a separate piece

Jealousy is one of the strongest emotions in the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles. What makes this feeling so dangerous is that it’s mixed in with admiration, respect, and love. Those are all the ingredients for the very confusing friendship between the protagonist Gene, and his best friend/enemy Phineas. Despite their friendship, jealousy drives Gene to unthinkable and unimaginable actions, which are least understood by Gene himself. Three of the most effective examples that explain the the violence that can come from jealousy are that Gene sometimes feels guilty for envying Phineas . Another reason is that the jealousy towards Phineas is mostly because Phineas doesn’t brag about his accomplishments. Finally, when Phineas is murdered by Gene, Gene convinces himself to believe that he killed him because that’s what had to be done, when it was really out of hatred. John Knowles uses conflict to identify the jealousy felt by the two boys.
Phineas is a very honest, self confident, handsome and most importantly he is extremely likable. His charm of being likable is one of the characteristics that Gene dislikes the most. “ I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little.”(2.20). The fact that Gene gets jealous of Phineas because he can get away with anything is normal. Most people would wish they were like there friends if their friends got away with everything.

This quote shows us that the more Gene releases his feelings toward Phineas, the more we can see that he’s still ashamed of his actions.
The reason behind Gene’s deepest envy of Phineas isn’t of all his accomplishments, skills or charms-just his goodness. “ Was he trying to impress me or something? Not tell anybody? When he had broken a school record without a day of practice? I knew he was serious about it, so I didn’t tell anybody. Perhaps for