A Separate Peace Literary Analysis

Gene helping Finny with schoolwork is helpful, but Finny does not show appreciation towards Gene. This shows lack of admiration on Finny’s part. It’s not just Finny showing lack of admiration it’s a combination of both of them not understanding each other. Finny always includes Gene in activities, for example: skiing, hanging out with friends, going to the boardwalk and being part of a club. He never realizes what kind of friend Finny was to be to him. Sadly, they can never get anywhere in there friendship cause they fight about everything. Both characters are separate from each other and can never find common ground. Their intentions start out decent until they actually got to know each other. They both have qualities that each character want’s except they both seem to want what they can’t have. Jealousy is what leads to resentment and lack of

Essentially, Gene’s conflict begins as he develops feelings of envy towards Finny’s outgoing personality and appealing charisma, which causes him to hide behind a persona in the one-sided rivalry he has with Finny. When Gene flunks a test for the first time, he finds an excuse to justify his failure, concluding that Finny purposely interrupted his studies by inviting him to the beach. Gene reasons, “Sure, he wanted to share everything with me, especially his procession of D’s in every subject.

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,

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

As Gene feels the obligation to lose himself to become Finny, Knowles shows us that a loss of identity may be present in a relationship if there is an unequal amount of power. When Finny tells Gene that he has to play sports in the place of Finny himself, Gene says, “I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas” (77). Gene loses who he is to become the powerful Finny because told him to do so. He feels the need to give up his identity seeing that he has the order to do. This results in an unequal friendship because a true friend would never force someone to do something that would make them lose who they actually are. Gene and Finny’s unbalanced friendship eventually causes paranoia and insecurity on the less powerful side known as Gene because he is giving himself up.

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

One of the most major conflicts of the book is Gene wishing he could be like his best friend Finny and being dangerously jealous of him. Genes jealousy got the best of him when he decided to step on a branch on purpose, which leads to Finny falling and breaking his leg. Sadly, Finny breaks his leg again and dies from bone marrow passing into the bloodstream during surgery and it was caused by the first break of his leg that Gene caused. Gene learns from this that he should not compare himself to others, because it is simply not fair. There is growth shown in Gene when he learns this and he knows that if he let it happen again it could have tragic consequences. It took losing a best friend for Gene to know that he

To be correct, Finny only does all these things because he believed that Gene did not need to work as hard as he was working. He actually thought everything Gene does came to him naturally, kind of like his athletic abilities. Another way their relationship is affected is that Gene’s jealousy led to hi pushing Finny out of a tree. Finny eventually tells his “friend” that “it was just some kind of blind impulse you had in the tree there….it wasn’t anything you really felt against me, it wasn’t some kind of hate you’ve felt all along. It wasn’t anything personal” (Knowles 183).

In the very beginning of the book, Finny convinces Gene to come and jump off of the tree with him. At one point, Gene starts to lose his balance, but Finny immediately grabs Gene’s hand, preventing him from falling. By doing this, Gene’s “panic immediately disappear[s]” (Knowles 31). This shows how Finny is Gene’s savior, and this also marks the moment where Gene starts to trust Finny. After the fall from the tree, Gene’s friendship with Finny grows stronger, and the two are practically inseparable. When Brinker told Finny that he and Gene were going to enlist, Finny is very disappointed and looks at Gene with “ an odd expression” (Knowles 107). As a result, Gene decides not to enlist solely because of his friendship with Finny. He does not want to do it because he knows that Finny needs him. Likewise, Gene needs Finny because he is his better half. Through these reasons, it is clear that Gene has many healthy feelings for Finny.

Their differing personalities was the stressor of their relationship at times. The smarter of the two, Gene was always wanting to stay inside their dorm and study instead of doing other things with all of the other boys. Although Gene is super studious Finny is the opposite. He is what now-a-days we would call a “Jock” he enjoyed sports and being popular. Nothing else interested him, he didn’t like to study or do anything that meant he had to stay inside for long periods of time. Blitzball was the sport that Finny invented while Gene was studying in the dorm for his French final. Up until the very last time that our two main characters talked to each other they were butting heads, From Finny getting Gene to jump from the tree to Funny breaking the school's record for swimming and not wanting to tell anyone they were forever having conflicting

"Your surroundings may change but your essence and your personality pretty much stay the same" (Dewan). The setting of the novel A Separate Peace is at an all boys school located in New Hampshire. The characters and plot are finely woven into the fabric of this institution. However, would events in this novel turn out differently if the story was set in a public high school, with a diverse environment? The characters and plot of A Separate Peace are not solely driven by their surroundings because the boys would still break the rules, Gene would have internal conflicts, and the war would affect the students.

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).

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

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.

Gene and Finny are very close and they do everything together. Some might say Finny is a little bit possessive over the things that Gene does. It is as if they are one person is a way. Just like George and Lennie, Gene and Finny need each other in their lives to be happy and satisfied. “‘Naturally I don’t believe books and I don't believe teachers, but I do believe- it’s important for me to believe you Gene.