A Separate Peace Identity Quotes

Gene’s act of purposely causing Finny to fall out of the tree forces him to feel guilty and move on from his tendencies of jealousy and anger. After Finny’s fall, Gene discovers that Finny is so faithful as to not even accuse Gene of his actions. This causes Gene to begin to feel extreme guilt, thence

Gene was jealous of Finny throughout the whole book because Finny was more athletically inclined then him, and Finny was able to do basically whatever he wanted to.¨ 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¨(8). This lead Gene to want to be better than Finny, by being first in the class. One night while Gene was studying Finny interrupted him, as he wanted to go jump out of the tree. After a little argument Gene eventually went with Finny to the tree, but he was still kind of angry. This lead Finny to jounce the tree limb. ¨Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud¨(28). Because of this fall, Finny completely shattered his leg. He may have been able to walk again, but he would never play sports again. Because of Gene's jealousy toward Finny he decided to make a rash move, which cost his friend their

In the fiction novel, “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles, there are plenty of characteristics exposed from the setting about the character Finny. How the setting of the novel helps reveal the character Finny is by the way he reacts towards his education, sports, and friends. He and a friend, Gene, go back fifth-teen years as if they were still at Devon High School, which is a boarding school for boys only.

Gene pushes Finny out of the tree due to jealousy. This shows just how much jealousy Gene has. He is willing to hurt someone because of one tiny thing after another. All Finny has done so far is be himself. Gene overreacts and seriously injures his “best

Therefore, Gene hits him hard across the face. This is his “first skirmish of a long campaign” that he fights “for Finny” (79). He feels guilty for what he has done and wants to redeem himself by defending Finny’s honor. During the end of the novel, Finny falls down the school’s marble staircase and breaks his leg once again. Gene goes to the infirmary to visit him, but Finny yells at him, telling Gene that he does not want to see him and forces him to leave. In doing so, Finny falls from the bed and it takes Gene “just control enough to stay out of his room” and “let him struggle back into the bed by himself” (185). Gene resisting the urge to help Finny back to his bed exposes Gene’s new compassion. It reveals that Gene now feels like Finny was a genuine friend and that Gene now cares for, contrasting to his feelings for Finny in the summer session. He thinks about what Finny would do for him if he was in his situation, showing that Gene empathizes with Finny.

Finny's death causes the greatest maturity growth in Gene's character. After Finny dies, he realized how his own hatred caused the death of his best friend. "He came to understand Finny's innocence and purity which causes Gene to see flaws within himself and forces him to grow up" (Alton 1). Being able to admit your own flaws is critical in maturing. When Gene finally sees his impact of immature behavior, he realizes how much he needs to mature. Even though Finny is physically gone, his spirit remains with Gene and essentially makes him the adult that he grows up to be. Finny's death is a crucial part of Gene's coming of age. When Finny dies, Gene's immature behaviors also die. Because Gene's hatred was gone, he entered war as a man.

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

Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him in many ways. Gene begins to lose his identity and start conforming to Finny. According to Knowles, “If I was head of the class and won that prize then we would be even…” (27). This quote explains how Gene follows finny by trying to be head of the class with him. Gene gets jealous of Finny being head of the class, so he tells him if he was head they would be even. When Finny introduce jumping off the tree to Gene at first he didn’t want to do it, but he wanted to be like Finny so he did it. In Knowles words, “what was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this? Was he getting some kind of hold over me? (5).

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,

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

He thinks Finny is trying to sabotage his studies so that he can be number one at that too! In reality, Finny is just trying to be a good friend. Gene is jealous of Finny’s athleticism, but he covers it up by the thought that all Finny wants to do is hurt him. In attempt to have some fun, Finny wants Gene and some other boys to jump from a tree limb into a river. This challenge is something that has never been done by a boy their age. After doing it once, Finny later convinces Gene to leave his studies and come do it again. While the boys are on the tree limb, Finny stumbles, falls into the river, and breaks his leg. Since Finny can no longer participate in any sporting events, he decides to train Gene for the 1944 Olympics. Gene eventually comes to the conclusion that “[Finny] had never been jealous of [him] for a second. Now [he] know[s] there was and never could have been any rivalry between [them]” (Knowles 78). Gene realizes that Finny wasn’t ever jealous of him, and that pushing Finny from the tree is a mistake that he will later regret. Finny dies after falling down the stairs and a failed surgery, so Gene begins to feel guilty for his actions. Gene had earlier decided to enlist in the war, and had told the other boys about it. After a lot of thinking, he eventually decides not to enlist in the war. Gene now begins to see the wrong doing he had participated in earlier,

Second, the injury puts Finny in the hospital, separating the two, which cause Gene to suffer depression. As Finny is badly wounded, he has to leave his boarding school, Devon, for a long period of time. He spends his time in the hospital, away from Gene. FurthermoreThis makes Gene regret his decision even more. Not only are Gene and Finny physically separated, but also emotionally separated. Essentially, Gene loses his

Finny's strong and solid character is again evident the night of the tree jumping in which he fell and broke his leg. Prior to the occurrence, Gene explodes when Finny automatically assumes Gene will be present at the Suicide Society tree "leap"(46). Finny's thinking that studies can just be abandoned at anytime infuriates Gene. Once Gene

Finny is out of school for a while and Gene admits that he caused this on purpose and Finny is distraught about