Examples Of Envy In A Separate Peace

“There is time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide…” (Emerson p. 372-372). That’s exactly how Gene was in A Separate Peace by John Knowles in the setting of New Hampshire at Daven High School. Gene is jealous of his friend Finny and it affect him and his relationship with Finny. Peace is hard to get in this world but I think Gene found peace in the story by his conflicts. What is envy? Envy is a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else 's possessions, qualities, or luck. Gene was struggling with covetousness toward Finny and Gene wanted to be another Finny. For example, the book states that, “since Finny fell from the tree. I decides to put on his clothes” (Knowles 62). This was the start of him wanting himself to be like Finny. He felt Finny was prefect and was cool and he was not. He was turning into somebody that was not himself. We can all agree that this quote shows that Gene envy is unhealthy. Another way Gene’s envy is affecting with him is, that he take the assistant-manger job, and that job was supposed to be for people in the school that cannot play sports. Gene knew that Finny would want to do this job, so he took it so Finny would have it. For example the book state,” Jobs like mine were usually taken by stripling with some physical disability, since everyone had to take part in sports and this wall all disabled boys could do”(Knowles 77). According to this