A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, is the story of two seemingly best friends, Gene and Phineas. Tension and competition grow between them throughout the book, causing jealousy and hatred. Gene, overtaken by jealousy, jounces a tree's limb, causing Finny to fall and break his leg. Later, after a second fall, Finny breaks his leg again. At the end of the book, Finny dies due to a complication during surgery to repair his leg.

Throughout the book, the competition between Gene and Finny grows. They compete with each other in sports and for good grades. Finny's view of sports is "You always win at sports. This "you" was collective. Everyone always won at sports. When you played a game you won...Finny never permitted himself to realize that when you won they lost" (Knowles 27). Finny fails to acknowledge that sports are not always perfect and that in sports...