Blog 4: Text Connection

          A Separate Piece by John Knowles is a novel depicting an incident that occurs one summer to two best friends at their boarding school, and how the repercussions haunt them both and change their lives forever.  The storyline to Knowles’ book can be related back to the plot of a famous play written by William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, even though the settings of the two literary pieces are radically different.  In A Separate Piece, it is apparent that Gene is jealous of Phineas due to his superior athleticism, popularity, and ability to charm anyone.  Throughout the novel, Gene feels as if he is unable to match up the superior qualities of his best friend, and his jealousy finally reveals itself physically when he purposely shakes the branch they are both standing on, which causes Phineas to fall down.  Not only does this break Phineas’ leg, but at that moment, Gene does not care to save his friend from crashing down, and instead “jump[s] into the river, every trace of [his] fear forgotten” (60).  By seeing him fall, Gene is exposed to a fault in Phineas, and feels liberated because he his friend is no longer a perfect persona that he has to be held back by.  Unfortunately, Gene’s moment of carelessness and jealousy eventually leads to Phineas’ death, when he plummets down the stairs months later once he finds out the truth about his first fall.

The same concept of jealousy between friends resulting in the demise of one is seen in Julius Caesar, when high-Roman officials, who are “loyal” friends of Caesar, conspire to assassinate him.  Although Brutus, his best friend, tags along in the murder because he feels Caesar is not a beneficial leader for Rome, other men, such as Cassius and Casca, are jealous of Caesar’s success and the way he is revered as a God by the public.  Their jealousy eventually climaxes and gets the better of them when they corner Caesar and savagely stab him, resulting in his death.  These two literary works seem to be polar opposites, with A Separate Piece situated at a New England boarding school during World War II, and Julius Caesar set in ancient Rome in 44 BC; but they both reflect the theme of how jealousy can destroy relationships and lead to extreme consequences, such as death.