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Claim. I. C. E. Conclusing sentence

MLA : (Knowles 89).

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In his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles presents the theme of identity. Through Gene's lack of identity, he shows how sense of identity can impact someone. In the novel Gene says, "You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record, but so what? He hated you for getting an A in every course but one last term. You would have had an A in that one except for him" (Knowles 53). Because Gene struggles to understand who he is, he compares himself to Finny. Rather than being happy for Finny in his successes and in himself in his own successes, his view of his friendship with Finny is distorted by his own lacking of a sense of identity.

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in his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles reveals the theme of jealousy by having Gene say, "I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little"(Knowles 25). In Chapter 4 Gene thinks That all the things Phinny does is trying to stop him from being at the top of the class because he is jealous.

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In his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles reveals the theme of Jealousy. In this book, many references show that Gene and Finny are competitive and always jealous of one another. Finny is immature and is in his world not caring what others think of him. He is extremely loquacious but gets away with it. Gene is very smart, but he is always inside his head and is too caught up in Jealousy making sure he is better than Finny. Gene is always trying to get people's attention; thinking of himself as smarter and better than others. For example, "He broke into the charmed, thoughtless grin of a man fulfilled. 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 28). Gene is the narrator but we only see these situations from his point of view. When Finny told Gene that he was his best friend, something was holding Gene back from saying it back to him. In the back of Gene's mind, I believe that he sees Finny as better than him still. This causes Gene to be competitive and Jealous toward Finny rather than being a kind friend. Gene is book-smart and wants to be the valedictorian, but Finny is very athletic and popular. Gene is always Jealous of that because he doesn't want to be even with Finny, Gene wants to be better than Finny in every way. For example, "When I looked down at that stopwatch and realized a split second before I permitted my face to show it or my voice to announce it that Finny had broken a school record, I had experienced a feeling that also can be described in one word-shock" (Knowles 45). All of these pieces of evidence have shown how John Knowles's novel A Separate Peace shows the theme of Jealousy. Gene in every way is Jealous of everything Finny does.

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In his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles has revealed the theme of identity. Specifically identity among friends and other people. He shows this through Gene. When Gene is around Finny. For example, "It was a courageous thing to say. Exposing a sincere emotion nakedly like that at the Devon School was the next thing to suicide. 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). This shows that Gene has trouble with his identity because he was scared to call Finny his best friend. When Finny told Gene he was his best friend, Gene hesitated and never said it back because he was scared of being embarrassed and made fun of. He put up an act to hide his feelings inside so he could portray a character on the outside. Simply put, he did not want to look like a fool for calling finny his best friend showing that he tries to maintain an identity that isn't true.

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In his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles reveals the theme of war and jealousy. He reveals it through Gene and Finny; Gene always finds a way to be jealous or have conflict with Finny even when there is no reason to. For example, "He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he"(Knowles 59). This shows how Gene can be so self-centered and not realize that he is making conflict out of nothing. Finny is unaware that Gene is not his friend while Gene sees the friendship as a competition. For example, "You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record, but so what?" (Knowles 53), and "At this teen-age period in life the proper person is your best pal...I should have told him then that he was my best friend... I was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth" (Knowles 48). This shows that Finny saw Gene as a friend and Gene saw Finny as a competition.

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In the novel A Seprate Peace by John Knowles, identity is a reocurring theme. Gene is constantly comparing himself to Finny, wanting to be like him in every way. For example, "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. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little" (Knowles 25) Another example of this is on page 34, "But I always jumped. Otherwise I would have lost face with Phineas, and that would have been unthinkable." This quote reveals that if Gene didn't do what Finny had said it would be the "end of the world" for Gene. Finny found his identity in beating and trying to beat Finny. For example, "And there were few relationships among us at Devon based on rivalry" (Knowles 45). This quote shows us how Gene found his identity in always competing with Finny. In conclusion, Gene always found his identity in competing with Finny. Instead Gene needs to find his identity in himself and not competing with others and awards.

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In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the theme Growth/change has not appeared too often, but recently in chapter 4 it has made an appearence. Gene for pretty much all the book so far, has been feeling as though finny is ahead of him in some way. For example,"And also i didn't want to let him excel me in this, even though i knew it didn't matter whether he showed me up at the tree or not"(Knowles 56). This quote shows how he felt the need to show up finny or prove himself when finny truly didn't care. Towards the end of chapter 4 Gene begins to realize that Finny does not care about "competition" between and never even noticed a "rivalry,"in fact Finny thought this whole time that Genes smarts came naturally to him as his athleticism came to himself. For example, "He had never been jealous of me  for a second. Now i knew that there was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not the same quality as he" (Knowles 59) Although he is still comparing himself towards the end of the sentence, saying he is not of the same quality of Finny, he is slowing coming to the realization that there was no need to have a "rivalry" between them.

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In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the themes of war and jealousy are shown. For example, "It was good that Finny could shine at it. He could also shine at many other things, with people for instance, the others in our dormitory, the faculty; in fact, if you stopped to think about it, Finny could shine with everyone, he attracted everyone he met" (Knowles 40). This is showing that Gene is reflecting on the impossible ability that Finny has to charm everyone he meets and be really good at everything he tries. Gene is jealous that he doesn't have this ability too. Another example is, "What if I was. It was a pretty good goal to have, it seemed to me. After all, he should talk. He had won and been proud to win the Galbraith Football Trophy and the Contact Sport Award, and there were two or three other athletic prizes he was sure to get this year or next. If I was head of the class on Graduation Day and made a speech and won the Ne Plus Ultra Scholastic Achievement Citation, then we would be even, that was all. We would be even..." (Knowles 51-52). This quote shows that Gene just wants to be even with Finny, and he thinks that he can accomplish this by being the top of the class, because Finny is the best athlete in the school.

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In his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles reveals the theme of Identity in many ways. He uses the friendship between Gene and Finny to show how when friends grow up sometimes they grow apart. When you start to grow up you have different goals and values in your life than your peers. This is shown by Finney being very athletic and the best in most sports but Gene being the brain of the class who is very smart and wants to be head of the class. He starts to realize the amount of change in his and Finney's relationship and how life changes you, and not everyone is for you and to be your best friend. for example, "Perhaps I was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth."(Knowles 48). He realizes that his friendship is going through change and he is looking for the truth that he needs to shift his perspective and realize some friendships are only for a season and teach a valuable lesson in life. Other times you need to trust your gut to make the correct decision and figure out your true identity.

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In his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles reveals the theme of friendship. He starts the novel with a friendship between two boys. Gene the narrator is always trying to please his best friend Finny. Finny and Gene have an unspoken rivalry, Finny is an athlete, and Gene is academically smarter. Finny genuinely expresses his feelings about Gene. For example, "and at this teen-age period in your life the proper person is your best pal" (Knowles 48). Finny expressed his feelings and Gene informed the readers of his thoughts. An example of this is, "But something held me back. Perhaps I was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth" (Knowles 48). So that is the friendship relationship between Gene and Finny and that is how John Knowles shows friendship in the book.

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In his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles reveals the theme of Jealousy. This is shown because we get to read Gene's thoughts in the book and they prove that he is jealous of Finny. For example, "I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little" (Knowles pg. 25). This piece of evidence shows us that Gene is slowly starting to become jealous of Finny and that he thinks that this is normal for everyone to envy others. Another piece of evidence that shows this theme is, "He had gotten away with everything. I felt a sudden stab of disappointment" (Knowles pg. 28). This shows that Gene was getting more jealous of Finny because Finny gets away with just about everything and Gene is starting to see that. All of these pieces of evidence point to the theme of Jealousy which is one of the themes of this book.

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In his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles shows the theme of war and jealousy. Throughout the story, Gene is constantly comparing himself to Finny. An example of this is, "I didn't really think about it myself. What difference did it make? It was just a game. It was good that Finny could shine at it. He could also shine at many other things, with people for instance" (Knowles 32). In this part of the book, Gene was jealous that Finny was shining in Blitzball, which led to him thinking about how Finny shines in pretty much everything. The theme is also shown when Gene assumes that Finny is trying to get in the way of Gene and his goal of being valedictorian. The rivalry is obvious, as Gene is determined to make sure that Finny doesn't get away. Gene spends the next few weeks constantly studying, showcasing the theme of war.

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In the Novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles reveals the theme of War and Jealousy. Throughout the story Gene has possessed an intense feeling of hatred and jealousy against Finny. Gene thinks everything Finny does he has to do better, for example, "I was more and more certainly becoming the best student in the school; Phineas was with out question the best athlete, so in that way we were even" (Knowles 55). We can also see that Gene has always hated Finny even when though he hasn't noticed yet; for example, "Perhaps I was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth" (Knowles 48). Although Gene claims to be Finnys best friend, we can see throughout the story that he is very jealous of him.

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In his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles reveals the theme of jealousy.
This was shown when Gene thought to himself, "I found it. I found a single sustaining thought. The thought was, You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both driving blindly ahead for yourselves alone. You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record, but so what? He hated you for getting an A in every course but one last term. You would have had an A in that one except for him. Except for him." (Knowles 53)
This shows jealousy because Gene is constantly trying to compete with Phineas. This quote is also ironic because it is not Phineas but Gene who hates when someone does better than him.

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In his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles shows the theme of identity. Its clear that Gene does not know who he is. He's always comparing himself to Finny and obviously wants to be like him. For example,"I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal," (Knowles 25). Its stated by Gene himself that he envies his friend. Gene is smart but Finny is athletic and can talk his way out of anything. Everyone in Gene and Finny's friend group thinks Finny is their group leader because he formed their club.

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In the Novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles expresses the theme of jealousy. for example, "I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little" (Knowles #25). This shows that Gene envies Finny and is also very jealous of Finny, so I can assume he envies Finny more than he admits.  Gene shows in many instances throughout the book that there is a lot of rivalry between the 2.

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In his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles continuously reveals the theme of jealousy. He starts by showing a friendship between two teenage boys (Finny and Gene). Naturally, Finny is completely oblivious and thinks this is the best friendship ever while Gene (narrator) always see this relationship as a rivalry or blames Finny for everything he does wrong. Gene is jealous of the fact that athletics come so naturally to Finny or that Gene has to work his way towards getting good academic grades when Finny doesn't have to worry about it cause he has athletics under his belt. There is constant jealousy of how easily Finny talks his ways out of things or how communicating with people comes so easy to him. An example of this is, “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. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little” (Knowles 25).

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In the novel, A Separate Peace, John Knowles conveys the theme of jealousy. In this book, we can see that Gene is jealous of Finny. There are multiple times when we see this theme. "then we would be even"(Knowles 52). This quote is directly showing how Gene is jealous of Finny's athletic abilities and is trying to 'get even' by doing better in class. Another instance is as follows, "He minded, despised the possibility that I might be the head of the school"(Knowles 52). This quote is ironic because it is Gene, not Finny who is despising the others proficiency. These quotes are showing the theme of jealousy, and reveal that Gene is constantly competing with Finny.

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In John Knowles novel A Separate Peace he shows an ongoing theme of Identity. For Example, "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." (Knowles 25). This quote can reveal that Gene has some sort of admiration, or as he stated, envy for Finny. This supports one of the four themes, Identity. This exposes a lot about Gene's insecurities and strengths. Finny personality supports Gene structure his identity issues and finding out who he is.