William Penn once said, "The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves." At some point in our lives, each of us experiences jealousy. Jealousy affects enemies, families, and even best friends and often causes permanent damage to even the strongest relationships. Gene Forrester learns this the hard way. His envy of Phineas causes him to hurt both Finny and himself. Gene's jealousy takes over his life and changes the way he behaves throughout the novel. The incident transforms the root of Gene's jealousy from destructive to obsessive due to Finny's athleticism, his ease at escaping guilt, and his overall superior personality. Before the accident, Gene always tries to compete with Finny and his jealousy of Finny's athletic ability leads to the destruction of their friendship. Gene resents the fact that Finny has a natural talent. His resentment causes him to be offended by comments Finny makes wondering how Gene needs to study to do well at what he is capable of doing in school. Gene says, “He seemed to draw some sort of parallel between my studies and his sports. He probably thought that everything you were good at came effortlessly” (58 Knowles). Gene puts a lot of effort into his academic abilities and in return far surpasses Finny's. When Finny questions Gene about the need to study, it diminishes Gene's talent and makes it substandard compared to Finny's athleticism because his talent requires no effort. Since Gene aims to be bigger than Finny, this angers him immensely. These feelings lead him down a path of animosity towards Finny, causing Gene to want to hurt him. Before the accident, Gene resents Finny's ignorance of the negative aspects of the sport, losing: “Finny... middle of paper... angry at Finny, but still seems to be jealous of his legacy. The repetition of Phineas' name emphasizes how important Finny was to Gene and the impact Finny had on Devon. Gene vents his jealousy of Finny's talents and cute personality in a mischievous way. His actions make him want to change his identity to be like Finny to escape what he has done. A friendship with a little competition is normal, but when someone hurts their friend or tries to be their friend, it becomes unhealthy. Many people don't realize the effect 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 outlet to avoid making regretful choices in moments of anger. When someone is jealous they end up hurting others, but above all themselves.