A Separate Peace Gene And Phineas

A Separate Peace by John Knowles, introduces the story of Genes’ arduous struggle to adulthood during a time when the U.S. is experiencing World War I, Gene constantly lashes at himself for his incompetence to understand his adolescent feelings and excel like his honest and capable best friend, Phineas or nicknamed Finny. Furthermore, Gene avoids confronting his fears in hope to maintain his childlike happiness at school in conformity, but no doubt, I believe; growth comes only from strife and struggle, and Gene protects his conformity through obedience to his friends and teachers, thus, Gene is safe and can not grow. Presumably, Gene, unconsciously, thrusts Finny of a high tree in a fit of jealousy of Finny’s athletic talents, of which, Finny

Both Gene and Phineas are confronted with the truth when Leper tells of what he saw on that frightful day. He compares what he saw to an engine. “‘I can’t think of the name of the engine. But it has two pistons. What is that engine? Well anyway, in this engine first one piston sinks, and then the next one sinks. The one holding on to the trunk sank for a second, up and down like a psi on, and then the other one sank and fell” (Knowles 176). Phineas is finally confronted with the truth behind the incident and that his best friend did in fact make him fall off the tree. Phineas is so overwhelmed after hearing this, he falls down the stairs, which ends up being fatal. “Then these separate sounds collided into the general tumult of his body falling clumsily down the white marble stairs” (Knowles 177). After the death of Phineas, Gene attains ultimate peace and peace of mind as he gets older and understands Phineas’ nonviolent nature. “Only Phineas never was afraid, only Phineas never hated anyone” (Knowles 204). After the death, Phineas himself also attains peace, with his heart at peace with Gene. Gene feels very alone without Phineas. He no longer has his best friend and “separate

After the realization of the person he truly is Gene confronts with his problems, faces reality, and deals with the future. He learns a lot about life and relationships when he finds about his true self. He learns that he must truly express his feelings and communicate instead of keeping all the feelings inside as he had always done with Phineas. Also he learns to listen to himself not others around him if he wants a true advice. After a while, he faced reality and acknowledged the fact that he was not as great was Phineas but they were two different individuals and they were unique in different ways. Gene accepted the guilt for Phineas’ difficulties after his accident and decided he must he must help him as a punishment and act of repentance for what his deed. He does this by giving part of himself to Phineas as we see with the case of the sports

John Knowles implies Phineas is naive through the implementation of dialogue. Phineas confesses to Gene that “[he] hope[s] [Gene is] having a pretty good time here… you can’t come by yourself, and at this teenage-period in life the proper person is your best pal” (48). The boys live in a masculine society, which places an emphasis on strength. To expose one’s feelings to someone else is considered “social suicide.” Therefore, Gene takes advantage of Phineas’ naiveté by not responding to his declaration of friendship. Phineas also asserts that “when you really love something, then it loves you back, in whatever way it has to love” (111). Phineas’ philosophy centers around a world of youth of peace; he always attempts to find the best in everyone. This naive attitude contrasts with the cruel nature of the world, where wars and competitions are common occurrences. At Gene’s trial for Phineas’ fall, Phineas asks Gene if “[he] was down at the bottom” (170) in a concerned, friendly tone. Phineas fears of Gene’s betrayal; he cannot believe that his friend would have the urge to push him out the tree. In order to protect his high opinion of Gene, he alters the past in his mind to avoid facing the truth. This emphasizes his naiveté as the true events do not align with what Phineas made up in his mind. At the hospital after Phineas’s second fall, following the trial, Gene explains to Phineas that he would "get things so scrambled up nobody would know who to fight any more” and that “[he would] make a mess, a terrible mess...out of the war'" (191). Phineas’ world does not hold any fights or enmity. His good character is unrealistic in this world. Consequently, the war would drive him to madness.

First of all, Gene Forrester is the narrator and one of the main characters in the novel. One of Gene’s best friends is Phineas, another main character in the novel, and an important one as well. Gene and Phineas’s relationship has its ups and downs. One of the downs being, Gene's feeling of jealousy towards Phineas. Phineas is an athletic champion and a charmer, someone everyone adores. These same qualities of Phineas make academic and studious Gene envious. The envy drives Gene to try to be a better student than Phineas, thinking that would make them equal. He thought that if he could be the smartest person in the class, then it would be equal to Phineas’s athletic stardom. What he did not know was it would change him as a person and his

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

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.

In the novel A Separate Peace, the two main characters, Phineas and Gene, are very different. Gene, a sarcastic 16 year-old from Georgia, must work hard for everything he does such as academics and athletics. He envies Phineas’s athletic ability because all sports come naturally to him. Gene is a rule follower and tends to back out of things. He isn’t very trustworthy and tends to be very envious of other students such as Finny. He has a terrible temper and no self-control. He is a solid student who succeeds because of his discipline, obedience and traditional thinking. While he isn’t a straight A student he is still running for valedictorian. He loves the satisfaction of the grades but isn’t excited to learn. Gene is also a pretty good athlete

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

All throughout this novel, Gene is in a constant battle with himself about the nature of his friendship with Phineas. This arguably was the war that Gene dealt with prior to World War 2. In war, you have enemies. There are many different interpretations of who or what Gene’s enemy was. Gene mentions his enemy in the quote “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.” This quote from the novel A Separate peace by John knowles states that Gene had an enemy, and it is up to us and our wise judgement to decide whether this enemy is his own youth and innocence, or his guilt.

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

Without peace, people become discombobulated. Before the casualty, Gene believes that he is Finny. They are one piece that cannot be separated. If one of them fails to do something, it is the job of the other to succeed. We see this when Gene puts on Finny’s cloths when he is gone. “I never forgot, and that evening I put on his cordovan shoes, his pants, and I looked for and finally found his pink shirt, neatly laundered in a drawer…. But when I looked in the mirror it was no remote aristocrat I had become, no character out of daydreams. I was Phineas” (Knowles 62). In addition to looking the part, he plays the part. When Finny breaks his leg and can no longer be himself and play sports, Gene takes this role. Finny even starts to train him for the 1944 Olympics, in exchange Gene tutors him. To add on to all of this, the even leap from the tree together, as one. This causes

Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affected him. Gene became paranoid and assumed Finny was out to get him. The author states, “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies” (Knowles 53). Gene took Finny’s act of kindness and made it seem like something negative. Gene thinks Phineas is purposely trying to mess his grades up by distracting him. Gene’s personality changed, making him harm others. The book reads, “Then my knees bent and I jounced the limb.”

However, Phineas contradicts Gene’s idea and clarifies Gene’s conflict as a misinterpretation when he states, “I didn’t know you needed to study… I just thought it came to you” (58). Phineas reveals his own perception in juxtaposition to Gene’s. Phineas’ sincere statement puts to rest Gene’s postulation about the intentions of Phineas.

After Finny tells Gene that Gene will play sports instead of him, Gene experiences a “soaring sense of freedom” that reveals, to him, that “this must have been [his] purpose from the first”(86). Gene is happy to do sports for Finny, since Phineas’s athleticism is now gone. This shows both boys think they are the same, as they are clearly happy to be in the other’s control, describing it as freedom. While the reader has seen Gene’s codependence towards Finny, the reader has not seen vice versa. Even though Finny realizes that Gene is the one that caused his fall from the tree, Gene can “hardly believe it”, when Finny indirectly shows that “he needed [him]”(108). This reveals how Finny also is codependent of Gene, conveying how Gene is astonished to see that Finny still wants his companionship even after the wrongs Gene has committed. As a result, this evinces how Gene realizes his mistakes, showing the dynamic nature of