“Because my war ended before I ever put on the uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (Knowles 204). In John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, the main character conforms their way to maturity and peace. Gene Forrester is a young student who is academically well-off but is also conflicted with envy by his best friend Phineas. Phineas, or “Finny”, is talented at sports and very charismatic around the school. Thus, A Separate Peace depicts the effect of Gene and his relationships but also the lack of peace, and the ultimate resolve of peace he accomplishes. Phineas is Gene’s extremely influential best friend who can talk himself out of any situation. This effects Gene on a personal level because Gene is the polar opposite forcing him to envy his friend for, lack of a better term, attention. Gene’s envious attitude …show more content…
One of these ways is when Gene jounced the limb of a tree while climbing with his friend resulting of Finny with a broken leg. “Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled side-ways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud” (Knowles 60). Gene blames himself for Finny’s fall. Finny does not believe it is Gene but with all the built up envy and anger, he broke his best friend. This is just the beginning of Gene’s path to losing himself. Gene, at one point, wears Finny’s clothes to try to forget the mistake he made to his best friend. Later in the story; Gene, Finny, and their friends have a private meeting to discuss what really happened at the tree. As Finny leaves the room, he falls down a marble staircase leading to the demise of the same leg broken. “Then these separate sounds collided into the general tumult of his body falling clumsily down the white marble stairs” (Knowles