousy on a real man: it is the imaginary man that supplants us all in the long run.” , which was said by William Shakespeare. When compared to the relationship between the two friends, it means that you should not be jealous of those who you trust, for your perception of them will become tainted. This happens quite a bit during the
After his “realization” about Finny, Gene finds out that Finny’s intentions were completely innocent. During a club night, Gene discovers that Finny actually prioritizes schoolwork over the club, as he says “ ‘Don’t go. What the hell, it’s only a game.’ ” (Knowles 27), which surprises Gene and makes his realize that Finny is blameless. Gene being as jealous as he is, decides to go to the club meeting anyway, which is where he ended up hurting Finny. Gene thinks to himself on the way over, “It wasn’t my neck, but my understanding which was menaced. He 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 I couldn’t stand this.” (Knowles 28), he realizes that, nobody is picking out a fight with him, there is no contest, and whatever force hes been trying to beat is nonexistent, which irritates him greatly. During the ritual, which requires him and Finny to jump out of a tree and into a river, he shakes the tree and the branch that Finny is on, causing him to fall and hit the bank of the river. Finny breaks his leg, and the bone is shattered, and while Finny has now forgotten his fear, he is extremely guilty of his treacherous act. As it seems, Gene was again blinded by his own emotions. He ruined Finny’s leg because of his own selfish intentions, and then felt deep regret afterwards, because he realized that he perceived
Finny wanted to be in the Olympics, it was his dream, but due to his broken leg, Finny could not walk and therefore, could not train. Leper knew for a fact that Gene caused Finny’s fall off the tree, which is shown when Leper calls him savage multiple times when Gene visits him, and Brinker (another friend of Gene) tried to frame him for his “crime”. Afterwards, Gene and Finny began to rebuild their relationship overtime, however, due to his broken leg, Finny slipped, down the stairs, causing his other leg to break, this time being fatal, for the marrow of his bones traveled through his blood and into his heart, stopping it. Basically, Gene completely ruined Finny’s life, and then killed him, and all because he say Finny as a threat. This also affected Gene, because he realized that he was actually a part of Finny, as thought of by him, “Phineas had thought of me as an extension of himself.” (Knowles 98). Because of this, Gene never cried about Finny, even at his funeral, because he always felt as if it was his own death and funeral. Gene, decided to be see the world through Finny’s eyes, and he realized that there was no enemy, in fact, he never even killed anyone in the war, as the enemy fled before he even got to the battlefield. His only enemy was