Rivalry In A Separate Peace

Deep within every person, there is a desire to be the best—a wish to be the best, the top, the crème de la crème. This wish for dominance radiates through almost every facet of the human experience, and thus brings rivalry and completion between people. In John Knowles book, A Separate Peace, Gene, the narrator, states that, “There are few relationships…not based on rivalry.” To a certain extent, this is true. Some relationships form and grow from the desire to win; however, there exist many relationships that are based on love, and even more so that are based on a mix of the two. Rivalry has firmly seated itself in the human experience and will undoubtedly forever perch there for the world to see. One can easily peer into their surroundings and find examples of enmity. Gene Forrester, a central character and the narrator in A Separate Peace, positions himself as a rival of Finny, his roommate and friend. Gene, jealous of Finny’s natural athleticism and genial personality, allows his hatred to fester and grow, rotting him away from the inside out, until this scarlet loathing causes him to joust Finny from a tree, thus shattering Finny’s athleticism

Would any one sleep at night, or would they constantly watch their backs? Would there be any trust, and progress, any reason to work together for a common good? It is absurd to think that all, or even a majority of relationships are based on rivalry. If rivalry prevailed, if enmity dominated, the world would transform into a paranoid dungeon of hatred and spite, a place unfit to live and prosper in, a nightmare of crimson wounds and salty tears and gnashing teeth, with the wails of the lost and trampled piercing night and day for all of eternity. Happily, this is not the case. There is rivalry insofar that there is human nature. Yet, it is also human nature to love, protect, and seek relationships beyond those of