William Penn once said, “the jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.” Penn effectively conveys how jealousy has deeper effects on the person experiencing the emotion compared to the people interacting with them. Gene Forrester, the protagonist of A Separate Peace, learns to cope with the consequences of decisions rooted in jealousy. Throughout the novel A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, Gene Forrester undergoes significant changes in his identity by having positive and negative interactions with other characters and experiencing the aftermath of making decisions with jealousy and guilt as main motivators. At the beginning of the story, Gene felt insecure about relationships he had at Devon and let jealousy …show more content…
Prior to the climax of the book, Gene admired Phineas, but when the admiration turned to jealousy, he became insecure about the friendship and pulled away. The following statement captured the change: “I should have told him then that he was my best friend also and rounded off what he had said. I started to; I nearly did. But something held me back.” (Knowles 48). Gene’s insecurities led to the rivalry between the two characters and the internal struggle of Gene trying to safely separate himself from the complicated friendship so he could find a sense of an independent identity. After Finny’s injury, Gene felt guilty and gave in to all of his requests. While doing this, Gene began to realize how helpless his friend was, and began to see himself as the superior one in the relationship. Gene identified the change in perspectives when he said, “He seemed older that morning, and leaning quietly against that great tree wrapped in his heavy coat, he seemed smaller too. Or perhaps it was only that I, inside the same body, had felt myself all at once grown bigger” (Knowles 121). This is a common effect that jealousy can have on a relationship in today’s world. In A Separate Peace, it is Gene’s purpose to show how different emotions have the possibility to make or break a relationship by changing a person’s