In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the narrator and protagonist, given Gene Forrester's obsession for order and excellence, he would make the better soldier. Early on in the novel, Gene's relationship towards Phineas, also known as Finny, seems to be defined purely by simple envy. Gene feels both love and hate for his best friend at different times, both worshipping and resenting his athletic and moral superiorities. Finny was the one who had been the master of sports and conning his way out of trouble while Gene was the academic mastermind. Though Finny added many dimensions to Gene's life that thoroughly improved it, no one would dare challenge Gene's love of academics. Therefore, such an approach clearly would follow him into the military. In order to become the superior soldier, the "one" must possess many key survival qualities to compete in the battlefronts of war, which were possessed by Gene throughout the novel.
As the characters in the novel were introduced, it was clearly shown that Gene was jealous of Finny at numerous times throughout the duration of book. Finny was the one who had always strived profusely to be the leader of the group as stated by Gene that "Naturally Finny was going to be the first to try, and just as naturally he was going to inveigle others, us, into trying it with him." (Page 7) In the preceding quote, Gene told of how Finny's personality portrayed him as constantly being the "dare devil" of the boys in the group, and then would persuade everyone else to follow in his footsteps. If Finny were to be a soldier, this characteristic would not be an advantage, but would be a disadvantage to him, since he would always be thinking spontaneously about mischief, breaking rules, and what wild act he could do next. If he would be worrying about that too much, an enemy would be able to pick him off with ease. On the contrary, those who could be intellectually clever would be able to survive in the combat zone, for they would be able to use their brain for strategic moves instead of adrenaline rushing acts.
