Friendship Versus Evil in A Separate peace Essay

A Separate Peace

John Knowles is the writer of a Separate Peace. It is a book written in a unique style, its an old man coming back to his childhood school and the whole book is a flashback. His meaning of writing it was to show friendship verses the evil nature of man and how they intertwine. Gene and Finny had a intimate relationship Gene was a follower of Finny, Finny was the most athletic, daring, handsome kid in the school he was training for the Olympics. Jealousy overcame Gene one day and caused him to jounce a tree limb he and finny were jumping from therefore having finny land on the ground with a fractured leg. The doctor set the break but finny would never run again, his athletic career was over. In the end of the book Finny dies, while he was hobbling down the hall at a fast rate, he didnt see the stairs and fell down them re-breaking his leg, while the doctor was in the middle of setting his leg again, bone marrow flowed to his heart and he died. This essay is to prove, Gene is the most responsible for Finnys death.

Gene and Finny were out playing with their other junior friends at the Devon high school in the summer of 1942, Finny won every time though, mostly because he was the most athletic, daring, and handsome boy in the school. Well after they got tired finny said to follow him and he took us to a massive tree with wooden pegs going all the way up to a big limb hanging out over the river, and said Do you want to go first?(15)(Finny) Nobody answered so he took off his clothes and started climbing the tree. When he got to the top, he got out on the limb very cautiously and jumped far out into the water in a moment he bobbed up grinning and said, Whos next(16)(Finny) I(Gene) looked around, nobody offered, meaning of course I was, I always seemed to do any thing Finny wanted, maybe that was it, my purpose in life was to be a part of finny. Well anyway I climbed up and jumped off, I was scared but there was thrill in it, so me and Finny formed a club called the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. The point of the club was to jump off the tree, any body who did could join the club. Well on of these times finny had a new idea, Well go together, a double jump! Neat, eh?(59)(Finny) I went up with him and as he was going to say jump I jounced the limb, They moved like an engineThe one holding onto the trunk sank for a second, up down, like a piston then the other one sank and fell. (175-176)(Leper) He fell to the ground and broke a leg in many places, the doctor was able to set it but he would never run again, his athletic career was ruined. Now some may say after reading this, but he didnt die from that fall, but if he hadnt fallen that time he would have been fine the next time.

Gene ever since the day he met Finny had been jealous of him he was handsome, athletic, and daring, Who wouldnt be right? Well thats what Gene thought. He was more than a little jealous though, because every time he would try and show Finny something that he could do Finny would go and do it better it left Gene feeling that he wasnt good at anything

Now Gene had excellent grades and he was trying to become head of class, the only problem was Finny. Finny was always trying to get him to stop studying and to skip class Come on, lets go. Weve got to be there(57)(Finny) Oh, for God sake!Gene slammed his book closed Studying!(57)(Gene) Gene was mad, but since they had a strong friendship and Gene was a follower of Finny, Gene was obliged to go but he hated Finny for it. And this wasnt the only time, this had happened so much that Gene had to study in secret or else be caught by Finny and told to come do this or do that, Finny found out so much that it brought Genes grade down. Gene hated Finny so much for this that he wanted to kill him or at least injure him, so thats why Gene made finny fall out of the tree.