“Where the id was, there the ego will be” – Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and founding father of psychoanalysis, developed a concept that the mind was divided into three sections known as the id, ego and superego. The id is the unconscious mind driven by impulses; he makes decisions without thinking about the subsequent consequences. The opposite of the id is the individual's superego: it is known as "conscience" because it is motivated by morality. Finally, there is the ego: the conscious part of the mind that makes decisions by balancing the id and superego. In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene Forrester depicts all of these Freudian concepts of the mind: the id, when he hurts Finny by blowing the branch off the tree, the superego, when he feels guilty for his actions immoral, and the ego, when it tries to avoid its consequences by transforming the incident into a joke. These three concepts will be analyzed in this essay. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the original essayIn the novel, Gene's identity makes impulsive and aggressive decisions to "eliminate" his friend Finny, whom Gene considers to be a threat. In the novel, Gene and Finny form an illusion of camaraderie, but in Gene's mind, there still exists a hidden rivalry between them. At first, Gene thinks that these certain feelings towards Finny are completely normal and will diminish with time. However, over time, Gene realizes that these feelings of jealousy do not let go, but grow to the point of hatred. This causes a competitive feeling in him, which essentially leads to Gene's id overpowering his ego and superego for a slight moment when Gene hurts Finny. When Gene wants to be better at French, Finny disrupts these desires and discourages Gene from studying French when he says, "I don't care about French." Also, the day before Gene's trigonometry test, Finny convinces him to escape to the beach against the school rules. Because of this, Gene does not have time to study for his next test, resulting in Gene failing. For these reasons, Gene begins to believe that Finny is jealous of his academic strength and is deliberately doing these actions to ruin Gene's chances of being valedictorian. This competitive spirit attacks Gene and a part of him, the id, wants to destroy Finny before the competition intensifies. Before the incident on the tree, Gene feels great jealousy towards Finny, and Gene thinks that Finny secretly feels the same way. However, when they are both at the top of the tree, Gene sees that Finny feels no jealousy or hatred towards him. This causes Gene to realize that he is the only jealous friend, making him believe that he is truly a "savage". For a while, Gene denied his feelings of hatred and jealousy towards Phineas, but when all the feelings came back to him and he saw how terrible he is, Gene's identity quells his desire by blowing up the branch of the tree for Finny to fall: “Holding tightly to the trunk, I took a step towards it, then my knees bent and I popped the limb. Finny, unbalanced, turned his head to look at me for a moment with extreme interest, then he fell on his side, breaking the small branches below and hitting the bank with a nauseating and unnatural thud. Since Gene feels threatened by Finny, the id becomes aggressive in order to hurt Finny so that Gene can satisfy his desire to be the best, without worrying about the later consequences of his actions. In A Separate Peace, Gene expounds the Freudian concept of the superego. because he strives to be first in his class, does everything..