A Separate Peace By John Knowles: Character Analysis

Gene gains peace from guilt when he becomes self-aware, mature, and remorseful. The subsequent time that Finny injures his leg, Gene goes to see him and expresses sincere regret, showing his remorse. When visiting Finny, Gene confesses that what happened up on that tree was a rage of jealousy that had controlled him. Confessing to Finny helps Gene overcome the burden of guilt. Finny’s death causes Gene to become sad, however he was relieved that they were able fixed their friendship before it was too late. At Finny’s funeral Gene “did not cry” and “could not escape a feeling that this was [his] funeral”, showing that he lost a piece of him (Knowles 194). Gene feeling that

At the beginning of the story, Gene is unconcerned about his actions, but after he has suffered and understands how selfish he was. He was blinded by his jealousy of Finny and eventually his insecurities overwhelmed him. “This time he wasn’t going to get away with it. I could feel myself become unexpectedly excited at that” (30). In this

A Separate Peace is a World War II setting book written by the author, John Knowles. A Separate Peace is an example of a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age  novel. One of the main characters, Gene Forrester, is a perfect example of someone who is coming-of-age. As the  novel progresses, Gene  is transformed and impacted by many different experiences during his time at Devon High School.  In the book, A Separate Peace, Gene  becomes mature from his experiences from Finny’s death and Training for the Olympics; He also loses his innocence, and this teaches the reader about growing up and the idea of losing innocence.

It wasn’t my neck, but my understanding which was menaced. He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he.” This is what Gene fears, more than Finny’s charm or athleticism but his goodness of heart, how what he says is what he means for his motives. What I don’t understand is why Gene is relieved of fear when Finny falls from the tree and breaks some bones in his body. His athleticism was destroyed, but his character wasn’t. Maybe it was because that’s one less thing Finny is able to do, but I’m not sure what to make of this. In addition to what I said in the first paragraph, when Brinker brings in Gene and Finny into the courtroom to investigate the accident, although Gene fears that the truth will be told, he’s not the only one there who holds the emotion of fear. “Finny turned toward me. “You were down at the bottom, weren’t you?” he asked not in the official courtroom tone he had used before, but in a friend’s voice.” Finny fears Gene’s betrayal that he has altered the past in his mind to avoid facing the truth. In the beginning of the investigation, Finny is unsure about what happened. First he claims that he took a wrong step and lost his balance. When Gene is the interrogated about whether he was in the tree or not, Finny aggressively said, “How do you expect him to remember?” “There was a

In A Separate Peace Gene and Finny’s friendship has to tackle a lot of obstacles. Gene and Finny were never exactly on the same page when it came to their friendship. Each of them was always assuming about the other. One of the book’s messages is that friendships take work, and if the friendship is worth it, then you should put in the work. In A Separate Peace, there are prevalent themes of friendship, how friends can help or hurt one another, and the sacrifices made for loved ones.

Gene’s envy and intimidation of Finny caused great internal turmoil with himself throughout the story. He went through and identity crisis because he was unsure of who he was and who he wanted to be. In the story, Gene said, “I went along, as I always did, with any new invention of Finny’s” (Knowles 117). He always went along with everything Finny proposed or did; this gave him little to no time to discover who he really was. This lack of personal discovery lead him to doubt who he was. This internal conflict within Gene also affected his personal actions. Before Finny’s fall, Gene said, “I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb” (Knowles

In the novel, “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles, the seasons develop actions and characters in the story. The story takes place at an all-boys boarding school in New Hampshire during World War II based off of the author’s previous experiences at a boarding school. The two main characters, Finny and Gene, experience character development alongside different seasons. In written works, seasons are commonly used to symbolically represent a change in the character’s personalities. The nature or setting of the story is used to specifically evolve Finny and Gene in seasons such as the summer, autumn, and winter. Each season change also generates an entirely different mood.

Two boys with different personalities, but same inner being; the question is how well do they know themselves and each other? The book, A Separate Peace by John Knowles talks about two boys named Gene and Finny who become good friends. Finny seems to really appreciate Gene as his roommate, but Gene, on the other hand, feels nothing but jealousy toward Finny’s athletic capabilities and his way of getting away with everything. His way of showing his envy was by revenge, which turned into a problem for Finny and the rest of his life. Unfortunately, Finny gets into another accident that Gene feels responsible for and it leads to Finny’s tragic death. Throughout the book, Gene indicates his inner self, becoming more mature from the moment he lost

In the very beginning of the book, Finny convinces Gene to come and jump off of the tree with him. At one point, Gene starts to lose his balance, but Finny immediately grabs Gene’s hand, preventing him from falling. By doing this, Gene’s “panic immediately disappear[s]” (Knowles 31). This shows how Finny is Gene’s savior, and this also marks the moment where Gene starts to trust Finny. After the fall from the tree, Gene’s friendship with Finny grows stronger, and the two are practically inseparable. When Brinker told Finny that he and Gene were going to enlist, Finny is very disappointed and looks at Gene with “ an odd expression” (Knowles 107). As a result, Gene decides not to enlist solely because of his friendship with Finny. He does not want to do it because he knows that Finny needs him. Likewise, Gene needs Finny because he is his better half. Through these reasons, it is clear that Gene has many healthy feelings for Finny.

Gene, fueled by these characteristics, let’s himself use these feelings to motivate his choices. Gene was an introverted, intelligent individual, while his roommate Finny was jovial, athletic, and attractive. Gene cared greatly for Finny, and wanted to become him to such an extent, he tried on Finny’s clothing while he was in the infirmary as a coping mechanism. During that time, Gene looked in the mirror and saw himself as Finny, down to the expressions on his face. Gene noted that “...(he) would never stumble through the confusions of (his) own character again.” After trying on Finny’s clothing. Gene was completely lost in Finny’s identity. Over the course of the novel, Gene finally realizes that his own character is his, and his alone. Yet, Gene had been so close to Finny, whenever Finny was hurt or at his funeral, Gene felt that he was injured or dead. Insecurity and identity is the main theme in this novel, and it largely affects Gene and his choices throughout the

Perhaps I was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth. ”(21). The quote supports the idea that Gene is not being completely truthful to Finny. Relationships can not be maintained if one side is untrustworthy. Later in the story, out of jealousy Gene caused Finny to fall off the tree and break his leg.

In the novel, The Separate Peace, by John Knowles, a new character named Brinker Hadley was introduced. Brinker does not seem like most of the people Gene knows, “His face was all straight lines-eyebrows, mouth, nose, everything-and he carried his six feet of height straight as well. He looked but happened not to be athletic, being too busy with politics, arrangements, and offices” (Knowles 87). I was a little surprised that he was not athletic because most of the people Gene know are. Brinker and Gene seem to get along well. I think they get along well because they almost have similar interest and both are not really athletic. Leper is one of Gene’s old friends who he kind of catches up with. He is kind of in his own world and doing his own thing.

Not everyone in this life can be the very best and express themselves to their full potential one hundred percent of the time; that is because no one is perfect. Everyone who has common sense in this world knows that we all make mistakes. Making mistakes is just one factor of beginning to grow up. I do think that more people need to take this to consideration that mistakes, or even doing something on purpose, is just a normal part of maturing. So, if you were to get into some really deep thought about this topic, then you would realize that yes, every person would have to leave their innocence behind in order to mature.

Are human beings mostly good or mostly evil? Does the potential for evil exist in

“It was surprisingly how well we got along in these two weeks. Sometimes I found it hard to remember his treachery, sometimes I discovered myself thoughtlessly slipping back into affection for him again. I remember when one summer day after another broke with a cool effulgence over us, and there was a breath of widening life in the next morning air- something hard to describe- an oxygen intoxicant. I forgot whom I hated and who hated me. I wanted to break out crying from stabs of hopeless joy, or intolerable promise, or because these mornings were too full of beauty for me, because I knew of too much hate to be contained in a world like that.”(pg10) Gene the narrator shows tremendous growth throughout this novel and he is affected by his friend that ran away, the accident and his best friend named Finny. The main