The Villain In A Separate Peace English Literature Essay

In the novel, A Separate Peace, the main villain is Gene Forrester. One reason Gene is the villain is because Gene’s thoughts and views are envious. Ellis says that Gene is not capable of maintaining Phineas’s spiritual purity and, as a result, Gene is cruel to Phineas. Knowles informs that Gene assumes that there is no harm to envy your best friend since Gene thinks envying Phineas is perfectly normal. Another reason Gene is the villain is because Phineas’s death involves Gene and his cruelty. Ellis explains how Gene discovers his private evil, which causes him to hurt Phineas. Knowles describes how Gene already ends his own war, given that he kills his enemy at Devon School.

Gene is the villain because his thoughts and views are envious. In the article it says, “The tragedy of the novel ultimately is that Gene is not capable of maintaining the spiritual purity that distinguishes Phineas and so must as he discovers his own savagery betray Phineas” (Ellis 314). This quote explains that Gene finds his own odium towards Phineas’s spiritual personality. Therefore, Gene wants to be better and more superior than Phineas, causing him to be jealous of Phineas. As Gene becomes jealous, he gains savagery against Phineas because he cannot maintain the perfect image of his best friend. Gene also betrays Phineas and their friendship because Gene holds a grudge against his best friend. In conclusion, Gene discovers envious thoughts in which ends irritates Phineas’s presence. The amount of hatred and greed Gene has against Phineas symbolizes a villain’s personality.

The amount of greed that Gene carries toward Phineas depicts him as a villain. In the novel, it states, “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 quote explains that Gene starts to feel greed and soon envies his best friend, Phineas. Gene begins to act paranoid about being competitive with Phineas and, as a result, Gene becomes very jealous and alert. As Gene starts to envy his best friend, it shows how untrustworthy and evil Gene can be. It also shows that Gene admits that he does envy his best friend, Phineas, but it takes him a while to finally admit to himself that he feels this sense of jealousy. Gene just explains it in a way so that his thought of Phineas seems normal and uses it as an excuse so that it seems normal and ordinary. These cruel traits that Gene upholds can be categorize in the qualities of a true villain.

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Another reason Gene is the villain is because Phineas’s death involves Gene. Ellis states, “Gene has discovered that his private evil, which caused him to hurt Phineas, is the same evil – only magnified that results the war” (318) This quote explains that Gene has an amount of evil within himself and it causes him to hurt Phineas. Gene shows no self control and an adolescent mind since he hurt his best friend due to jealousy. In addition, Phineas’s death involves Gene because he has so much evil and cruelty to be motivated to jounce the tree’s limp causing Phineas to fall which led to the beginning of his downfall. If Gene never discovered this internal evil then Phineas’s life would have never be on risk. Gene’s evil plays a huge role in classifying him as a true villain because his intense level of hate makes him infuriate about Phineas’s accomplishments and actions.

Gene’s involvement in Finny’s death classifies him as a villain. In the novel, it says, “I never killed anyone 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 my enemy there” (Knowles 204). This quote explains that Gene’s involvement in Phineas’s death was his goal or desire. At Deven, Gene wanted to end Phineas’s life so that he can look superior and will not have to worry about someone being better than him anymore. This quote also shows the huge amount of hatred and the lack of loyalty Gene has toward Phineas because Gene just wants to finish his own war. He results the end of his war by ending his best friend’s life and he does success since he takes out with bothered him the most. Finally, the quote illustrates that Gene shows no pity since he did not care as much and Gene also shows any sadness about Phineas’s death. Similar to a true villain, Gene terminates his enemy by the amount of hatred and envious desires. Therefore, Gene ends his war at Devon School by Phineas’s death and he was able to accomplish this by the intense level of hatred.

Gene Forrester is the true villain in the novel, The Separate Peace. Gene’s envious thoughts and views make him develop an amount of hatred and greed towards his best friend, Phineas. Gene even finds his odium against Phineas’s personality, which soon makes him discover his savagery against Phineas. His envious thoughts make him envy his best friend and. as a result, increases the amount of greed and tension between both of them. The involvement in causing Phineas’s death also clarifies why Gene is the true villain. Gene’s evil causes him to make a goal, in which it involves the end of Phineas’s life so that his own war would end. Gene shows a variety of qualities and characteristic in which clarifies why Gene is the true villain in this novel.