Finny and Gene Comparison in A Separate Peace

Imagine a town. This town’s buildings were all the same and they looked identical to each other. The people living there all had perfect friendships and even acted the same way. Each person had the same morals and strived to be the same thing. The cars were the same and so on. Nothing would be different, would it? It is okay to have certain attributes alike with other people or things, but after a while someone will want to search for something- anything- that would make them stand out from the others. While Gene and Finny were both students at the Devon school, they individually had differences from personal interests to physical attributes that made them unique. Gene’s physical attributes did not reflect the stereotypical boy that the reader might picture, knowing the Southern region that he grew up in. Gene was a sixteen-year-old young man who had chestnut brown hair and tan skin. He was very lean, despite the fact that he didn’t play many sports. He always wanted to follow the rules, even when his friends persuaded him to do otherwise. However, his low-self esteem prevented him from standing up for himself each time he wanted to back out of situations where he didn’t feel comfortable. This was seen throughout the book as Finny easily convinced him to do rebellious things he’d rather not do. Although Gene didn’t tend to show it, he was very jealous of his friend Finny- especially when his athletic abilities and strengths shone through. In a twisted way, the ongoing envy he developed for his friend drove Gene to want to be a part of Finny, to be more like him. Beneath his optimistic disguise, Gene had his own personal struggles that he kept to himself. Along with his continuous feelings of jealousy and anxiety, he had an identity crisis with not himself, but Finny. Gene’s admiration for his friend was so great that he eventually lost himself in Finny and felt as if he didn’t exist if he wasn’t around. On the other hand, Finny was a young student at Devon who had