Inner Evil

We all have a darkness inside of us that is unleashed at different times in our lives. It can come out when we are jealous, angry, or just harassing someone. In the novel, A Separate Peace by Robert Knowles, Gene, the main character, is affected by a few evils inside a person and he also releases his own evil. Three characters from the novel, Quackenbush, Brinker, and Gene, all have darkness inside of them that they let come out in different ways.

The first character from A Separate Peace that lets his evil out is Quackenbush. Quackenbush is the head of the crew team at Devon School. He is always teased and harassed by the other students and consequently, Quackenbush has low self-esteem. He feels that by making fun of Gene, unleashing his inner darkness, that it will make him feel better. For the time being it makes him feel big and important. The first incident is when Gene starts as the Assistant Crew Manager and Quackenbush is above him. “…’Get some towels’…’How many?’…’As many as you can carry. That won’t be too many.’…” (69). Quackenbush hurts Gene another time too. After making fun of Gene, Gene remarks, “…You, Quackenbush, don’t know anything about who I am…Listen you maimed son-of-a-bitch…”(71). Then a fistfight breaks out between the two. Quackenbush doesn’t like when Gene stands up for himself, he cannot stand it. He wants to hurt Gene because he can tell by taking the position of Assistant Crew Manager that Gene has low self-esteem. Quackenbush lets out his inner darkness at Gene because he wants to feel momentous; he wants to feel important and that is one way that someone in this novel lets out their inner depravity.

The second character I have chosen is Brinker. Brinker, who is the popular politician at Devon School, is very jealous of the friendship that Gene and Finny share. He says many things about the fall and how it happened to hurt Gene. “…’I’ll bet you knew all the time Finny wouldn’t be back this fall. That’s why you picked him as a roommate, right?’ [Brinker asks.]’What? No, of course not. How could I know a thing like that in advance?’…’You fixed it. You knew all the time, I bet it was all your doing.’…” (79-80). Brinker was jealous of not only Gene and Finny’s friendship, but also Gene having a room all to himself.