Gene's Jealousy In A Separate Peace

Gene and Finny are not friends. A friend is someone you would do anything for, somebody that you care about. You never intentionally hurt a friend, and you congratulate them when they do something incredible. Gene has shown multiple times that he doesn’t care about Finny. Gene is so jealous of Finny that he blames him for all his problems, so they can’t be friends

CM: Once, when I was about 12, I was jealous of one of my friends. She had so much more than me at the time and all she did was complain about it. I wished that I could trade her lives and show her how much different her life could be. It was only years later that I realised how unhealthy this was and that I wasn’t being a true friend because of my jealousy.

Gene feels no gratitude toward

After Finny breaks the schools swimming record he asks Gene not to tell anyone, which sparks this sentence in Gene narration. ”it made Finny seem too unusual for- not for friendship, but too unusual for rivalry,” (45). Despite the sound of this, it does not resolve Genes jealousy of Finny. This is before the problem even began and could possibly be the stem of it. Gene is baffled by the way Finny can do incredible things and not want to brag. This is the first time we see that Finny is not the villain of the story that Gene will later perceive him to be. After Finnys injury he can no longer play sports and since he cares about Gene so much He enlists his help.”Listen pal if I can’t play sports you’re going to play them for me” (85). Finny says this to Gene because he sees Gene as an extension of himself, which is evidenced throughout the book by Finny's constant affection toward Gene. Gene begins to see things the same way as Finny which is why at the end of the book, Gene says that he didn’t cry at Finny’s funeral because he felt like it was also his own. Gene is constantly hurting Finny, but Finny cares about Gene too much to just let him