When a person feels strong amounts of envy and jealously they can begin to act in a subconscious manner. Subconscious is part of the mind that a person does not have control over, however the subconscious can influence one's actions and feelings. Some actions are very common breathing is one subconscious action. In the coming of age novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles in the summer of 1942, the protagonist, Gene Forrester is a Lower Middler who goes to Devon Prep School located in New Hampshire. Gene and his friend Phineas, also known as Finny, are up on a tree above a river about to start their club, the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. Gene’s unconscious impulsively reacted and caused Phineas to get hurt. After telling Phineas about how…show more content… These actions by Finny caused Gene to begin to create negative thoughts about Finny causing the growth of envy and jealousy inside of him, “My brain exploded. He minded, despised the possibility that I might be the head of the school. There was a swift chain of explosions in my brain, on certainty after another blasted-up like a detonation went the idea of any best friend, up went affection and partnership and sticking by someone and relying on someone absolutely in the jungle of a boy’s school,” (Knowles 53). The comment by Finny implying that he did mind if Gene won the award made Gene believe that everything Finny had been doing was to hold Gene back. Finny took Gene to the beach so Gene would fail his trigonometry test and they were always playing games like Blitzball, a game that Finny made up, to keep Gene from studying. These emotions influencing Gen occurs a second time after Finny convinces Gene to go to the meeting of the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. Gene finally gets angry at Finny and tells him how he needs to study and Finny gives him an answer that is completely different than what Gene expects which is just to
