Civitarese, 1
Nicole Civitarese
English 10 Honors/ Mr. George
12/14/08
Essay on a Separate Peace
Who is Gene’s true enemy and did he defeat him?

In our society today, people notice the jealousy and hatred others have toward each other. For example, when people are jealous their friend does well in school or does well sports. People see it everyday in society and in this novel A Separate Peace people see the jealousy and hatred Gene has toward his best friend, Phineas. Gene makes impulsive decisions based out of jealousy. He improperly identifies his enemy, and soon comes to realize that his war is internal. Gene must learn to conquer his true enemy, himself, and his disapproval of his envious nature
In A Separate Peace, Gene improperly identifies his enemy as Finny. Gene feels that his friendship with Finny is a competition and believes he must be better then Finny. “You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead of yourselves alone. You did hate him for breaking the schools swimming record, but so what? He hated you for getting an A in every course but one last term” (Knowles 53). This is Gene’s biggest mistake. He forgets that Finny is too unusual for rivalry, “To keep silent about this amazing happening deepened the shock for me. It made Finny seems too unusual for-not friendship, but too unusual rivalry”(45). Gene believes that Finny is in competition with him, to justify his personal envy toward Finny. This was Gene's tragic flaw. He never was in war with Finny; he was at war with himself. In this way, Gene was improperly identifying the enemy.
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Built up resentment and hatred Gene had toward Finny caused him to make an impulsive decision.
Gene built up resentment and jealousy inside of him and it caused him to make an impulsive decision toward Finny. It just got worse each day, until one day they were both in a tree. Gene jounced the limb, shook it, and knocked Finny off the branch, “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb”(60) The impulsive decision caused him to severely hurt Finny because of his uncontrolled jealousy. He did not realize what he did to Finny until the next morning, “That night I slept easily, and it was only on waking up that this illusion was gone, and I was confronted with myself and what I had done to Finny” (62). Gene did not want to intentionally hurt Finny. However, at the time, he had so much hatred built up toward him; he just had the urge to hurt him. His initial reaction was to knock Finny off the branch, but when Gene realized what he did he felt guilty and the need to do something for Finny.
When Finny came back to Devon after his accident, he was forced sometimes to depend on Gene, but he really did not want help from anyone. Gene felt that he was obligated to help Finny because he was guilty of his actions. Finny had a great amount of loyalty toward Gene, “Phineas, you wouldn’t be any good in the war, even if nothing had happened to your leg” (190). Finny was always loyal to people and never saw any bad in them. Even if it was an enemy, for example, someone Finny could have fought in the war, he would still view them as a loyal person. Finny’s ideas had rubbed off on Gene because he now felt loyal to Finny, and he felt obligated to take responsibility and to allow Finny to be dependent on him. When Finny finally
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let Gene help, he wanted Gene to play sports for him, “Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re playing them for me,’ and I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas” (85). Gene did not mind getting closer to Finny because Finny was his best friend. Gene wanted to become a part of him because he wanted to be just like Finny. He then begins to realize who is true enemy was all along.
When Finny passes away, Gene goes to the funeral. He felt like he was at his own. Gene’s jealousy and resentment was his true enemy. This enemy had died with Finny. Finny had taken away the enemy and left Gene with some of his good qualities, “My fury was gone, I felt it gone, dried up at the source, withered and lifeless. Phineas had absorbed it and taken it with him, and I was rid of it forever” (203). Finny was doing Gene a favor; he helped him defeat his true enemy. Gene was influenced by Finny’s love for life. Gene and Finny switched qualities at the end. Finny helped defeat Gene’s enemy by taking it away. Gene saw Finny’s loving and caring qualities and took them as his own, “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war was ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (204). He understands he was his own true enemy, and that it was not Finny.
We see Gene label Finny as his enemy and we come to learn that Gene's internal struggle with himself is where his “true enemy” lies. Finny's enemy is his resentfulness of his jealousy, and when Finny dies, Gene’s qualities die along with him. With the death of Gene’s bad qualities, there is room for new ones. Gene forms a new identity that is not exactly like Finny’s,
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but instead, is largely influenced by Finny. He matured and evolved from a boy to a man with the help of Finny. He defeated his childhood enemy and grew up to be a successful human being. We see these kinds of things happening in our lives everyday, but we just need to realize the good qualities in life to be successful and defeat the bad ones to become more mature.