The Crucible Psychological Analysis

Every person has a shred of evil in them, even if they don’t know it. Studies show that humans are the only truly evil species; we act selfishly, and put others through emotional and physical torment to benefit ourselves. No matter how highly you think of yourself, you can admit that at least once in your life you may have manipulated someone to do what you wanted or even purposely hurting someone else. Regardless of who you are, or who you pretend to be; every person acts inhumane to others. Often times, our subconscious tells us what to do, and we do it; regardless of what it wants us to do is good or bad. Perhaps this is what people are referring to when they say something about having a devil on their shoulder. A good example of having an evil subconscious is when Gene “accidentally” knocked Phineas out of the tree. For a while before the incident, Gene had felt Phineas was trying to sabotage him academically. The

After the incident in the tree, Gene says over and over how it was Phineas’s fault because he was the one trying to sabotage Gene. In no way did Gene take the blame. He didn’t think “hey, maybe I made him fall out of the tree, because I am really mad at him”, no, he said, “This is all Phineas’s fault, if he had let me study, he wouldn’t have a broken leg”. Gene also blames Finny by saying he was the reason he had such a terrible time at Devon. Essentially, Phineas was the sole reason Gene did everything and was always miserable. Gene always put the blame on someone other than himself. A Separate Peace shows the many colors in a friendship. In the particular friendship between Gene and Phineas, the main color is red. One of the most important lesson taught from this book, is that no one is ever who they say they are. Perhaps the most important lesson is that everyone shows inhumanity to others, even if they don’t know