Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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Friendship Between Finny and Gene

Everyone in life will have many different friends with many different personalities of whom we must all cope with and learn to love them for who they are and not what we want them to be. People will never find someone just like them and need to be able to change and adapt to the way that others act. In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles; though they may not live up to the worldly definition of friendship, Gene and Finny have a relationship unlike anyone else, which ends in a disaster. In order to compare Finny’s and Gene’s relationship to the normal definition, we must establish and clarify what exactly a “normal friendship” really is. In the text, Gene states, “This must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas”(85). Gene has the idea that friendship is based off of becoming one with your friends and learning to be a large part of their lives. By becoming a part of your friend should be a high priority of friendship in both …show more content…
Finny does care about their friendship and wants it to last. Finny genuinely likes Gene and wants the best for him as much as he wants the best for himself. Later, Finny is talking to some other friends and says about Gene, “I’m his roommate, and I’m his best friend”(160). Finny believes that Gene is his best friend when in reality, Gene is not Finny’s best friend. Gene, on the inside, is fighting a huge battle between the worth of their friendship and the envy he has toward Finny and his amazing ability in sports and social interactions. This friendship was, in fact, really a parasitical relationship where Finny was the host, providing many benefits for Gene and enduring suffering when Gene was the parasite who sucked the live out of Finny, causing a lot of suffering and pain, and pretending to be a useful, positive influence in Finny’s
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