A Separate Peace Gene Character Analysis

In A Separate Peace Gene changes from being insecure to confident because of how his relationship with Phineas affected him during high school days at Devon. Knowles vividly portrays Gene in the beginning as insecure because he is constantly pointing out how Phineas excels at everything and how all he has are books through his way of telling the story from his experience and his relationship with Phineas. Gene interprets his relationship with Phineas as a friendly rivalry, but realizes that it's one sided. “I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying your best friend a little.” (25). The reader obviously can see that Gene is jealous of Phineas, however Gene doesn't think that at all. The author shows how Gene is insecure about himself in the beginning because he only talks about how great Phineas is. “Perhaps for that reason his accomplishments took root in mind and free rapidly that darkness where I was forced to hide it” (44). Here Gene admits that part of his wanting to be Phineas was cause by together construction people. Gene
“Most of all I cried because of kindness, which I had not expected”(64). When Gene finds out Finny broke his leg, he cries, but not for the reasons you'd think. In some ways Gene does not regret pushing Phineas because now that he's crippled he can become better than him. “None of them ever accused me of being responsible for what happened to Phineas, either because they could not believe it or else because they could not understand it.” (116). Everyone knew about Phineas and Genes friendship, so once they heard that it was Gene who pushed Finny, no one brought it up because there was no way to explain why. The reader can infer that by not being questioned, Gene was left to deal with the situation for himself and only saw the situation the way he