A Separate Peace: Character Analysis

In the beginning of the novel, Gene, is a clueless individual. He sees the worst in people and lets his evil side take over not only his mind but also his body. During the tree scene, Gene convinces himself that Finny isn’t his friend, tricking himself into thinking that Finny is a conniving foil that wants to sabotage his academic merit. Gene is furthermore deluded that every time Finny invites Gene somewhere it’s to keep him from studying and

At the start, Gene is instantly jealousy of Finny, creating a fake friendship that is fueled by competition. This is shown when he wants to do something so he is good at, so he “was becoming the best student in the school: Phineas was without question the best athlete, so in that way we were even” (Knowles 55). This proves that their friendship is fueled by competition because it shows that Gene always wants to be even. This

Gene’s trust towards Finny first subtly comes through after returning from Leper’s house. “I wanted to see Phineas, and only Phineas. With him there was no conflict except between athletes… This was the only conflict he had ever believed in.” (Knowles, 152)When Gene returns from Leper’s house, all he wants to do is see

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

A second way is when he begins to try and somewhat become Phineas. Like shown here, “… a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas.” (Knowles 85) from the quote, Gene is stating how by doing sports for Finny gives him a sense of purpose. Also that it may help support his thought of “losing a part of himself”. This only though shows the few of many examples throughout the book of how genes envy or imitation of Finny can affect him in a way.

Initially, Gene and Finny begin as best friends. Although, Gene’s insecurities manifest into jealously and envy toward Finny as he begins to view Finny as more of a rival than a friend. In the novel, Gene says, “Finny has deliberately set out to wreck my studies” (Knowles 53). Gene misinterprets Finny’s motivations and feelings towards him. Gene develops envy over a big misunderstanding. This leads to later events in the book. Eventually, Gene decides to purposely make Finny fall from the tree. Also, his imitation helped their friendship, because it gave the allusion that he and his friend have common interests. For example it states in an article, “Initially Gene emulates Phineas: he joins him in climbing the tree and jumping into the river, being late for dinner, and taking a forbidden trip to the beach” (Alton). Gene follows a lot of what Finny does, which strengthens their friendship. Although he knows of the consequences, Gene still follows Finny. They seem to be the perfect best friends. Gene’s envy and imitation ultimately takes a turn for the

Gene first tried to apologize to Finny in the infirmary before he was hastily ushered out of the room. Then, just before the commencement of the winter session at Devon, Gene visited Finny's house where he admitted to what he had done, but backed out when Finny refused to believe him. However, in the end when Finny re-broke his leg, Gene confessed again; and this time, Finny was acceptive ending with, "I believe you" (Knowles 104). Gene's desire to apologize to Finny and put their friendship back together shows that he was not hard-wired to be

To begin with, Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects him. He is affected because he begins to forget the consequences that he could receive for the things he does with Finny. For example,

Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him significantly. Gene starts to develop a personality just like Finny. As said in the novel, “‘If I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,’ and I lost part of myself to him then” (Knowles 85). Due to Finny’s broken leg, he is not able to play sports anymore so he tells Gene that he needs to play sports for him. Gene loses himself to Finny.

Gene affects himself though envy and imitation. Gene begins to lose his identity and start conforming to Finny. The author states that “Naturally Finny was going to be the first to try, and just as naturally he was going to inveigle others, us, into trying it with him” (Knowles 4). This quote explains how Finny has a way of getting Gene

Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects him. He follows Finny’s every move. As said in the passage, “The beach was hours away by bicycle, forbidden, completely out of all bounds. Going there risked expulsion, destroyed the studying I was going to do for an important test the next morning,” (Knowles 23). He starts to break the rules with Finny. The beach is forbidden; however, they go and spend the night. Staying at the beach meant that they could get kicked from the school, and missing study time for his test. Gene also loses a grip on himself. Alton adds, “Later, he wants to become Phineas…” (Alton). Gene wasn’t acting as himself anymore. He started to do things Finny does, and even tries to look like Finny. Gene’s envy and imitation didn’t only affect him.

Gene imitates Finny by going to the tree with him to jump off. He shakes the limb, making Finny fall off and breaking his leg. Now Gene is feeling bad about the incident. In the novel it states, “I spent as much time as I could alone in our room, trying to empty my mind of every thought, to forget where I was, even who I was” (Knowles 33). Gene didn’t want to be around anybody because he had a lot on his mind.

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

Gene’s envy and imitation of finny affects him. One way gene is affected, he follows behind finny and climb the tree and jumping in the river. From the novel, “

The book A Separate Peace is written in the main character’s perspective. His name is Gene and he isn't very good at sports. Meanwhile his best friend Phineas excels at sports. The book begins with Gene as an adult at his old school Devon. He then begins to talk about about how much he has grown since those day by stating, “ I had more money and success and “security” than in the days when specters seemed to go up and down them with me.” At first I was confused why the author put quotation marks around security but it soon made sense. The author used the literary element Foil to highlight Phineas. The character he used to do this was Gene. This helped the reader establish a sense of feeling and connection with Gene. This is an efficient way to hook the reader in and wanna keep reading. So I will be discussing how exactly the author did this.