Relationships in "A Separate Peace"

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The book "A Separate Peace" contained many different and unusual, yet original relationships between the many characters in the book. There are many exciting and emotional relationships that occur in "A Separate Peace" which help the boys grow into responsible men, such as the relationships between Gene and Finny and Leper and Gene. Gene had a friendly relationship with almost everyone at school. Everyone tried to be friends with everyone else, but usually that relationship was not real or one-sided. They would all act nicely toward people to their face, but when they would leave, they would talk about them badly and behind their backs. They would never have enough courage to stand up for their beliefs and express their feelings. They were scared of being rejected. 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.

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