Finny's Jealousy Quotes

167 Words1 Page

Knowles wrote this book to convey the ups and downs of relationships and how it can take a turn for the worse in a matter of moments. The two main characters Gene and Finny, develop some sort of a jealousy towards each other. In this quote, “If I was head of the class and won that prize, then we would be even,”(Knowles 52), Gene feels that Finny is making an attempt to dethrone him of his role as the head of the class.However, Finny wasn’t trying to dethrone him at all. In fact Finny was trying to help his friend enjoy life a little more. This quote,“Finny had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us,”(Knowles 51), Gene is hit with reality that Finny wasn't jealous

Show More
Related

  • Gene's Development in John Knowles' A Separate Peace

    1118 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout A Separate Peace, John Knowles effectively uses his characterization of Finny to teach one of life's greatest lessons. Although at times Gene and Finny appear to be enemies, the tests and challenges Finny presents to Gene actually cause him to blossom, making him a stronger person. Despite Finny's death, his wisdom, courage and actions live on in Gene. Gene learns that throughout life accomplishments that one works for and achieves will provide much more reward than those handed to a person. Many times, the greatest reward is finding one's true self and discovering his or her capabilities.

    Read More

  • Free Essays - Gene and Finny of A Separate Peace

    525 Words  | 2 Pages

    At first, Gene seems to be awed by Finny. Although his friend is more athletic than him, Gene is proud of the other boy's accomplishments. In fact, he is proud to be so close to a well-loved student. He considers himself lucky to be considered Finny's best friend. It becomes evident that jealously engrains itself into the friendship, however. Gene soon views not himself to be the lucky one, but Finny. He views all of Finny's good fortune to be his own bad luck. Whenever Finny gets out of trouble by being blatantly obvious, he thinks of it as himself being inadequate and not as good as his friend. This is shown at the luncheon both boys are invited to when Finny explains his inappropriate belt.

    Read More

  • Gene in A Seperate Peace

    699 Words  | 2 Pages

    After the highly athletic person Finny “Falls” from the tree, Gene begins to wonder who his friends are, and why his friends are his friends. At this time Gene starts to create a part of his enemy, “Jealousy”. Gene didn’t know if it was an accident when Finny fell from the tree, or if it was the jealousy that hurt his pal. Gene reflects “Could it be that, he might even be right? Had I really and defiantly and knowingly done it to him after all?” (70, Knowles). Gene is unsure and begins to question himself and weather his best friend is truly, his best friend. Gene is jealous of Finnys natural athleticism, Gene isn’t very athletic but does well in school, Finny is the opposite. Gene wonders to himself if he had been so jealous to just hurt, or possibly even kill his roommate and best friend. This was an internal battle, between his jealous side VS. his moral side. The jealous side wanted Finny out of the way, so he could become good at everything, and the moral side wanted to stay morally straight. Unfortunately his jealous side won this battle.

    Read More

  • Free College Essays - Envy in A Separate Peace

    391 Words  | 1 Pages

    “People are often vain of their most criminal passions; but envy is one passion so mean and low that nobody will admit it” Francois de la Rochefoucauld(1613-1680), a French philosopher, once stated and that statement summarizes the undertone of A Separate Piece by John Knowles.  The story is set at a highly competitive boy’s school on the East Coast that sets the perfect stage to develop the storyline.  Gene’s insecurity, which led to jealousy of Finny, is the cause of the overall conflict.

    Read More

  • Destructiveness of Jealousy Depicted in Lord of the Flies and Woman Warrior

    1342 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...long with the expected feelings of anger and betrayal, plagued Elin Nordegren with the news of her husband, Tiger Woods, having intimate relationships outside of their marriage; Tiger ended up dazed and bloodied in a crashed car, and many fingers point at Elin for assaulting him. Along with the real world, the novel and the memoir emphasize that jealousy is a destructive emotion. Jealousy twists characters’ hearts, harms through symbols, and causes dreadful turns in the plots. Bottled up, the green-eyed monster can trigger craziness. Unleashed, the beast creates destruction.

    Read More

  • Relationships in "A Separate Peace"

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gene and Finny didn't have a true relationship with each other and it was basically one-sided. Each of them had secret evil feelings for each other that they wouldn't express out loud. For example, Gene's goal in high school was to become better than Finny and maybe even become Finny. "And I had detected that Finny's heart was a den of lonely, selfish ambition. He was no better than I was," Gene thought to himself one day. They both had an evil side to them and Gene expressed his evilness when they were on the tree and Gene jounced the limb on purpose. He had just had a moment of hatred for Finny and he made him suffer for it. Gene always purposely hurts Finny, feels guilty about it later, and tries to apologize and tell him the truth about what he did. After the tree accident, Gene felt terrible about it all so he finally told Finny the truth about it. " I was thinking about you and the accident because I caused it. I jounced the limb. I deliberately jounced the limb so you would fall off." Gene felt like he had to tell it all because he felt like it was something that Finny deserved to know about. When Gene and Finny say they are great friends, they know it's not true and that they don't mean it. Finny also uses Gene to fill his own enjoyment such as when Finny was teaching Gene to be great at sports and train him to play in the Olympics.

    Read More

  • A Seperate Peace

    666 Words  | 2 Pages

    When Finny broke the school swimming record set by A. Hopkins Parker without even trying, Gene knew that even if he tried he couldn't do it. What Gene didn't understand was that Finny didn't want anybody to know about what he had done that day. For Finny to tell Gene that he didn't want anybody to know what happened, was in a way an insult to Gene because Finny was basically saying, "I can do it and you can't". This is a perfect example of Gene being jealous at Finny for something that he could never do. In another case where Gene would be jealous of Finny's athleticism and popularity is when he invents the game "Blitzball". Everybody enjoyed playing the...

    Read More

  • A Separate Peace By John Knowles: Character Analysis

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    By choosing Gene as the narrator of the story, it gives the reader a unique perspective of the character. Most books do not do this and instead they do a third person view of the main character. This way Gene can express his feelings about certain things and how over time he slowly understands who Finny truly is. The reader in the end understands Gene better because throughout the story they could see how before Gene was jealous of Finny because of how perfect he was. Gene was a reliable source to be the narrator because then he could tell the story from his point of view and how he hurt Finny and why. This was an effective way to narrate this story and a creative way to give the reader a better picture of who Gene is. In conclusion. by using Gene as the narrator of the story, it is an effective way to explain the story and Gene is a reliable source because of how he shares his experiences with the

    Read More

  • Rivalry In A Separate Peace

    1545 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • What Role Does Gene Play In A Separate Peace

    372 Words  | 1 Pages

    On the other hand Finny was interrogating Gene with his non-academic outlook to get what he wanted Gene to do. Finny was never one to sit down and study he strived to be the leader of the school and his athletic teams. He was like the virtuoso of athletics at Devon. When Finny saw that he had finally broke Gene into coming with him, Finny took advantage of Gene. Finny stated “Why didn’t you say you had to study before? Don’t move from that desk. It’s going to be all A’s for you.” (Knowles 58) Gene sees grades as an opportunity to do something great and Finny sees grades as an option to the real world. When Gene and Finny have the conversation that broke Gene’s emotional state of control it also set of the mental side. After the conversation the mentality that Finny has about academics did not completely take over Gene but did affect him. Gene still strived for the grades but did not strive for the grande opportunity to become valedictorian because Finny had ruptured his mentality state of mind in academics and affected his

    Read More

  • Analysis of Two Kinds by Amy Tan

    1425 Words  | 3 Pages

    By stating how other people behave or interact, the author offers a great chance for readers to interpret fairly for themselves what the reason for any conflict may be, or the nature of any essential contrast between the narrator and other adults in the story. In the story, there are many self-righteous opinions from people, which seem to be ironic to the readers; For example, her mother’s aggressive attitude of showing off her daughter, her piano teacher’s self-praise claiming him as “Beethoven.” All of the narrations including conversation clearly depict a different characteristic between the narrator and other people. For instance, a conversation occurs between the narrator and her mother when the mother criticizing a girl who seems similar to the author on TV which reveals dissimilar understanding for both of them to each other’s behavior. At first, the daughter speaks out for the girl by questioning her mother by saying “why picking on her […] She’s pretty good. Maybe she’s not the best, but she’s trying hard.” The daughter actually is defending for herself and reflecting that she feels uncomfortable with her mother’s disregard of her hard work. She wants to get her mother’s compliments instead of her criticisms. However, her mother response of, “just like you,” and, “not the best. Because you not trying.” Here, her mother doesn’t really answer her question, instead wants her put more effort on trying, neglecting how much she has tried before. However, in her mother’s perspective, she has never tried hard enough. By narratively stating the conversations she has encountered, readers perceive a strong implication of the reason for a future conflict between her and her mother.

    Read More

  • Shirley Jackson's Charles

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The third day- it was Wednesday of the first week- Charles bounced a see-saw on to the head of a little girl and made her bleed,” (1). In the short story “Charles” written by Shirley Jackson, Laurie, the main character of the story, is a young kindergartener who is able to run around causing trouble at school and at the same time, pretend that it is only another boy in his class that is making the trouble. “Charles” teaches you that parents do not know everything about their child even though the child lives in the same house as them. Laurie’s parents do not know what he is like at school. Laurie is flamboyant, and arrogant yet creative and those characteristics make him the perfect troublemaker.

    Read More

  • A Separate Peace: Character Analysis

    219 Words  | 1 Pages

    In John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, it is shown that competition negatively affects Gene and Finny’s relationship.When Gene starts to see the argumentative aspect in Finny, he can’t help but to envy him and how he finesses around his problems: “Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him a little, which was perfectly normal” (Knowles 25). This example shows the competitive aspect in Gene’s personality. Gene is jealous and wants to be like Finny, and this negatively affects their relationship. Gene clearly has some jealousy because he wants to be able to get out of problems like Finny does. Usually though, Finny is the one that makes Gene jealous or competitive. Another way that finny makes gene feel bad is when he challenges

    Read More

  • King Oberon Jealousy Quotes

    69 Words  | 1 Pages

    I love this quote because King Oberon displays such jealousy towards his wife, Titania. King Oberon despises Titania's adopted child and doesn't believe he is receiving any attention from her. Oberon's methods are entertaining because of the lengths Oberon goes to lose the boy. This scene foreshadows hilarious consequences since the herb can allow the person to fall in love with the first creature the see when they awaken.

    Read More

  • Get In Trouble, By Kelly Link

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Kelly Link’s collection of short stories Get in Trouble, the story “The New Boyfriend” talks about how envy in relationships and how it is a metaphor for relationships we have in the real world. One reviewer writes, “Link perfectly mimics the cadences of teenagers talking to one another, the sniping and jealousy and longing. The story is hilarious as it plays with romance and vampire conventions, and it’s explores the notion of teenagers girls trying on love for the first time, and figuring out what it is you’re “supposed” to do”(Wolitzer np). In this story, Link focuses on how adolescents deal with jealousy and love when trying to navigate relationships. In order to understand how relationships work in this story, the encounters

    Read More

More about Finny's Jealousy Quotes

Open Document