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In the novel “A Separate Peace" John Knowles creates a relationship between two friends that will confuse many. These two friends are Finny and Gene, two popular students at Devon, a private high school in New Hampshire. Their relationship is a strange one; Gene feels resentment towards Finny but still wants to be friends with him. Throughout the whole story, Gene constantly has a different opinion about their friendship and tries to figure out exactly what is going on between them. However, Gene never realizes that, in the end, Finny is his motivation. Gene is very much a part of Finny entire life while in New Hampshire. At the beginning of the book he follows Phinaes around as if he was his shadow. Finny suggests that himself, Gene and some friends of his jump out of a tree, and in Gene’s words, “what was I doing here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this? Was he getting some kind of hold on me?” (p. 17). this isn’t the first time Gene does something he doesn’t want to. Despite his initial reaction, he goes along with Finny and creates the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session and yet again jumps out of the tree to celebrate the beginning of the club. In chapter 3, Fi