A Separate Peace Chapter 3

While the adolescent males conveyed valiant desires, they all remained fearful of the future. Finny was the one who possessed the ability to enliven his solemn peers. Rather than wallowing in his thoughts, Finny hosted the winter carnival. A social function of such magnitude kept the teenagers from focusing on the war, but rather on their several youthful possibilities. While enjoying himself at the carnival, Gene reflected, “It wasn't the cider which made me surpass myself, it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, and separate peace” (9.128). Gene repeatedly implied “peace” at Devon School, however this was only acquired thanks to Finny helping peers mentally escape the war. Though Finny viewed his actions as a positive diversion, Gene’s paranoia began to obscure his judgment. Gene retained a deep-seated loathing for Finny, mainly due to jealously. After convincing himself that Finny was sabotaging his educational achievements, Gene shook the branch both boys were standing on. Finny plummeted downward and injured himself to the extent of never being able to participate in sporting events again. When analyzing his greatest fears involving Finny in chapter four, Gene stated, “He had never been jealous of me for a

Throughout the story Finny thinks him and Gene are friends; when they are really enemies. In the novel Gene says, “what was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into this? Was he getting some kind of hold over me?” (Knowles 5). The narrator’s jealousy, starts to grow more towards the other character. The hate Gene has for Finny builds up and eventually leads to his death. Their relationship got more affected when Gene admitted to causing the accident, and caused Finny to never play sports again. When Gene admits to hurting Finny, it changes both of the characters, and their friendship was hanging by a

In chapter 11 of A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, Gene is back from Leper’s and wants to see Finny. Gene sees that Finny is in a snowball fight and Gene joins in when Finny hits him with a snowball. Later that night Brinker asks about Leper, Gene decided to tell both Finny and Gene that Leper has gone crazy. Finny admits that there really is war going on if Leper is so affected by it that he has gone crazy. At 10:05 pm that night Brinker and some others want to take Finny and Gene somewhere. They are both confused since it is after hours. Brinker takes them to the Assembly Room where he has taken it upon himself to investigate what really happened in that tree the day of Finny’s accident. Finny and Gene do not want to be in this situation

Crafted by author John Knowles in the late 1950’s, A Separate Peace is a heart-wrenching Bildungsroman narrated by a pensive Gene Forrester as he reflects upon trials and tribulations at his alma-mater, the Devon Boarding School. In an attempt to process the tragic loss of his best friend and coping with his own responsibility in his friend’s death, Gene returns to the campus to confront his progressive loss of Finny in both his plummet from the tree by the river to his tumble down the marble staircase. At a glance, Finny and Gene’s relationship appears to be a story of tragedy as Gene must forever carry the loss of his very best friend, but as the novel progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Gene and Finny’s relationship before Finny’s accident was far from being black-and-white. Diving deeper into the text, Gene reveals his true feelings about Finny that fluctuate from Finny being an object of obsession to being a source of resentment. As the story is told from Gene’s point of view, the reader is submerged into the realm of Gene’s odd fascinations with Finny and the manifestations of his feelings of hatred and idolization as he acts out in odd ways, such as mimicking Finny’s facial expressions and clothing and developing conspiracy theories in which Finny is planning Gene’s academic downfall. Gradually, the picture painted of the teenage Gene Forrester of A Separate Peace becomes more and more distorted as Gene’s sanity is called into question. His

There is an unspoken contract between Finny and Gene that they both know about, and that contract is that Gene has to do anything to help Finny because Finny can’t do the things that he normally does anymore. Finny is taking this contract as a way to live through Gene, whatever he can’t do anymore that he wants to do he makes Gene do it. Finny says,“Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,” and I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas”(85). This conversation forms a pattern for their relationship after the impulse makes Gene jounce the branch. Their new relationship works in a way which Gene allows Finny to live through him by becoming apart of Finny and by letting Finny train him to be the athlete that Finny can no longer be. Even though Finny is living through Gene, Gene is also living through Finny. Gene’s words in this quote suggest, to experience life by living through Finny is to be able to gain a sense of purpose, and Gene likes this idea because he doesn't know what his purpose in life is yet. When Finny trains Gene for his fantasy of going to the 1944 Olympics,their friendship develops as a codependency. This codependency fills Finny’s need to live out his dreams and Gene’s desire to find himself and what his purpose is. By Gene becoming apart of

Chapter four starts with the gray dawn and closes with a gray dusk. Also, it begins with Gene describing Finny coming to life as Lazarus and ends with the tragic fall that destroys his life. Finny wakes that morning with characteristic action, proposing a quick swim. But of couse Gene declines because he is thinking about his limits and rules. When he looked at the sun, he knew it was about 6:30, and all he could do was worry about his trigonometry test that would be at 10:00. For Gene, the meaning of the morning emerges not from the beauty of the dawn the beautiful beach, but from his worries and disappointments. Finny has lost their money, and they must now bicycle back to Devon without breakfast and arrive just in time for Gene to fail his

Gene starts to develop paranormal feelings toward Finny. The author states “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies” (Knowles 53). One night while Gene is studying, Finny disrupts his train of thought. Gene then starts to think that Finny is out to get him, while in reality he is only being a friend. Finny got angry with Gene when he finds out the truth of how he fell out of the tree.

As humans were on Earth their emotions kept the people they liked close and the people they didn’t out. Furthermore getting a human's trust is hard to earn but one wrong move they could lose all trust someone had with them; with losing trust someone could be sent into chaos. This chaos could show the dark side of human nature. As shown in the movie, The Dead Poet's Society and also within the book, The Separate Peace the readers are given an incite to the dark side of human nature.

Since Finny could no longer play sports he wanted to live his dreams through Finny.He dream was to go to the Olympics. I think that Gene went along with it because he felt bad for the whole situation. He already felt guilty so this was a way for

Once Gene had delivered the news he thought, “It struck me then that I was injuring him again. It occurred to me that this could be an even deeper injury than what I had done before. (Knowles 70)” In the quote Gene realizes that he was hurting Finny even more than he was already hurt by confessing his actions, therefore changing their relationship. The two boys’ relationship was no longer based off of their compliance, but their want to be each other. Because Gene admitted to pushing Finny out of the tree, both of the boys knew that there was lots of jealousy in their friendship. The jealousy in their friendship is based off of their want to be each other. After the confession at Finny’s house, Gene began to wear some of Finny’s clothes and Finny wanted to become better at school, therefore they now had different roles in the relationship. The different roles they had in the relationship were that Finny started to study more and actually care about school, but Gene became a little more reckless. The change in Gene and Finny’s relationship was the jealousy over wanting to be each

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 feels insignificant when with Phineas, and rages much like a child who wants to be the center of attention. Without thought, and just based on his anger, Gene jounces a limb on the tree that the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session jumps off at every meaning. This makes Phineas tumble to the ground and shatters his leg, while Gene effortlessly jumps off the limb with no fear. Knowles shows here that because Gene destroyed his enemy, he restored the child’s self-image of being the center of the world. But, he claims after the accident that it was not his fault, again like a kid, and blames it on his knees. This fall of the tree mirrors the Fall of Man in the bible. In this analogy, Eden or Phineas are pushed by Sin or Gene in order to crush the innocence of mankind. After this fall, Gene has more experience but habitually retreats back to conformity. Although, Gene does go admit his guilt and apologize to Finny on page 66. “I’m sorry about that feeling I had...” shows a true milestone in the maturity of Gene and his growth as a person. But this soon leads to an angry realization causing Finny an indirect injury. In the friends’ last conversation, Gene and Finny freely discuss the fall and Gene uses this experience as insight into the world, in order to fight his internal enemies of doubt and a lack of

And if it wasn’t there, as for example with Phineas, then I put it there myself” (Knowles 101). This reveals Gene to be self-destructive and insecure. He is self-destructive when it comes to him and Phineas’ relationship. He purposefully makes himself think that Finny is jealous of him because of his own insecurity and jealousy. Once he realizes it he feels bad and this is a way to justify his actions.

In the second half of a Separate Peace by John Knowles, Finny’s and Gene’s characters change a little bit, moving from the physical aspect of their different characters to more of a mental side as we get to know the characters better; This is shown as the novel goes on. In the first half of the book, Finny’s athleticism and Gene’s studiousness are emphasized. I think part of that is because Knowles needed a basis and a foundation to structure the mental aspect of the two main characters on. Later as the book continues, Gene’s character transitions to focus on the fight inside of him, and no longer his lack of athletic capabilities compared to Phineas. Similarly, Knowles changes the view on Phineas in the second half of the novel, creating him

A Separate Peace, which was written by John Knowles, has many themes. They are interconnected throughout the book. The most clearly portrayed theme is fear. It seems to be connected with the themes of friendship, jealousy, and war. As World War II was occurring, fear had taken over Gene's life through these various themes. When he visited Devon fifteen years after leaving the school, Gene claimed, "I had lived in fear while attending the school and I can now feel fear's echo" (Knowles 10). He felt like he had gained a separate peace after escaping from this fear.