...A Separate Peace is a novel by John Knowles that delves into the world of youth and tells a tragic tale of happiness, jealousy, family, and overall the progression of a friendship. I examined the theme of envy and how it drives the Knowles’ characters. Phineas and Gene are analyzed in greater detail so that we can get a better understanding of these characters and what motivates them. Finally I conducted a psychological examination of the characters and how others view them and how that affects the characters. Gene Forrester, a boy from the south who gets the chance to study at Devon an extremely prestigious academy. He doesn’t quite fit in at first until he meets his roommate Phineas or Finny for short. They become friends quite quickly and the reader sees that Gene is held back or suspicious of this overly friendly guy. This shows us the first glimpse into the character that is Gene and how he is not as open to new people. As the story progresses we learn that Gene switches from adoring Finny, to envying him and his ways of persuasion. In this quote Gene states how everybody loves Finny and how lucky he is to be his best friend. “Finny could shine with everyone, he attracted everyone he met. I was glad of that too. Naturally. He was my roommate and my best friend.” (32) Later on when the boys are invited to the Headmaster’s Tea Finny manages to weasel his way out of trouble with his charm and persuasion. “Phineas was going to get away with even this.” (20) Finny had...
Words: 1046 - Pages: 5
...Shakespeare uses a great deal of irony in his play Othello to develop certain characters while also thickening the plot. Iago develops by the constant use of irony while also mentioning the true nature of jealousy. Jealousy is a cruel thing and Iago plants the evil seed of it into Othello. Shakespeare’s use of Irony in Othello helps to develop Iago’s character as well as show the true nature of jealousy. The Irony in Othello changes or view of Iago’s character and reveals to us how sinister this man is. In Act III scene iii Iago and Othello are having a conversation when Othello says “Think my lord! By heaven, he echoes me, as if there were some monster in his thought to hideous to be shown.” This is verbal irony and since Iago truly does have a “monster in his thought” a sense of villainy is further shown in Iago by letting Othello think him a good man. Later of in the dialogue Iago states that “Men should be what they seem;” which also is ironic because Iago himself isn’t the man he seems to be. The true nature of this conversation is beginning to be revealed and again Iago’s true vile nature is shown because he is misleading Othello and setting him up. The whole conversation Iago is saying how he should not speak badly against his friend and leading Othello on to want more which is human nature. In this situational irony a heightened sense of awareness to Iago’s character is gained because of the revelation to his plot. Iago’s key characteristics are revealed in this section...
Words: 583 - Pages: 3
...have compared myself to others at such a level that it did damage to my own self-esteem. I had a baby at a young age, I gained a lot of weight and my self-esteem instantly dropped. Always comparing myself to other moms who had babies. I would be so hard on myself about why I didn't look like them and why it was taking me so long to drop the baby weight. It even got to the point where I stopped eating because I thought that was the answer to losing weight and looking like these other moms that had babies just like I did. I was so busy focusing on my weakness and faults that I didn't stop to embrace my strengths and to embrace the difference of those other moms. Instead of allowing those other moms to inspire me, it brought me down because of envy and jealousy. There are a few different ways to stop invidious comparison. The first is to never compare yourself to anyone else and never let anyone do it to you. There will always be someone skinnier, fatter, prettier, smarter, wealthier, less fortunate, stronger, weaker, and less attractive than you are. The best thing you can do is become aware of your strengths and embrace them. Be thankful for who...
Words: 1382 - Pages: 6
...We all have been jealous at some time or another in our life. Whether it was about another person, or something you do or do not have.It can start to control you, and what you do in your life.Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradburry both mention jealousy in their short stories. In Kurt´s story, ¨Harrison Bergeron¨ the government makes everyone equal so that no one will different or better than anyone else. In Brad's story, ¨All Summer In A Day¨ A girl from Ohio, named Margot, moved to Venus and has seen the sun, but the people from Venus have not, so they are jealous that she has seen the sun, and they have not. In these two stories, the theme, jealousy doesn't have a good outcome, can be said for both of these stories. In the story, Harrison Bergeron,...
Words: 379 - Pages: 2
...In this short story of the “Neighbors”, Carver tells a story about a couple that had a happy marriage, but they were bored with their day to day routine. They had these neighbors named Harriet and Jim Stone. The Millers envied the Stones because they were living a bright and full life that the Millers wanted. The Stones always went out to dinner, went on trips, and entertained at their home; the Millers did none of these things. As you read the story, you will learn who the Millers by seeing how envious they are of the Stones, them going through their neighbors things, and their love for one another . Bill and Arlene Miller were your everyday, hard working couple. They were a happy couple, but now and then they felt alone as if the circle of life has passed them by. The Millers had these neighbors named the Stones that lived across the hall from them. The husband Jim worked as a salesman for a machine-parts firm, where he managed to combine business with pleasure trips. Harriet and Jim Stone was that couple that was very outgoing and easy to get along with, they would always entertain people at their house. On this particular occasion, the Stones were planning a two weeks trip to Cheyenne and then St. Louis to visit relatives. “ Have fun”, Bill said to Harriet. “We will”, said Harriet. “You kids have fun too” (Carver 117). The Millers were envious of the Stones because they were going on a two week vacation and the Millers felt has if they deserve to go on one. “...
Words: 322 - Pages: 2
...Jealousy breath envy Misjudged is a word used when we mistakenly judged someone by their appearance, looks, intelligence, and facial expressions. We as society have misjudged others or we have been victims of it. For example we typically misjudged a homeless person; believing that he is a lazy person who doesn’t work and we based it on the clothes they are wearing to explain why we think that way. In the essay “My Essay Hector” by Michael T. Kaufman, the author misjudged his Hector when he thought he was a longshoreman because he would wear a knitted watch cap. He also misjudged Hector when he saw that he was not in the Special placement and Intellectual Gifted Children class but Michael was; therefore he believed Hector was not going to be successful in his career since he wasn’t part of that class. I agree with the author, misjudgment is not acceptable in any way even though we might have the foundation of why we believed in that way. This essay is about my Achilles heel, except I was able to solve mine. When I entered Third grade, I was a simple and respectful kid for the most part. Everyone liked me but I was no one’s best friend. I was reliable, but when something new and exciting came along, I felt like I have went investable to everyone else. There was this boy in my classes from third through fifth grade. He was a wonderful person with an amazing personality to go with it. He was the pride and joy of all the teachers. He was the coolest guy with the closest friends...
Words: 786 - Pages: 4
...Probably not. But the reality is that it is common to feel this way. This phenomenon has a name, Schadenfreude and has ties to envy. So what does Schadenfreude consist of? Schadenfreude according to Joseph Epstein is “the emotion [that leads to] delight in another’s failure or defeat (Epstein, 2003). Often times we secretly or in some cases, openly, revel in the demise of someone who is famous. We question why that person was blessed with talent, good looks, money, etc. Once that person loses one of the qualities or aspects that placed them in a higher position than you, you feel a sense of satisfaction. It may feel as if that person gets a dose of reality, of what it is like to be normal and not have everything. This feeling of Schadenfreude can be driven by envy because we have to call it what it really is… we are happy because all along we were envious and angry at that person for our injustice. Schadenfreude may be confused with the feeling of being satisfied when someone is served justice. Although we tend to have reason to exhibit envy towards those in higher positions than us, if that person is guilty of committing some sort of crime and they are caught, we have even more reason to be happy with that person being apprehended. Epstein uses the examples of CEOs and the like committing any range of crimes and finally being caught. We are inclined to feel envy toward these kinds of people because they are wealthy...
Words: 600 - Pages: 3
...result, he admits to his own flaws and learns he has defeated his true enemy, himself. Gene assumes that his rival is Finny, making him oblivious to his own faults. For example, Gene watches as Finny talks his way out of trouble. Discouraged he states, “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal” (25). Gene admits he envies and resents Finny’s ability and audacity to smart talk teachers. He believes his resentment is justified, but it is hindering his ability to see how much he is constantly watching Finny. Gene is not aware of his own imperfections. As a consequence, Gene concludes that Finny is intentionally ruining his studies. He claims, “We were even after all, even in enmity. The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all” (53). Gene believes there is hostility between himself and Finny, and they are in a “deadly rivalry”. Gene presumes that Finny is jealous of his schoolwork, which is blinding him from realizing that his weaknesses. Thus, Gene’s blindness sprouts feelings of envy towards Finny. Gene’s jealousy impacts his relationship with Finny negatively, leading Gene to lose himself and create a false reality. Accordingly, when Gene is generating thoughts in his head about whether he and Finny were equal in terms of abilities. Strategically, he thinks “If I was the head of the class and won that prize, then we would be even” (52). Gene is jealous of Finny and all his abilities...
Words: 1042 - Pages: 5
...To be jealous, by definition, is “feeling or showing of someone”. One may be jealous of another due to an achievement or them being close to another person that they hold dearly. Typically jealousy can be expressed by enemies and friends, but mostly by lovers. The jealousy between lovers can be so intense that it causes extreme consequences. Most of the time the couple just parts ways and bids adieu. However, in the stories “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover”, both written by Robert Browning, the lovers are set to kill in order to satiate their jealous tendencies. Both main male characters in these stories believe that their lovers set out to purposely infuriate them causing the jealousy. Despite this, neither the Duchess nor Porphyria deserved the fate they suffered because they were simply being who they were as people and the men thought they should behave otherwise. In “My Last Duchess” the Duke introduces a picture of his prior Duchess, telling of her beauty and how everyone desired her attention, especially him. He then goes on to talk about how due to the attention she was given by others, “her looks went everywhere”(24). He believed that she appreciated the affection and attention of others more than she appreciated the ‘greatest’ gift he could have offered her: His “nine- hundred- years- old name”(33). Alas, she tragically died by an unknown cause. However, it is highly suggested that he murdered her or had her murdered after stating that he tried to change her...
Words: 686 - Pages: 3
... Wilson Chandler Short Story/Short Film Comm. 411-35 11:30-12:45 Spring 1997 The three short stories are similar because they all involve jealousy. This type of jealousy surrounds the main characters who are envious of the achievements or the attention that another man receives. The first story is about an old man who is taking his wife on a second honeymoon when she encounters an old suitor, creating jealousy for the husband. In the second story, the jealousy surrounds Smurch who is envious of Charles Lindbergh's fame and accolades. The jealousy in the final story is the envy of the attention that any man with fame can receive from a woman. Each person's own insecurity allows envy to control their actions and creates trouble in their lives. The three stories all have jealousy, in some it is more clear than others. Jealousy lead two of the characters to make a fool of themselves, and it cost another character his life. In the first story, Charley took his wife Lucy on a second honeymoon, or Golden Honeymoon, as it is titled. While they are in St. Petersburg Fla., Mother was at the doctors office and began a conversation with a lady, only to discover that she is Mrs. Frank M. Hartsell, Lucy's ex-fiancee. This made Charley uncomfortable because he had rivaled Frank for Lucy's hand in marriage. A story that began as a second honeymoon for Lucy and Charley, became ...
Words: 431 - Pages: 2
...adolescence, youth, middle age and old age according to age and time. Every movement of creation is linked with time. One cannot grow paddy in a month nor can a child become an adult in a year. Everything is fixed to a time-frame. Time is a free force. It does not wait for any one. It is commonly said that time and tide waits for no man. Time is money. A minute not usefully spent is an eternal loss. You can never get back the lost minute. One has to strike the iron when it is hot. The time flies and never returns. If you waste time it wastes you. ‘Time is the best medicine’, says Ovid. It is said that time heals all wounds and it even heals what reason cannot. All human beings are emotional. When negative emotions like fear, anger, envy and jealousy overtake them, they lose reason and act in haste leading to serious consequences. They may repent later, as emotions cool down. But the damage done is done and remains forever. Even that damage can heal with the passage of time. People involved may forget and forgive. That is the importance of time and its healing touch. Time is said to be a wise counselor. Passage of time allows an individual to grow. This growth gives experience. Experience...
Words: 584 - Pages: 3
...A Separate Peace By John Knowles #2. What does my enemy mean? “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform. I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed there. Only Phineas never was afraid, only Phineas never hated anyone.” At the very end of the book, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene Forrester mentioned that he killed his enemy at Devon, before the war. An enemy, according to Gene is someone or something that they have to destroy in their personal war. For Gene, his enemy was his inner self. Gene Forrester had an inner devil that was jealous of Finny because Finny was born with good talents. His physical abilities and his oral talents to get away from troubles were outstanding. “He probably thought anything you were good at came without effort. He didn’t know yet that he was unique” (Knowles 58). When Gene realized this, he became jealous and wanted to kill Finny. However, after he pushed Finny off the tree, Gene realized that Finny wasn’t his rival. Therefore, Gene “killed” his enemy, the jealousy inside him by pushing Finny off the tree. Another enemy of Gene was resentment towards Finny. Gene didn’t like how Finny had lots of freedom and his special way of thinking. Because of this hatred, he pushed Finny off the tree. “Of course you didn’t do it. You damn fool. Sit down, you damn fool (Knowles 70). However, when Finny denies the fact that Gene pushed...
Words: 355 - Pages: 2
...have a beneficial effect. In life and throughout society the evidence illustrating the dreadful effects of jealousy is prevasive. * In the literary work Julius Caesar ,written by Shakespeare, the protagonist Julius Caesar faces the jealousy and envy of the most close people to him, who were envious and jealous from the power and admiration Caesar was endowed with. Being blinded with jealousy the conspirators murdered Caesar under the mask of wanting the best for their empire, suggesting the truth the jealousy can never result in an advantageous outcome. After Caesar was murdered the conspirators relished their victory, but later after facing the consequences of their actions, they realized how jealousy blinded them into destroying the very thing they were trying to protect. the actions of the conspirators demonstrate that it's implausible for jealousy to be beneficial even if it was seemingly leading to something propitious. * In 1955 the civil rights movement was sparked and led by the American activist, humanitarian and Noble Prize winner Martin Luther King. His achievements and accomplishments are too many to be set down in one place, but these achievements were the reason he was assassinated. The jealousy and envy of his opponents did not trigger them to work as hard as did to achieve something but rather have evoked a desire to obliterate him. The assassination of MLK is one of the most clear...
Words: 385 - Pages: 2
...Through the use of colloquial dialect, syntax, and descriptive figurative language, Zora Neal Hurston beings to create the townspeople as a judgmental, jealous mass in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. The old, stereotypical, Southern Black accent is prevalent throughout the novel, allowing the reader to see the speakers as uneducated laborers. Their judgmental rhetorical questions relate their feelings of jealousy towards Janie, asking what a “forty year ole ‘oman doin’ wid her hair swingin’ down her back lak some young gal”(1) and other probing questions, silently comparing themselves to and judging her. Yet these “uneducated laborers”, as they are so flawlessly portrayed, take the low road themselves, silently seething with jealousy. The townspeople, blinded by the main character’s beauty, are confused, fragmented sentences blundering foolishly from their tongues. They all seem to think “[Janie] was going to marry” and her husband “[runs] off wid some young gal so young she ain’t even got no hairs”(2), wondering about Janie’s life, so much more interesting than their labor-monkey lives. The townspeople, who make the transition to the “porch” are lumped together. At first described as monkeys on the “bander log”(2), the porch’s organs of judgment are taken away, Janie’s consideration of them as “tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences”(1) are synecdochal humiliations and degradations, lumping them together once more. The porch’s “killing tools” of laughs are only...
Words: 303 - Pages: 2
...The green light has a many different symbolic meaning that what first comes to thought. Gatsby would often reach towards or look at the light. Also, Gatsby built his house across from Daisy and used the light to feel closer to Daisy. When the green light is first introduced to the book, it seems very miniscule in the grand scheme of things, but when further looked into, the role of the light is revealed as a important symbol to the story. The most obvious symbol of the green light is Gatsby’s desire and hope to be with Daisy once more. In chapter one Gatsby is at his dock looking longingly towards Daisy’s dock with the green light. Then later on in chapter five Gatsby is caught reaching towards the green light as if he expects Daisy’s hand to be next to his. Gatsby has a sense of hope when looking at the light. That hope is carried on throughout the book. He believes that it is his way of staying connected to Daisy and hope to be reunited once again with her. He hopes that Daisy will learn to love him like she once did, and things would go back to like they were before. Daisy, of course, can’t bring herself to leave Tom for Gatsby. Gatsby continues in his hopeful fantasy of the past. He becomes overly consumed by his fantasies that his thought process in the present is manipulated into thinking that are just simply not reality. Its a dream that Gatsby strives for, and will go to any lengths to get it. When Gatsby realizes at the hotel that Daisy also shares love for Tom...
Words: 1410 - Pages: 6
