Lilyana Rivera
Instructor Sooter
English II
2014 October 1 A Separate Peace Essay A friendship can be one of the most important relationships in someone's life becaise they are usually formed by bonds early in childhood, and they soon become stronger as the friends grow with each other. In some cases there are friendships that the few friends are so similar or different that they end up clashing with one another. In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, Gene and Phineas have a great friendship until Gene starts to become jealous of Finny. Gene was not really a good friend to Finny, even though Finny always was. At the begining of the book, Gene starts to get the wrong immpression of Finny; "'Come on, lets go. We've got to be there. You never Know maybe he will do it this time.' 'Oh, for Godsake.' I slammed closed the French book. ' What's the matter?' What a performance! his face was completely questioning and candid" (Knowles57). In this quote, Gene thinks that Finny was trying to make him do worse in school so that way he could get ahead of Gene. Finny really just wanted to see if Leper would jump off the tree, and Gene lost his temper. Gene was getting mad at Finny, so Finny started to tell him that
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he only made that club so both he and Gene could have fun. With Finny trying to tell Gene it was only game shows that he is trying to be a good friend even though Gene was not being a forgiving friend. One of the most questioning events in the book was when Finny "fell" out of the tree and the night of the day it happened Gene had thoughts that a friend shouldn't have. "Holding firmly to the limb I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb" (Knowles60). "That night I slept easily... I was confronted with myself, and what I had done to Finny" (Knowles62) Each of the quotes say that he done something to Finny, that it was his fault, and he did it most likely out of jealousy and anger. The first quote is the