A Character Analysis Of Gene And Finny In A Separate Peace

In the first chapter of A Separate Peace, the reader is introduced to the the main characters: Gene and Finny. The author suggests that Gene is a very shy and timid young boy while he attend the Devon School fifteen years ago, but Finny is an outgoing and dangerous young boy. Finny is always looking for something to get into and challenge himself. Gene starts to have flashbacks of his childhood at Devon High school, but he does not feel the same way about them. One of the first things that Gene remember is “The Cage,” anyone who hears the word “The Cage” thinks of a dangerous or place for the misbehaved kids to go, but turns out, it was playing fields. The author makes the reader believe “The Cage” is a place for those being punished but then switches role and it is a place for all the athletic kids to play. Also, the reader is introduced to a tree, “this was

In today’s age teenage school boys are the farthest from innocent. In “A Separate Peace” Finny is portrayed as a slick, cunning, smart boy who tends to get whatever he wants. Teachers and students alike seem to fall at his feet and indulge in his little games. He’s proven several times in the story that he knows how to get people to do as he wants. Finny smiles and jokes his way through any sort of serious situation and he always seems to come out on top as he plays everyone around him like fine tuned instrument. In this novel, Finny is a magnetic, charismatic character whom people cannot help liking, but he is also manipulative, immature, and self centered. He is not nearly as innocent as he seems. Being all those thing doesn’t necessarily make you a bad person or even an evil person. Finny could very well think he is doing the right thing by ‘helping’ Gene out by pushing him to

Sometimes people read a text and do not go any further into the message inside. Howeverin the story A Separate Peace by John Knowles, The character of Finny represents innocence-aninnocence that is destroyed when it is forced to confront the hatred and evil in the real world.Finny is preserved by most as a picture of innocence because he acts like he has nothingto hide from anyone. The reader can infer this because, most of the teachers at Devon seem tothink of him this all good boy way. The reason the reader thinks this is because, they let the stuffthat Finny does, that is against the rules, slide and he does not get in any form of trouble.However when anyone else at Devon done these things they do not let them off as easy. Thisbeing because of the fact that Finny had a certain attitude towards life that made people not seethe bad in him.However later in the novel Finny falls from the tree and

Gene Finds Peace “Envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide...” (Emerson 370). In the novel, A Separate Peace Knowles tells us about a Gene’s past time at Devon’s High School. Gene is a smart, conformist, and jealous person. In A Separate Peace, Knowles describes how Gene envy and limitation of Finny affect him, how Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect his relationship with Finny, and how Gene achieves peace. Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him. One way he’s affect is when he hurts Finny, so now he has to play sports for him. In the novel Finny states “Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play for me” (Knowles 85). Finny is telling Gene since he can not play sports, Gene going to have to play them for him. Making Gene change more and more into Finny.

Conflicts start with jealousy; Gene begins to develop a sense of envy for Finny’s outgoing personality and his ability to talk out of troubles which later progresses into a one-sided rivalry. After Gene’s first flunked test, he tries to find an excuse to justify his failure, which he later conclude that Finny purposely interrupt his studies. Gene accuses Finny of distracting him and setting an image of a nice friend, he reasons, “Sure, he wanted to share everything with me, especially his procession of D’s in every subject. That way he, the great athlete, would be ahead of me. It was all cold trickery, it was all calculated, it was all empty” (Knowles 53). The jealousy comes from doubts and predictions, Gene made excuses to make himself feel better. This mindset help justify Gene’s resentment regarding Finny’s accomplishment. Although Gene knows that Finny is an outstanding athlete, he tries to match up to Finny’s by reasoning out possible doubts. When Gene unconsciously jounce on the branch, this life-changing decision affects both Finny and himself. Though he is guilty at the idea of Finny can no longer play sports, he is also glad that his “enemy” no longer exists.

Jealousy is inevitable when it is thrown at your face. Gene is a star student who is interested in learning and getting good grades. His best friend is Phineas, known as Finny, is the school's best athlete. He has won numerous awards broken school records. This is a characteristic that Gene could not quite figure out how to acquire, but he wanted to be better than Finny. This wasn’t the only quality that Finny

Many people have their own definition of evil. In the dictionary the definition is profoundly immoral and malevolent. My personal definition of evil is putting your needs before others, hurting someone or making their life miserable just so you have a better advantage to succeeding in your life. “A Separate Peace” is about a boy named Gene Forrester who returns to his school called the Devon school. He attended the school when he was young during World War II. Gene is a hardworking student who is devoted to his studies. Finny on the other hand, is terrible at schoolwork but is a tremendous athlete. In my point of view Gene is a ruthless evil person.

Furthermore, this immensely supports my clause in how Gene was jealous of Finny and was fighting an inner struggle. Gene made this comment because he was trying to hide his jealousy under a mask due to his non athleticism unlike Finny. Gene foresees that Finny is very popular and has many friends from the Devon school around him because he's so endearing to be around. In other words, This is also a silent blow to Finny because with the comparison of being surrounded by a hockey team, it shows that Gene was getting at that Finny is surrounded by chaos and loudness like Gene endured when around Finny just like a real hockey team. Jealousy goes hand in hand with creating our darkest

Jealousy is a powerful and extreme emotion that causes fear and insecurity. Wanting what someone else has often evokes jealousy. For example, Gene in “A Separate Peace” feels jealous of Finny’s popularity and athleticism. This jealousy drives Gene to act in ways he would not have otherwise. In order to create Gene’s jealousy in “A Separate Peace”, John Knowles depicts Finny as charismatic and trusting through the employment of indirect characterization which adds suspense and conflict.

Gene is a real trip in the story and to his friends; especially Finny. Gene has a tendency to hide behind people so he will not have to take up for his actions and take a responsibility. Gene would much rather go with what everyone else thinks rather than tell the truth and risk him look like the bad one as he did to save himself from Finny ‘“Oh no, I wouldn’t do that,”’ (71). Gene was the reason Finny shattered his leg because Gene was the one that jounced the limb making Finny fall from it and straight to the bed of the river (60). When Finny was laying in the infirmary after this Gene went to tell he did it, but Finny would not have it and this foible of Finny’s made Genes getaway. By Finny being forgiving and innocent Gene had the upmost perfect opportunity to lie and get the heat off of him even if Finny knew it. Gene was the best liar at Devon, but he was drowned with insecurities. Gene did all of these horrible things to himself because he was insecure about who is was and who he was not as stated in chapter 11 “a barefaced lie about my background” (156). Gene comes from an average family from the south and is only at Devon due to his academics and on a scholarship while everyone else comes from money. Seeing and living with Finny and seeing him being the center of attention, getting away with everything, being ignorant, and not having a care in the world; it made Gene envious. This sinful envy leads Gene right into a war he thinks is with finny “The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all” (54), but this war was just between Gene and himself. Gene goes through his life at Devon very selfish and envious, and he never stopped to think about Finny or anyone else other than himself. A Separate Peace never shows Gene growing up or maturing until fifteen years later and he comes back to Devon to take a short trip down memory lane (9). As he is back to Devon

To describe Finny, from a Separate Peace, in one word, I would say he’s bewildered. He’s confused and is trying to find ways to block out maliciousness in the world. Finny is ignoring reality to have fun and stay away from everything in the real world. To stay away from reality, Finny goes to places where he can relax and one of those places was the beach. When he went to the beach with Gene, he was very calm and was escaping from the war. On page 47, Gene describes how Finny… “enjoyed himself hugely, he laughed outloud at passing seagulls.” This quote from the book describes how, when Finny was at the beach, he didn’t have a care in the world. He did things that he normally wouldn’t do at Devon or around his other friends. This explains how

The envy Gene felt for Finny drove him to a state of mind where his goal was to beat Finny or at least be tied equal with him. Gene had an academic advantage over Finny and at first thought that they were even, but he ended up thinking that, “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies”(Knowles 53). He tries to focus more on his studies in order to beat Finny. Eventually, Gene is consumed by his envious ways and he finally makes a

I believe that Finny and Gene had a complicated friendship. Finny was someone who genuinely loved Gene and thought of him as his best friend. Basically, the friendship was one-sided most of the time. In my opinion, I think that Gene always believed it was a rivalry between the two of them. I could tell that he did like Finny, but he was just jealous of him. He may have thought Finny was out to get him. For example, on page 17-18, Finny said, “It’s you pal, just you and me.” He was referring to them jumping off of the tree into water. Gene might have thought that somehow sounded like some kind of challenge. After the fall (page 60) Gene started acting really weird. He was filled from head to toe with guilt and he couldn’t help but feel sorry

Finny is a staunch intimate friend, unlike Gene, who always aspires to get finny into torment. Gene had poisonous lethal cogitations such that Finny was after him to ruin him academically. These are all notions that had no essence . Gene just assured himself that Finny was begrudging him for being an A student. Having always had a scuffle within himself, gene yearned to be Finny. Finny never got into adversity and that what engendered Gene’s dissatisfaction and uneasiness. One night, Gene jounced the limb of the tree and Finny fell fracturing his leg. This was considered a turning point in Gene’s life when he knew that Finny would hardly amble, meaning that he could no longer play sports like he did before. Gene , then, perceives the

A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a novel about the coming-of-age, narrated by Gene Forrester, the main character, about the agony that comes from taking those first steps out of childhood innocence into the wicked world called adulthood. Gene Forrester’s lack of self-confidence and self-worth leads him to become jealous of his best friend, Phineas, also known as Finny. Finny is a charming and athletic daredevil, things that Gene is not. Jealousy overcomes Gene, causing him to bounce a branch of their sacred tree, leading to his best friend’s fall. One recurrence in the novel is that Knowles uses Gene to show the readers that one's’ identity can be molded through insecurities and an admiration for someone.