A Separate Peace Gene's Innocence

Later on in the novel, after Mr. Patch-Withers calls the boys into his office to consequence Finny for wearing the Devon School tie as a belt.To get out of punishment, Finny makes up an elaborate lie about why he needs to wear the tie, and saying that it is a tribute to the school, as well as a necessity so that his pants did not fall down while at the headmaster’s tea. This causes Mr. Patch-Withers to laugh, something that the boys believe he has never done before. Gene reflects back on this moment in awe, thinking about how “[he laughs] along with Finny, [his] best friend, and also unique, able to get away with anything at all… He [gets] away with everything because of the extraordinary kind of person he [is]. It [is] quite a compliment to [Gene], as a matter of fact, to have such a person choose [him] for his best friend” (28). By saying that Finny is an “extraordinary person”, and that it is a “compliment to have him choose Gene to be his best friend”, it can be concluded that Gene looks up to Finny as a role model, and envies the fact that he is able to “get away with anything”. Gene feels that Phineas is so important to him and is such an inspiration to him, foreshadowing an adaptation to Finny’s identity, just like the previous quote.

Throughout the book both characters realize they need each other more than they think. The more Gene justifies his feelings toward Phineas, the more he is ashamed of his actions. Gene is jealous that Finny is able to get away with anything and everything: “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little.” (Knowles, 25). Gene’s envies Finny’s accepted rebellious character but is unable to tell him. Afterwards, Gene, towards the middle of the book, feels his need for Finny to get caught, almost as if he is against him: “This time he wasn't going to get away with it. I could feel myself becoming unexpectedly excited at that.” (27). Slowly Gene turns his jealousy for Finny to hatred creating the downfall of their relationship. At Devon Finny is known for his great athleticism and his ability to win at everything, ending up as first every time: "You always win at sports.” (35).Gene feels more jealousy towards finny especially when Finny breaks the swimming record without training, not only showing he can win but he can do it without breaking a sweat. Finny’s athletic ability reaches Gene’s mind and his anger builds up adding more weight to the bridge: “Was he trying to impress me or something? Not tell anybody? When he had broken a school record

He no longer cared about his grades, and his personality went from introvert to very outspoken. His negative trait carries on throughout the whole book, but the underlying competition between him and Phineas lived on. When Phineas died, Gene’s negativity and hostile actions almost dissipated on the spot. “I did not cry then or ever about Finny. I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family’s strait-laced burial ground outside of Boston. I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case.” If Gene did in some way become a part of Phineas, then part of Finny lives on in Gene. The narrator alludes to this when he says that he still lives his life in Finny’s created “atmosphere.”

I think that when Gene lies about claiming to be taller than Finny (p.16) is when he begins to feel a small amount of envy. In fact, later on page 18, Gene talks about the way Finny walks gracefully with each step. Furthermore, Gene talks about how Devon has never had a student who combined a calm ignorance for the rules with an urge to be good and who seemed to love the school truly and deeply. This, to me, shows how Finny gets out of trouble easily, besides being charismatic, a gifted athlete, etc. For instance on page 25, Gene states,“I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little.” He says that when Finny decides to wear pink to celebrate the first bombing and then later reveals his tie being worn as a belt to further push the discussion at afternoon tea. Despite Gene stating that there is nothing wrong with a little envy, he then says, “This time he wasn't going to get away with it. I could feel myself becoming unexpectedly excited at that” following the ‘belt-tie’ reveal. Soon after Finny, unsurprisingly, gets away with it again, and Gene says that he felt a stab of disappointment. However, Gene thinks to himself that Finny is a extraordinary person for being able to get away with everything and how he is glad to be his friend. Yet,

The novel “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles is a story of friendship and conflict. John Knowles uses Gene’s envy to demonstrate that jealousy ruins friendships. This is shown multiple times, including fake friendships, internal conflict becoming physical, and all conflict resulting in the loss of trust of one another.

Gene contemplates his and Finny’s friendship many times in the book, but despite what Gene may have thought, Finny was a good friend to him. He always took Gene’s feelings into account, and through all that happened he had faith in Gene. But Gene never knew this,

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.

During the incident in which Finny wears a tie as a belt and a pink shirt to a Headmasters tea, Gene had thought that Finny would finally be called out. Gene soon finds out he was wrong, “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little…This time he wasn't going to get away with it. I could feel myself becoming unexpectedly excited at that” (24). Gene was beginning to become jealous of Finny but saw no harm towards their friendship. He thought it would make the friendship stronger. While in the pool at Devon, Finny had broken the school swimming record and had told Gene to not tell anyone. Gene had been confused and thought it was unusual that Finny wasn’t going to tell anyone, “Was he trying to impress me or something? Not tell anybody? When he had broken a school record without a day of practice? I knew he was serious about it, so I didn't tell anybody. Perhaps for that reason his accomplishment took root in my mind and grew rapidly in the darkness where I was forced to hide it” (35). Gene had been oblivious to his jealousy of Finny’s goodness. Gene was then starting to question Finny’s actions about this particular event, “To keep silent about this amazing happening deepened the shock for me. It made Finny seem too unusual for – not friendship, but too unusual

The relationship that he had with his so called friend Finny was based off of jealousy. Gene was insecure of who he really was and that translated into their friendship (McGavran). Gene and Finny are total opposites. Finny is a friendly guy who is good at athletic events and does not even have to try. He never gets in trouble and that bothers Gene. In chapter 2, Gene hopes that Finny will get in trouble because he is not wearing his tie the way it should be. However, he becomes disappointed because it gets out of it (Knowles 20). Gene on the other hand is very smart and not outgoing. Nothing really comes easily for him (McGavran).

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.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles demonstrates the journey of a 16 year old boy, Gene Forrester, attending the Devon Boarding School in New Hampshire during World War II. He and his “best” pal, Finny, have an extremely complex relationship, as their friend Leper, an introvert, cannot seem to fit in with his atypical interests. Although all three have different virtues, they all face the anxiety about their fate at school and the war. As the characters grow, they explore several hardships, such as envy, and the loss of innocence, which overall transforms their carefree childhood into a harsh, war filled adulthood. Some characters are able to evolve through these challenges, and some are not, causing them to perish, just as Leper Lepellier said,

Finny did a lot of risky things, that most people would not be able to pull off, but somehow he always manages to slip away with no punishment. Unknowingly, Finny went to a party, the headmaster was also attending it. As usual, Finny was out of dress code, wearing a neon shirt and their school tie as a belt. Somehow he talked himself out of trouble. Gene says “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him that a little (Knowles 9).” Finny continued testing his luck, with skipping chapel and classes, and test, and meetings. In the article "A Separate Peace: The Fall from Innocence" James Ellis writes “Incapable of the spiritual purity of Phineas, Gene finds himself jealous of Finny's ability to flout Devon rules.” All of this grew on Gene and started to make him very jealous of something he did not have. Trying the ultimate dare, Finny decided to go to the beach, Gene says “The beach was hours away by bicycle, forbidden, completely out of all bounds. Going there risked expulsion (Knowles 20).” Finny went through with his plan and spent a night at the beach, and received no punishments or disciplinary actions. As Gene was struggling with his identity, he saw that Finny could do things he could not. All those things made Gene jealous and gave him something to focus on, other than solving his identity

As mentioned previously, Fear was a prime factor to the events that occurred. Gene always was afraid to say no to Finny and Finny never expected him to say no. Also ignorance was very prominent in the misdoings of Finny. Phineas tends to do this thing where he doesn’t care what other people want, he cannot accept that other people are not the same as him. One of these things that he does is jumping from a tree into the pool with Gene every day, despite Gene being scared because Phineas overlooks the idea of other people’s emotions. One of these

Throughout life, there is always a person who one strives to beat, be better than or rise above. Little does each of them know that in the end the two actually make each other stronger. In John Knowles' novel, A Separate Peace (1959), he addresses just this. The novel, told from Gene Forrester's point of view, is based on a friendship and rivalry between him and his friend, Finny, during World War II. The two sixteen year olds attend Devon School, a private all boys' school, in New Hampshire. Finny, a very athletically talented youngster, continually but unintentionally causes Gene to feel inferior and insignificant, producing inevitable anger and jealousy inside Gene. During their

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