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A Separate Peace Quote Analysis

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Criss Jami once said, "Confidence turns into pride only when you are in denial of your mistakes." Pride finds a way to elicit the worst in someone. Unwanted pride can be seen evident in ones daily life, education, politics, history, etc. Could pride educe the best in someone? Maybe; however, I agree with Playwright Sophocles that , "all men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride." This quote means that making a mistake is inevitable, but owning up to your mistake is what matters most. Sophocles quote is significant because it reveals that arrogance can in effect cause more damage that the mistake you created. I promise that I'm the most stubborn, prideful, sore-loser in the existence of …show more content…

What leads many people to act in the moment. In the novel, A Separate Peace, the main character, Gene, is jealous of his roommate, Finny. Finny has it all: the looks, the athleticism, and the free state of mind. All Gene likes about himself is his smarts; however, he so desperately craved to be like Finny that one day Gene made a decision he could never take back. Gene and Finny went to a lake to swim and decided to jump off a tree into the lake, and when they were about to jump off the tree, Gene "accidentally" pushed Finny off the tree causing Finny to break his leg. Now Gene could be happy, right? Well, Gene in fact was so miserable, he thought about apologizing from that day forward, and when Gene did apologize, Finny forgave him. The end of the book resulted in Finny dying because the bone marrow from his broke leg seeped into his blood stream, and this was all on Gene. Now, Gene has to live knowing his roommate's death was his fault, all because Finny hurt his ego. With this said, Gene did apologize to Finny which shows that Gene let go of his pride for the greater good. Finny never did anything wrong to Gene, yet Gene let his pride get in the way of what could have been a great

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