A Separate Peace And Two Friends, By John Knowles

Friendship is an important part in everyone’s lives. This was true for the friendship between Gene and Phineas in the novel A Separate Peace. Gene and Phineas went to a high school called Devon during war times and were getting ready for war. Gene and Phineas were roommates and best friends. Although they had their ups, they also had their downs. So, was their relationship good or bad?

Gene Forrester is the protagonist in A Separate Peace. He is also the narrator of the story speaking in first person, telling what happened at Devon in 1942 from his own unique point of view. As a sixteen years old, he goes through self-consciousness, uncertainty, jealousy, and an identity crisis. However, at times, he is thoughtful, competitive and has a tendency to brood. As the story goes on, Gene develops a love-hate relationship with his best friend, Finny, whom he alternately adores and envies.

In the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the protagonist Gene Forrester constantly battles within himself to find the true emotion towards his friend Phineas and to find out who he really is. Gene and Phineas formed an illusion of companionship, but there was always a silent rivalry between them in Gene’s mind. In the beginning, Gene thought his feeling towards Phineas was completely normal and it will go away in time. However, as the time went on and Gene matured he found out that his feeling was much more than little jealousy but it has turned into hate. Gene Forrester develops into a mature adult when he finally accepts his feeling and faces reality.

“It struck me then that I was injuring him again” (75). This quote showcases that over time, Gene treats Phineas differently after he has seen how his jealousy has affected him. Gene always acts like there is a competition between him and his best friend, Phineas. After he and the other characters have suffered throughout the book, he learns to confront his jealousy and to move forward after. Throughout the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene Forrester matures and learns how to understand his actions and how they impact other characters, and teaches readers that they can move forward if they learn to face their problems.

In life, humans go through a point in their life where they struggle or have to fight for something; Whether it be fighting for money, food, shelter,a special someone or life. In John Knowles's novel, A Separate Peace, he quotes for Gene, “...my war ended before I even put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.” As you continue to read on, although it was caused by Finny...unintentionally. You’ll realize that Gene’s enemy was his insecurities, his feelings, …. maybe even himself.

World War II took many lives away from people, physically and mentally. The struggle inside of Phineas’ mind about if he meant to hurt Gene on purpose is a type of war. He tries to reassure himself that it was only an accident, but he can’t help but think that he could have done it out of envy of Gene’s talents. Some soldiers came back home mentally disturbed and not the same as they were before the war. Gene visited a friend from school that had just gotten back from the war and he was an extremely different

Throughout A Separate Peace, Gene’s relationship with Phineas is constantly being questioned. One second they’re the best of friends, whereas the next moment they’re enemies. “It made Finny seem too unusual for not friendship, but too unusual for rivalry. Gene’s confused with Phineas

Likewise, in A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses Phineas and his experience at the Devon School to show that one must lose innocence and acknowledge this loss to reach maturity. At the beginning of the novel, Phineas, a graceful, energetic athlete and speaker, truly cherishes and trusts his friends and the world beyond them with his loyalty and love, and he maintains an extremely optimistic worldview. In fact, his playfull life consists mostly of games. One of these games, which he introduces to Gene, his best friend, and the rest of

John Knowles’ “A Separate Peace” takes place at a boarding school during World War II. Best friends Gene and Finny have been inseparable during their time at the Devon School. This is until reality hits Gene, and he slowly starts to realize that he is inferior to his best friend. Through the unbalanced friendship between two teenagers in “A Separate Peace,” Knowles illustrates that a loss of identity may be present in a relationship if there is an unequal amount of power.

In A Separate peace does Gene truly envy his friend Phineas? Well John Knowles the author of A Separate peace sets the story at a private school named Devon. Here Gene is introduced as the main character, who happens to be a conformist who, more often than not, envy’s his friend Phineas. In A separate peace it shows how Genes envy over Finny turns him against him, which ruins their relationship, making Gene lack any sort of peace in the end.

Phineas was the most outgoing and courageous boy on the Devon grounds. He was the one in the story that showed everyone how to not worry about things and just stay calm. In the story “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles, two boys named Gene and Phineas are at a school in New Hampshire. Gene gets jealous of Finny and knocks him out of a tree and injures him which later causes Finny’s death. Phineas’ outgoing nature brought peace and excitement to the Devon school grounds. It showed Gene and the other boys what being a normal kid not worrying about the war looks like.

Every good story has one character that contrasts from the mood of the entire story. Within the story A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, Phineas was an optimistic, fearless, and humble student at the Devon School. Phineas, with Finny being his more commonly used nickname, tried to be a positive influence to those around him all throughout the book. He constantly supported himself and Gene, his friend, even if Gene did not return the favor. In addition, he was involved in many adventures and always thought of new ideas to enlighten the bleak mood of the school. To summarize, Finny genuinely was an amazing character, even his closest friend was secretly jealous of him.

In general, everyone has been in denial about something in their lives. Sometimes, this denial turns into an internal war, as one cannot determine whether or not they are for or against something. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene faces this problem, as at certain moments, Gene begins to realize that he is starting to feel hate and envy towards Phineas. However, he is unable to say, as he is also his best friend. During the course of the novel, Gene Forrester’s denial as to whether or not he likes Finny takes over him and causes him to do things that he never thought that he would do.

In “a Separate Peace”, Gene made one selfish decision that ruined Phineas's (or Finny) life as he knew it. The day Finny fell off the limb of the tree was Gene's fault. Finny had been great at sports, so Gene was motivated to be good at his academics and out do Finny at their school. When Finny had Gene come with him that day to jump out of the tree, Gene thought Finny was trying to take away time from his studies. He jostled the limb which made Finny fall and just happened to break his leg on the fall down; not allowing him to play sports ever again. This decision Gene made costed finny his life. Near the end of the book one of their classmates, Brinker, called a meeting to find the truth about what happened on the tree. Finny ran out because

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.