Summary Of John Knowles A Separate Peace: Jealousy

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From the Crusades to the American-Indian wars, many different events have been fueled by jealously throughout history. It has lead men to lie, kill and cheat against each other since the beginning of time. Jealousy exists in every one of us, no one can hide from this toxic disease; learning to control this vile emotion will be a struggle. A Separate Peace by John Knowles, that takes place during WWII, is no exception.
People get jealous from other people’s possessions or experiences. They will do just about anything to achieve what they want. Gene, innocent and stupid, suffers from the disease which is jealousy towards his best friend Phineas. Gene’s jealousy seems to spike when Finny (Phineas’s nickname) accomplishes something new. His jealousy …show more content…

Similarly, a friend and I were studying for a chemistry test. As we studied I noticed he was hardly looking at his notes and seemed to only pay attention to his phone, I warned that if he didn’t look at his notes that he would fail the exam but of course he didn’t listen. After we got our test grades, he revealed that he had scored higher than me. I was happy for him but at the same time, I was jealous. It didn’t seem fair that he didn’t study yet made a good grade. Gene and I both experienced flashes of jealousy for a friend. In a situation where I could have been happy that my friend got a good grade, I instead chose to envy him as did Gene with Finny. The difference between Gene and I is that I immediately realized that my jealousy was irrational. “Was he trying to impress me? Not tell anybody?”(Knowles44). In this quote, Gene can’t seem to accept that Finny is pure and good. He tries to find an ulterior motive of some kind. Gene’s jealousy evolved into a raw odium for Phineas’s personality. Which leads to Gene discovering his own savagery against Phineas. This later leads to one of the climaxes in the novel where Gene jiggles the tree limb and causes Phineas to fall off the

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