A Separate Peace Finny Character Analysis

“Envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide” (370). In A Separate Peace By John Knowles, the main character Gene is jealous of the other main character Finny. Gene is a boy going to a boarding school. He is really smart, but he had this friend, his best friend Finny, and he is jealous of him. A Separate Peace demonstrates how Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects him, affects his relationship with finny, and Gene’s achievement. Gene’s envy and imitation of finny affected him. One way Gene is affect was he was doing things that he really didn’t want to do, but he just always did everything Finny told him to do. The text says, “ What was i doing up here anyway? Why did i let FInny talk me into stupid things like this? Was he getting some kind of hold over me?” (Knowles 17). This shows that Gene was confused on why he was even doing the things that he was doing. He was wondering about the kind of friendship him and FInny have. ANother way Gene was affected was when he started no to

Gene decided to join the Navy. He had been wanting to do it and now he finally did it. The text says, “ So I’ve joined the Navy and they're sending me to pensacola '' ( knowles 199). This shows that he is joining the army like he always wanted to, he doesn’t have anyone to try and change his mind or try to tell him not to. He is finally doing something for him. Gene also couldn’t talk about Finny. He couldn’t use it in the past tense, he would talk like he is still here, so he didn’t talk about him at all. The stroy says, “That was why i couldn’t say anything or listen to anything about him, because he endured so forcefully that what I had to say would have seemed crazy to anyone else--I could not use the past tense,...” Gene couldn;t talk about finny because he would talk as if he was still here. FInny is not here anymore, Gene doesn’t talk about him because he is trying to move on and let