Analysis Of Gene's Weaknesses In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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 becomes more disciplined and athletically inclined. He is undertaking circumstances that he knows will never come true, the 1944 Olympics, yet making the best of them to please his best friend. Gene is learning to do things although he does not want to do and that have no purpose. This is a difficult task for an immature child; however, through Gene's ability to train for the inexistent Olympics, shows that he is growing up. He looks at his training as if he were preparing for the war. Accepting that he must go to war is also another sign of maturity brought on by the training for the Olympics with Finny. Through his preparation for the Olympics, Gene's coming of age becomes more and more evident.

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

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.

    Throughout the book, Gene matures from Finny’s death and training for the  Olympics. After exercising with his “coach”, Finny, Gene thinks “I felt magnificent. It was as though my body until that instant had simply been lazy, as though the aches… an accession of strength came flooding through me… I forgot my usual feeling of routine self pity when working out” (Knowles 120). Gene becomes more disciplined and athletically inclined as he trains for the Olympics, which shows he is growing up. He looks at his training as if he is preparing for the war, which also another sign of maturity brought on by the training for the Olympics with Finny. After Finny’s death, Gene reflects “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” (Knowles 194). Instead

As we know, Gene suffers from the usual teenage emotions that we’re familiar with: identity crisis, low self esteem, jealousy, etc. Basically I’m saying he’s a normal teenage boy until he tries to kill his “best friend.”

-Gene Forrester was the main character of the novel, A Separate Peace. I can relate to Gene’s competitiveness with his best friend, yet I admire Gene’s intelligence and determination. The reason I relate to Gene’s competitive nature is because I am also competitive with my friends, as they are with me. I admire Gene’s intelligence that not only naturally comes to him, but his determination to keep his grades up at The Devon School. The reason I admire him for these traits are because I find myself struggling to balance out my academics and social life during the school year. I see Gene as a role model because of the way he seems to maintain his studies and friends.

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

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,

Which is almost worded perfectly here “The tree was tremendous, an irate, steely black steeple beside the river. I was damned if I’d climb it.” (Knowles 14). This shows to us that obviously he remembers what he has done to his friend along with even foreshadowing the event when read from the beginning. This even helps to say that Gene wishes not to even reenact the horrible event that happened so long ago. The second reason is his general thoughts and impulses that make him lose even more of a sense of peace when reviewing previous things that he has done. As stated “we’re all liable to corruption form within by our own envy, anger, and fear. In the end, inner peace is achieved only after fighting one’s own, private war of growing up.” (Alton paragraph 6). From what is said, this helps to express how gene fights his impulses that made him go against finny. Which lead to his lack of peace for doing such a horrendous thing. In the end, Gene didn’t find any “Separate

“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

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

Gene first acknowledges his jealousy for Finny when he loudly states that “you and Finny are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record, but so what? He hated you for getting an A in every course but one last term.

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.

Little sorrow and sadness is expressed around school, even in Gene; no one talks about what happened but everyone remembers, especially Gene. Throughout the novel, John Knowles' strong characterization of Finny results in a more developed and wiser Gene; in the end, Finny actually makes Gene a better person.