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A Separate Peace - Enemies

Life is a war for everybody with may difficulties and enemies. Everybody experiences the harsh reality of life’s struggles externally and internally. On thing that makes people win their wars are their hopes and those who belive in themselves. In John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, the main character, Gene, faces internal and external wars and tries to perceive who it the true enemy.
Gene has many different enemies. Of all of Gene’s enemies, Finny is his greatest and truest enemy. Gene was jealous of Finny’s abilities. He wanted to be athletic and charismatic like Finny. “If Phineas pressed hard enough, that there might be an flow of simple, unregulated friendliness between them, and such flows were on e of Finny’s reasons for living.” Gene was jealous of the way Finny was able to talk his way out of trouble using diplomacy. Gene was also envious of Finny’s athletic abilities such as swimming and Blitzball. To deal with his problem, Gene had jounced the limb of the tree from which he and Finny were going to jump. “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb.” Gene was really desperate enough to almost kill Finny just to get payback. Gene’s actions had just caused himself more problems.
Gene faces many internal and external conflicts throughout the novel. An example of an internal conflict is the guilt gene feels after causing Finny’s accident. “I spent as much time as I could alone in our room, trying to empty…” Gene had really grieved or what he had done. He also cried which embiggens the sorrow Gene felt. One external conflict that Gene encounters was when Gene and Quackenbush fight and they both get thrown in the river. “I tried to throw him off, he lunged at the same time, and we catapulted in the water.” Gene had enough of Quackebush’s tomfoolery to strike him across the face. Gene is also showing some resilience like how Finny would.
A Separate Peace has a lot of...

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