A Separate Peace 4

The Mind Murders the Body By Sina Samie “Adolescent friendships are of the most complex companionships due to the suppressed feelings of contempt one child may feel toward another.” The deterioration of the complex friendship of Gene and Phineas is brought about in John Knowles’ A Separate Peace by the combination of their envy and denial. Finny and Gene begin their summer of 1942 with the illusion of a great companionship. Gene’s paranoia and envy …

…not only Finny’s funeral he is attending, but “[his] own.” Gene betrays the trust of his friend; kills the man who, just months earlier, reaches out and grabs his hand, saving him from a potentially fatal fall. At the conclusion of the story, the evils in both Gene and Finny are exposed and the only bond that ties the two together are the memories of the shattered relationship that should have never been started.