William Penn once said, “The jealous are a trouble to others, but a torment to themselves.” At some point in everyone's life, we will experience jealousy. Jealousy affects enemies, families, and even best friends, and often leads to permanent damage in even the strongest relationships. Gene Forrester learns this the hard way. His envy of Phineas drives him to hurt Finny and himself. Gene's jealousy takes over his life and changes the way he acts throughout the novel. The accident changes the root of Gene's jealousy from destructive to obsessive due to Finny's athleticism, ease with escaping blame, and overall superior personality. Before the accident, Gene always tries to compete with Finny and his jealousy of Finny's athleticism. ability leads to the destruction of their friendship. Gene doesn't appreciate Finny's natural talent. His resentment leads him to be offended by Finny's comments questioning how Gene must study to do as well as he is able to in school. Gene says, “It seemed like he made some sort of parallel between my studies and his sports. He probably thought that anything you were good at was effortless” (58 Knowles). Gene puts a lot of effort into his academic abilities and, in return, these far exceed Finny's. When Finny asks Gene if he needs to study, this diminishes Gene's talent and makes him inferior to Finny's athleticism, as his talents require no effort. Because Gene aims to be bigger than Finny, this angers him immensely. These feelings lead him down a path of animosity towards Finny, which leads Gene to want to harm him. Before the accident, Gene is angered by Finny's ignorance of the downsides of sport - losing: "Finny...... middle of paper...... I'm mad at Finny, but he still seems jealous of his heritage. . The repetition of Phineas' name emphasizes Finny's importance to Gene and the impact Finny had on Devon. Gene expresses his jealousy of Finny's talents and likeable personality in a malicious manner. His actions lead him to want to change his identity to look like Finny in order to escape what he has done. A friendship with a little competition is normal, but when it leads to someone hurting their friend or trying to be their friend, it becomes unhealthy. Many people don't realize the effect that jealousy has on their lives. Jealousy causes people to treat others horribly. People in jealous relationships should find a way to express their feelings in a healthy way to avoid making regrettable choices in angry moments. When someone is jealous, they end up hurting others, but especially themselves...