Character Analysis: A Separate Peace By John Knowles

Throughout the story Finny thinks him and Gene are friends; when they are really enemies. In the novel Gene says, “what was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into this? Was he getting some kind of hold over me?” (Knowles 5). The narrator’s jealousy, starts to grow more towards the other character. The hate Gene has for Finny builds up and eventually leads to his death. Their relationship got more affected when Gene admitted to causing the accident, and caused Finny to never play sports again. When Gene admits to hurting Finny, it changes both of the characters, and their friendship was hanging by a

Gene and Finny became very close, until tragedy struck. Gene could no longer accept the way it was. Gene eventually took matters into his own hands. Finny had a made a club called The Super Secret Society Club of

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

“A Separate Peace,” by John Knowles focuses Gene and Finny’s friendship throughout the story. Any friendship is difficult to maintain and goes through many different phases. Separate feelings at the title of the story suggest their friendship has ups and downs. It goes into the idea of how people are not the same. Neither character has an understanding of who they are and how their actions and thoughts can affect people around them. This lack of understanding of oneself eventually causes the destruction of their relationship.

Gene thought at one point that Finny was trying to ruin his grades because Finny always made him come with him to the meetings and to play games. This drove Gene to the point where when he and Finny were on the limb of the tree, Gene bounced the limb making Finny fall and break his leg. “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb” (Knowles pg. 60). Gene immediately regretted it and tried to tell Finny the truth, but Finny didn’t believe him. “I deliberately jounced the limb so you would fall off” (Knowles pg. 70). Besides that though Gene kept the truth from Finny and was planning on never telling him. The fact that Gene kept the truth from Finny just made it worse, and when Finny found out the truth he stormed off and fell down a flight of stairs which broke his leg again. Sadly, this led to Finny’s death. When the doctors were putting his bone back in place, a piece of bone marrow went and punctured his heart. Gene never forgave

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.

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 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,

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that intimidation is suicide…” (Emerson 370). A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, takes place at Devon, a preparatory school in New Hampshire, during the 1940’s. Gene Forrester is a student at Devon and drives much of the story’s plot through his intimidation of his best friend Finny. A Separate Peace not only shows how Gene’s envy and intimidation of Finny affected him and his friendship with Finny, but it also shows Gene’s failure in achieving true peace.

“I did have this idea, this feeling that when you were standing there beside me… But you can’t say anything for sure from just feelings. And this feeling doesn’t make any sense. It was a crazy idea, I must have been delirious. So I just have to forget it. I just fell.” (66) The feeling that Finny had, was the slight thought of his best friend possibly being the reason behind his fall, makes him This shows that Finny is starting to feel guilty and sad as he couldn’t believe himself for thinking about something like that, just judging from his feelings. “I’m sorry about that feeling I had.” (66) This indicates that the loyalty in Finny is preventing him from knowing the truth of his friendship with Gene; which is that he was actually the one who caused him to fall. Adding on, the goodness and authenticity of Finny’s heart is prohibiting him from believing; let alone thinking about a small possibility that his best friend would do something like

Conflicts start with jealousy; Gene begins to develop a sense of envy for Finny’s outgoing personality and his ability to talk out of troubles which later progresses into a one-sided rivalry. After Gene’s first flunked test, he tries to find an excuse to justify his failure, which he later conclude that Finny purposely interrupt his studies. Gene accuses Finny of distracting him and setting an image of a nice friend, he reasons, “Sure, he wanted to share everything with me, especially his procession of D’s in every subject. That way he, the great athlete, would be ahead of me. It was all cold trickery, it was all calculated, it was all empty” (Knowles 53). The jealousy comes from doubts and predictions, Gene made excuses to make himself feel better. This mindset help justify Gene’s resentment regarding Finny’s accomplishment. Although Gene knows that Finny is an outstanding athlete, he tries to match up to Finny’s by reasoning out possible doubts. When Gene unconsciously jounce on the branch, this life-changing decision affects both Finny and himself. Though he is guilty at the idea of Finny can no longer play sports, he is also glad that his “enemy” no longer exists.

Many people have their own definition of evil. In the dictionary the definition is profoundly immoral and malevolent. My personal definition of evil is putting your needs before others, hurting someone or making their life miserable just so you have a better advantage to succeeding in your life. “A Separate Peace” is about a boy named Gene Forrester who returns to his school called the Devon school. He attended the school when he was young during World War II. Gene is a hardworking student who is devoted to his studies. Finny on the other hand, is terrible at schoolwork but is a tremendous athlete. In my point of view Gene is a ruthless evil person.

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.

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