A separate peace shows jealousy and envy coinciding to form a life-long catastrophe which haunts Gene into almost becoming a psychotic individual who eventually becomes too numb to even cry over Finney, whose innocence has no relation to his death. Finney's perfect personality causes Gene's mental state to clash and causes him to cause an accident which he can never forget. Nevertheless, Finney remains the elite individual who is unique from everyone else until he damages a leg which causes him to be crippled for life. .
Finney, the individual who is far more influential than Gene, continues the trend of being well liked until his dieing day. Gene however is a boy with a miserable amount of guilt piled up inside of his body and feels insensitive to life due to his dreadful deed to Finney. He entails his mind to know the truth about his friend Finney and can't understand how one can be so perfect in life. He even convinces his mind's reasoning to believe that Finney is against him and wants him to be away from his normal studious self. He tries to escape the horror of guilt by engulfing his brain with homework and studies but fails to restrain his brain from thinking about the accident that was caused because of his slightly evil mind. His purpose didn't seem to enjoy the fact that Finney was permanently crippled. In fact, from Gene's first person point of view, it seems as though he just wanted some sort of mediation to make his self esteem and self confidence level rise. Finney, on the other hand, doesn't give the impression of being a stone hearted individual as some may view Gene. It appeared that Finney's goal in life was to remain a devious individual who was to be well-liked and envied by others, as Gene's original plan was to be studious and follow Finney's lead. Finney's thoughts also showed an immense amount of innocence by getting Gene ready for the Olympics because he can't participate anymore saying "So I"m going to coach you for them instead" (Pg.