A Separate Peace, by John Knowles Essay

Gene gains peace from guilt when he becomes self-aware, mature, and remorseful. The subsequent time that Finny injures his leg, Gene goes to see him and expresses sincere regret, showing his remorse. When visiting Finny, Gene confesses that what happened up on that tree was a rage of jealousy that had controlled him. Confessing to Finny helps Gene overcome the burden of guilt. Finny’s death causes Gene to become sad, however he was relieved that they were able fixed their friendship before it was too late. At Finny’s funeral Gene “did not cry” and “could not escape a feeling that this was [his] funeral”, showing that he lost a piece of him (Knowles 194). Gene feeling that

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

One can argue that a conflict within one’s self can lead a child from youth to maturity. This is evident in the conflict and resolution that occurs within Gene. In A Separate Peace, John Knowles incorporates indirect characterization to show the shift of Gene from a paranoid to compassionate personality.

The methods Finny use in order to cope with his fear distorts the way Gene perceives the conflicts surrounding him. A prime example of this is during a time where Finny is in denial of the war as well as Gene being guilty of hurting him. Gene recounts the impact Finny had on him and notices that:

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

At the beginning of the story, Gene is unconcerned about his actions, but after he has suffered and understands how selfish he was. He was blinded by his jealousy of Finny and eventually his insecurities overwhelmed him. “This time he wasn’t going to get away with it. I could feel myself become unexpectedly excited at that” (30). In this

It wasn’t my neck, but my understanding which was menaced. He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he.” This is what Gene fears, more than Finny’s charm or athleticism but his goodness of heart, how what he says is what he means for his motives. What I don’t understand is why Gene is relieved of fear when Finny falls from the tree and breaks some bones in his body. His athleticism was destroyed, but his character wasn’t. Maybe it was because that’s one less thing Finny is able to do, but I’m not sure what to make of this. In addition to what I said in the first paragraph, when Brinker brings in Gene and Finny into the courtroom to investigate the accident, although Gene fears that the truth will be told, he’s not the only one there who holds the emotion of fear. “Finny turned toward me. “You were down at the bottom, weren’t you?” he asked not in the official courtroom tone he had used before, but in a friend’s voice.” Finny fears Gene’s betrayal that he has altered the past in his mind to avoid facing the truth. In the beginning of the investigation, Finny is unsure about what happened. First he claims that he took a wrong step and lost his balance. When Gene is the interrogated about whether he was in the tree or not, Finny aggressively said, “How do you expect him to remember?” “There was a

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’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

“But I no longer needed this vivid false identity . . . I felt, a sense of my own real authority and worth, I had many new experiences and I was growing up “(156). Gene’s self-identity battle ends and he finds his real self. Gene’s developing maturity is also shown when he tells the truth about Leper. His growing resentment against having to mislead people helps Gene become a better person. When Brinker asks about Leper, Gene wants to lie and tell him he is fine but his resentment is stronger than him. Instead Gene comes out and tells the truth that Leper has gone crazy. By pushing Finny out of the tree, crippling him for life and watching him die; Gene kills a part of his own character, his essential purity. Throughout the whole novel Gene strives to be Finny, but by the end he forms a character of his own. Gene looks into his own heart and realizes the evil. “. . . it seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart” (201). He grasps that the creation of personal problems creates wars. Gene comes to acknowledge Finny’s uniqueness and his idealism and greatly admires his view of the world. He allows Finny’s influence to change him and eliminates the self-ignorance. At Finny’s funeral Gene feels that he buries a part of himself, his innocence. “I could not escape a feeling

He tries to get Finny to forgive him for what’s really inside of him, and Finny easily forgives him because he too realizes and understands that Gene has no power over the evil impulse inside of him: “No, I don’t know how to show you, how can I show you Finny? Tell me how to show you. It was just some ignorance inside of me, some crazy thing inside of me, something blind, thats all it was” (191). Gene's last conversation with Finny puts across all of Gene’s hidden feelings about what he has done to Finny. As Gene expresses what he feels to Finny, he realizes the importance of their friendship. Gene's confession to Finny about his inner impulse and his vulnerability makes Finny forgive him, and in return, Gene can forgive himself. Gene yearns for Finny to forgive him so that Gene can more forward from the accident and stop worrying and feeling guilty about it. Gene's two earlier attempts to admit his guilt and impulse to Finny had failed. Gene's desire to be open and vulnerable about the subject lets him to be able to truly confess about his feelings. When Gene finally accepts what's inside of him and what happened at the tree that one day it brings back their friendship. Their restored friendship survives Finny’s death. Even as Gene grieves for Finny, he does not cry because he feels as though a piece of him is missing and dead along with

They were holding a club meeting and they were getting ready to jump out of the tree and Gene says “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bet and I jounced the limb” (Knowles 59 - 60). When Finny had fallen he did not know whether or not if it was jounced or if the limb just moved but he did break his leg when he fell. Gene and Finny were put on trial by their classmates to see what really happened and Gene recalls, “The excellent exterior acoustics recorded his rushing steps and the quick rapping of his cane along the corridor and on the first steps of the marble stairway. Then these separate sounds collided into the general tumult of his body falling clumsily down the white marble stairs” (Knowles 177). This was another moment of heartbreak for Gene because if Gene would not have jounced the limb Finny would have never broken his leg in the first place which would have made the trial go down hill and Finny fall because he did not want to hear what really happened. He does not want to believe it is true. This is a time in Gene’s life that is a stepping stone into adulthood. The loss of his friend felt as if he was losing a part of himself “I did not even cry then or ever about Finny. I did not even cry when we stood watching him being lowered into his family’s strait-laced burial ground outside Boston. I could not escape feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case” (Knowles 5). Even though something may not seem right or not the way you thought it happened, do not let it change the outlook you have on

In John Knowles, A Separate Peace, Gene waged a war of jealousy towards his best friend, Finny. Finny was blinded by innocence and did not foresee Gene's true intentions. Throughout the novel, Gene's jealousy continued to grow along with ignorance that he attributed to his own heart. Gene's jealousy and ignorance caused him to deeply hurt his friend Finny. Gene was not able to control all of his hatred, anger, and jealousy when he and Finny were up on the tree during a Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session meeting.

Gene and Finny are faced with many situations where either good or evil will take over their decision. When Finny falls of the tree Gene “took a step toward him, and then [his] knees bent and [he] jounced the limb” (Knowles 60). Gene purposefully makes Finny fall even if neither of them realizes or accepts it at first. When Gene makes the decision to cause Finny to fall, he lets evil win. He lets it take him over to benefit himself in the long run. On the other side of it, when Gene tries to tell Finny that he did intentionally hurt him he said “of course you didn’t do it. You damn fool. Sit down, you damn fool” (Knowles 70). Finny does not want to accept the fact that his friend would do such a thing to him. He pushes out the evil that could have let him lash out at his friend and let the good in him refuse to believe it. Lastly, when Gene was fighting with Quackenbush all of a sudden Gene “hit him hard across the face” (Knowles 790). Gene lets the evil take over him and hit Quackenbush in the

First, Gene admits to being guilty of shaking a tree in order to injure Finny when he visits him at his home, making Finny livid, and temporarily tearing them apart. Gene is envious of Finny’s athletic ability and bravery. One way Finny shows his bravery is by jumping off a tree for fun. Gene is greatly threatened by the bravery, so he decides to strip it from Finny by shaking the tree one day, making him fall and suffer an injury. Consequently, he instantly regrets his decision, but he realizes that the damage is done. Remorsefully, he wants to apologize for his terrible choice, but when he tries to talk about the situation and confess, Finny is in denial and starts to get angry. Finny’s denial is evident when he says “‘I don’t know anything. Go away. I’m tired and you make me sick. Go away’” (Knowles 70). This dialogue shows how Finny did not believe that Gene caused the incident even after the confession. This is because he believes that Gene would not do such an action. The confession tears Finny apart to the point that he lashes out at Gene and wants him to leave his house. If Gene did not commit the notorious action, Finny would not have to feel the pain physically from the injury, and mentally from the idea that Gene would hurt him, and the boys could have a stronger friendship.