A Separate Peace by John Knowles

In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the character Gene Forrester is proved to be filled with fears and insecurities that climax into the destruction of a perfect person. Gene first presented his friendship with Finny to be that of a perfect relationship, but soon it was proved Gene held jealousy against Finny. In order to have Finny seem less perfect gene had to convince himself Finny was out to get him and sabotage his life. Gene makes many leaps and bounds during the story and finally comes to the realization that Finny was a perfect person and a true friend who could never do anything to harm another human being either mentally or physically. As Gene begins to realize the perfect person Finny was born to be, he begins to regret all of his actions to destroy Finny’s perfect character.

“Now I knew that there was never and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he. I could not stand this.” Gene’[s jealousy took control of him and he began to convince himself that Finny was the one who was hating him; but it was Gene who was truly jealous of Finny. Finny was a pure person was a good in everything he did, he was not capable of any of the flaws we tend to have and he was not able and would never be able to hate another person. Gene’s jealousy led him to destroy Finny’s character; it led him to jounce the limb. Convincing himself Finny was out to get made it easier for Gene to develop hate toward him and to make Finny less of a perfect person. The jealousy that gene developed inside him by creating the crazy idea of Finny sabotaging him caused Gene to jounce the limb. Gene jounced the limb out of jealousy toward Finny. Gene could not handle the fact that Finny was a better person than he would ever be. When Gene realized that Finny could not hate a person of even be jealous of them his hatred began to control his actions and he ended up beginning to destroy Finny’s perfection.

Gene started to become a part of Finny because he missed Finny a great deal and thought it would be good if he started doing the things Finny had loved before his accident. “Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,” and I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas.” Gene had to become a part of Finny in order to help Finny uphold the perfect person he was. “It was a crazy idea. So I just have to forget it. I just fell, that’s all … I’m sorry about that feeling I had.” Finny’s apology about the feeling he had caused Gene to chicken out because