Gene And Phineas 'Superego In John Knowles' A Separate Peace

Creating these fake enemies affected his life throughout the story in a bad way. It caused him to live a life where he won’t accept reality. In the very end of chapter four you can tell Gene has developed hatred towards Finny. Gene believed that Finny was a rival towards him, Gene thinks he is not his friend. When Finny took

Knock him down!”. This continuous targeting of Gene, mainly by Finny, makes it sensible that Gene would become reliant/revengeful. Therefore, if Gene were to dangerously act upon his emotions, he would kill his own

In Gene’s case, disloyalty and cowardice appears through his metaphorical bad heart. Gene’s insecurities got in the way of his friendship with Phineas. He was jealous that Finny could never get in trouble, and that he appeared to be perfect in almost every way. When Gene began to believe that Phineas wanted to surpass him academically, he felt threatened. This mixed with his jealousy, and caused him to impulsively shake the tree limb that Phineas was standing on, making him fall and shatter his leg.

Finny used to ask Gene to go and do other things instead of studying. Gene normally did what Finny asked. Gene decided that Finny was trying to hurt him when they story states, “Suddenly he turned his fire against me, he betrayed several of his other friends,” and he was doing things on his own (102). The second stage of Finny and Gene’s friendship is betrayal and guilt.

One way Gene’s jealousy and imitation is an effect on his relationship with Finny is that it caused lots of jealousy towards Finny because of his abilities, appearance, and actions. An example of this is when Gene stated “He had gotten away with everything. I felt a sudden stab of disappointment. That was because I just wanted to see some more excitement; that must have been it. " (Knowles).

Sigmund Freud's defense mechanisms influence many ways of writing authors use today. These mechanisms are used in everyday life, somtimes not even noticing they are being used. Many of these mechanisms appeared between the characters in John Knowels novel A Separate Peace. The character Gene uses Sigmund Frued's defense mechanisms displacement, rationalization, and intellectualization which shows his emotional instability after the trumatic incident in the tree. Generally speaking, Gene is usually a well behaved, mature boy, however, sometimes in the novel he tends to lose temper.

“Our minds are a battle ground between good and bad ideas; we are whatever side wins the battle” Bangambiki Habyarimana, The Great Pearl of Wisdom. The struggle between good and evil is found universally. In the novel A Separate Peace, Gene Forrester struggles between his own inner good and evil. Gene's actions often reflect his feelings, leading him to trouble, giving the illusion that Gene is filled with more evil than good. However, Gene's goodness can be found even through dark times.

Gene thinks that everything is a game when it comes to the relationship between him and Finny and that they have to be equal. He believes that Finny is always trying to be better than him and that he is jealous of him for getting and A in every course. So Gene jumps to the conclusion that Finny is trying to sabotage that by making come to the beach with him, go to club meetings every night, and

Therefore, Gene always tried to make Finny jealous and that pushed him to hurt him in the

”(174-175) Gene is so consumed by guilt that he is thinking about everything he does and how that could indicate whether or not he's guilty. This confirms how the guilt is negatively affecting him by causing him to lose his

I kind of forget.” (Knowles, 169). As proven in this quote, it is quite evident that Finny is perplexed about what genuinely transpired, and it is additionally evident that Finny is delusional. Despite the evidence and proof that was given, Finny is reluctant to believe that Gene was capable of doing something as horrible as trying to make sure Finny got

He is basically, through rhetorical questions, saying that he does not want to do what Finny does, but it’s like he cannot help it. This is affecting who Gene is as a person because he is not thinking for himself. Is Gene really even himself if Finny is doing the thinking for him? If he is not thinking for himself, he is not being true to himself. Another way that Gene is affected is that he allows his imitation of Finny get in the way of his schooling.

Adam and Eve had a perfect Garden of Eden, until Eve ate the apple and contaminated the garden. In being tricked by the snake, Eve betrayed God’s word. Mankind has often betrayed others because of the darkness in their heart. In A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses Phineas as a sacrificial lamb to portray Gene’s savage side and demonstrate that peace can never be achieved at a worldwide level until man accepts the darkness in his own heart.

“This is a personal war of one competing ego in which Gene’s rivalry with his best friend Finny results in Finny’s tragic accident, and then his tragic death.” While competition and jealousy may be normal, it’s how someone handles it in their life that makes the difference. There are many ways to deal with anger and jealousy but it is important to identify whether or not the jealousy and hatred are justified. In this story it’s not justified, it’s not real. Gene lets his anger and jealousy fester inside him to the point where he shakes the tree branch that

We watch little lily-liver Lepellier not jump from a tree, and I ruin my grade”(57). This event shows how Gene takes his academic work seriously and can get annoyed by the constant nagging and distractions by his friends. But Gene is also quite a passive character who tries to mold to his friends ideas and feeling, which can lead Gene to contradict something he has said before. Gene can’t handle the idea of completely blowing off Phineas so he just gives in