A Separate Piece Literary Analysis

ohn Knowles novel, A Separate Piece, is written to show the fall of man. It has connections between Genesis and the fall of man throughout the book underlining the main story. Genesis and the fall of man are used in the novel solely to understand human nature and the good and evil living inside everyone. Throughout the book the protagonist Gene, puts himself in a competition with his best friend and biggest enemy Finny. Finny is the perfect athlete and caries along innocence and pure thoughts of life itself and others around him. Gene and Finny both show representations of Cain and Abel as well as the creation of man with Adam and Eve.

Much like Cain’s jealousy towards his brother Abel, Gene is very jealous and envious of Finny. Abel was the pure and honest brother who carried out all of Gods orders and pleased him very much, while Cain was the
complete opposite. He was seen as rather corrupted and sinful. Gene, in this way, is portraying Cain because in the novel Gene realizes the strong hold that sin has on him and the strong hold on it has on his soul, and he says “ It was just some ignorance inside me, some crazy thing inside me, something blind, that’s all it was” (183). Unfortunately, Gene becomes overpowered by his jealousy towards Finny just as Cain did towards Abel. Gene’s jealousy takes control of his mind and body when he finally realizes he will never be as perfect as Finny. He will never be as good athletically or he will never be as good morally and mentally either. Gene says “there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he” (59). Which shows he knows that he will never win with Finny there. The pain of Gene knowing this makes him make a very unreasonable and ridiculous action that he regrets the rest of his life. “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step forward and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening thud” (52). The story in Genesis of Cain and Abel is exceedingly similar to that. “Now Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘Let’s go out to the field.’ And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him” (Genesis 4:8). These two incidents directly parallel each other and unveil much about human nature. When Gene finally admits to the realization that he will never beat Finny or get close to his level he subconsciously lets his jealousy kill the better man inside of him so what is left is an empty soul.

The fall of Adam and Eve is also coinciding with Gene’s tremendous fall in the novel.
In Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve is set in the Garden of Eden. In the garden there was no sin, suffering or pain. Everyone was happy and had everything they wanted. The one thing God told Adam and Eve was to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and to not eat the fruit from that tree, yet that was too much to ask. “When the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he also ate it” (Genesis 3:6). This sin had grave consequences such as “the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig-leaves together and made coverings for themselves” (Genesis 3:7). Gene’s sin had similar results from when he shook the tree and Finny fell, his life changed largely. The impact of his actions struck him extremely hard and at once he became ashamed and embarrassed of what he did, just as Adam and Eve were of their nakedness so they
hid.
Gene’s shame relates to the story of Adam and Eve but not just that, it relates to a large population of people today and this is the point Knowles was making and why he related his book to Genesis. As humans, people are automatically going to hide their transgressions behind something else and that’s just human nature. To be able to fully understand this novel you need to know about creation and the fall of man. In every human there is good and there is evil, it will come out at different times and one might overpower the other, but there is till both. Cain and Abel’s story, along with Adam and Eve’s story equally show how the evil overpowered Gene.