A co-dependent relationship is a learned behavior, and an emotional and behavioral condition that affects an individual’s ability to have a healthy, mutually satisfying relationship. People with codependency often form or maintain relationships that are one-sided, emotionally destructive, and abusive. Some cases include one person being very hardworking and responsible, while the other person is irresponsible and avoids the consequences of their actions. Co-dependent relationships take away from people’s identity because they can be one-sided, or make people feel rejected, taken advantage of, and overly concerned about others. There is a movie, made in 1972, directed by Larry Peerce, called “A Separate Peace”. In addition, this movie is based on a novel by John Knowles, also titled “A Separate Peace”. In comparison, the book and movie both explore the theme of co-dependency through the characters of Gene and Phineas. …show more content…
These examples include Gene being made fun of because he didn’t want to jump, picking on Gene because he didn't want to join their group, and Gene sacrificing his grades to hang out with Finny. Gene is in a codependent relationship with Finny, and is being taken advantage of. Gene went to the beach with Finny, instead of studying for his exam, which he ended up failing. This shows Gene sacrificing himself to make Finny happy. Next, in the middle of the movie, there are more signs that contribute to Gene and Finny’s co-dependent relationship. Some of these examples include Finny making Gene play blitzball, Gene going to the tree again instead of studying, and Gene wearing Finny’s clothes. Finny fell off the tree and was sent home with a broken leg. While Finny was at home, Gene decided to wear his clothes to show his concern. This shows that they have a one-sided, co-dependent
In the story, Finny created a counterpart between his athleticism and Gene’s academic abilities. Since sports came easy to Finny, he assumed that Gene was naturally intelligent and smart. Finny eventually figured out that this was not true and that his assumptions were incorrect; “‘Oh for God sake! You don’t know what I’m talking about. No, of course not. Not you…’ ‘I didn’t know you needed to study,’ he said simply, ‘I didn’t think you ever did. I thought it just came to you.’ It seemed that he had made some kind of parallel between my studies and his sports. He probably thought anything you were good at came without effort” (Knowles 57-58). Finny was unable to comprehend that some skills do not come naturally to people. Devoted friendships are a result of having an appreciation for each other. Finny and Gene did not have this nor did they truly know each other very well. A lack of understanding between the two of them provoked various disputes throughout the novel. If Gene and Finny were truly friends, misunderstandings would not have occurred since they would have acknowledged their
He tries to attack Gene, but cannot get out of his bed to get near him. Finny has ‘fallen’ from his state of perfection and is a normal person. He does show, however, that he still has the ability to forgive when he sees Gene for the last time.
Gene believes that people are deliberately out to get him and concentrates only on grasping the evil within his friends. Therefore, Gene decides to defeat his enemies before he gets defeated himself. During the summer session at Devon, Gene encounters a dark suspicion that his friend Finny is drawing him away from his studies in order to make him fail. This makes sense to Gene since he religiously follows the rules to win approval from the staff at Devon, and anyone who persuades him to disobey these rules wishes failure upon him. Therefore, Finny
Finny and Gene were two very contrasting characters who both had their flaws, but in the end one was stronger than the other. On one end of the spectrum, Gene was associated with the traits of bitterness, hate, jealousy, secrecy, and he was a very loathing person. And on the other end, Finny was a light-hearted, good spirited, young, optimistic character. Gene throughout the book developed and changed extensively, and in the end came out the stronger character. Finny was definitely a crowd pleaser, but, Gene was the more solid and strong of the two because of his massive changes, making him a dynamic character.
Additionally, Gene justifies his hatred towards Finny by assuming Finny feels hatred towards him because of his excellence in academics. At this moment, Gene does not attempt to deny his shadow. Rather, he embraces his shadow completely, allowing it take him over and make false accusations against his own best friend. In Gene’s mind, “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies. That explained blitz all, that explained the nightly meetings of the Super Suicide Society, that explains his insistence that I share all his diversions.
Before Gene and Finny went to perform a double jump off the tree, Gene again starts contemplating ways that Finny is jealous of him. Gene states, “The thought was, You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record, but so what? He hated you for getting an A in every course but one last term. You would have had an A in that one except for him. Except for him” (Knowles 53) . Gene knew that he had an immense amount of jealousy towards Finny, so instead of trying to remove it, he comes up with a plethora of ideas to try and justify it. Gene thinks of these ideas right before he jounces the tree limb. Gene narrates, “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb(Knowles, 60). Gene’s differing feelings are expressed in a small gesture which demolishes Finny’s life. Seeing Finny fail briefly relieved Gene’s anger and jealousy. Gene says, “It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear of this forgotten” (Knowles, 60). This is the first time that Gene jumps off the tree with complete confidence. The failure of his lethal rival allows Gene to behave as Finny, and ultimately become
Gene jounces a limb of the tree he and Finny were standing on, causing Finny to fall and break his leg. Gene's jealousy of Finny's perfection causes him to have childish feelings of resentment and hatred. After Finny's leg was broken, Gene realized "that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between" (Knowles 51) him and Finny. Gene looked at himself and became conscious of what a terrible, self-absorbed friend he had been. Understanding there was no competition caused him to discard the majority of his feelings of jealousy. Getting rid of these feelings made him grow-up because he was no longer spending countless hours believing a childish game was being played between Finny and him. Gene began to understand more of Finny's goodness and love towards all, making him strive to be more like Finny.
This quote shows their friendship. Gene didn’t understand why Finny talked him into things that he knew he shouldn't have done. Finny influenced Gene. This wasn't necessarily a good thing. Sometimes Finny helped Gene overcome his fears and help him become more social. But sometimes, it was a bad thing, like jumping from the tree. Much of his hesitation over jumping has less to do with a fear of dying than a fear of subordination, of blindly following Finny's desires
In the beginning of the novel, Gene, is a clueless individual. He sees the worst in people and lets his evil side take over not only his mind but also his body. During the tree scene, Gene convinces himself that Finny isn’t his friend, tricking himself into thinking that Finny is a conniving foil that wants to sabotage his academic merit. Gene is furthermore deluded that every time Finny invites Gene somewhere it’s to keep him from studying and doing well. Finny has a reputation for being the the best athlete in school, and Gene attempts to counterbalance Finny’s power by being the best student. After a while of joining Finny’s activities, Gene thinks that Finny is intentionally trying to make him fail out of school. He starts to dislike Finny and his activities, and Gene starts interrupt...
“Never underestimate the power of jealousy and the power of envy to destroy. Never underestimate that” ~ Oliver Stone. Jealousy and envy are dark feelings that plague the mind of the wicked; and if left to grow, it will consume the mind in a dark veil of hatred that will spark violence and maliciousness. In the book “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles two boys named Finny and Gene create a friendship built on the back of envy and jealousy. Even though the two boys look at each other with different views they both saw one thing, and that is skills they will never be able to obtain, or so they think. Just like what Oliver Stone once said “never underestimate the power of jealousy and power of envy to destroy”, ultimately Finny and Genes relationship was destroyed by their constant envy of one another. Finny and Gene’s relationship cannot be a friendship, simply because Gene is unable to like Finny.
A Separate Peace is a coming of age novel in which Gene, the main character, revisits his high school and his traumatic teen years. When Gene was a teen-ager his best friend and roommate Phineas (Finny) was the star athlete of the school.
Every person feels rivalry or competition towards others at some point in their lives. This rivalry greatly affects our ability to understand others, and this eventually results in paranoia and hostility. It is a part of human nature, that people coldly drive ahead for their gain alone. Man's inhumanity towards man is a way for people to protect themselves from having pain inflicted on them by others, and achieving their goals and desires without the interference of others. This concept of man's inhumanity to man is developed in A Separate Peace as the primary conflict in the novel centres on the main character, Gene, and his inner-battles with feelings of jealousy, paranoia, and inability to understand his relationship with his best friend Phineas. Competition is further demonstrated by the occurrence of World War II. It is shown that, "There were few relationships among us (the students) at Devon not based on rivalry." (p. 37) It is this rivalry and competition between the boys at Devon that ripped their friendships apart.
After realizing what he had done, Gene began to examine his consciousness in isolation. “I spent as much time as I could alone in our room, trying to empty my mind of every thought, to forget where I was, even who I was” (62). Gene felt guilty because he is certain that he is the cause of Finny’s incident, so he wanted to escape from his body and mind; therefore, he put Finny’s clothes on, hoping that he could become Finny. Gene truly admires Finny, so his ultimate dream is to be a part of Finny, and he rejoiced at every chance he got. Finny tells Gene to play sports, and Gene thinks to himself, “I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas” (85).
Trying to define codependency can be very difficult. It is not an exact or definitive state; rather, it's more of a general description for a variety of behaviors. Put simply, codependency is an addiction to love, where one person in a relationship is devoted and completely invested to a point where it negatively affects his or her emotional and physical well-being.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the ambitious Victor Frankenstein creates a new life via science and tireless work, but when he expects something perfect and beautiful, he is faced with a deformed and grotesque creature. Victor is horrified, and flees the scene, abandoning his creation and rejecting its existence. As a result, the creature stumbles into the world; scared, spurned, and with no knowledge of how to survive on his own. As he learns about emotions and the workings of the world, the creature becomes scornful and angry about his ugly existence and seeks revenge on Victor for denying him love, comfort, and companionship. Victor sees the creature as an inherent monster–ugly inside and out from the moment of animation; however, is it