Character Analysis Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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 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

The climax of A Separate Peace is when Finny falls out of the tree by the river. Gene immediately thinks that he jounced the limb and he is at fault for Phineas’s broken leg. Gene’s guilty conscious came out and told Finny that he jounced the limb, but Finny would not believe it. Gene couldn’t believe this rivalry had come to a fateful end. Gene was put on trial and the truth came out to Finny. He had fallen down the stairs and broken his leg again. During surgery, Finny had passed away due to a bone marrow flowing through his blood stream and straight to his heart. Gene couldn’t believe that Finny, his best friend, had passed away. Had this all been from his doubting of Finny? Did he cause Finny’s

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

John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, reveals the many dangers and hardships of adolescence. The main characters, Gene, and Finny, spend their summer together at a boarding school called Devon. The two boys, do everything together, until Gene, the main character, develops a resentful hatred toward his friend Finny. Gene becomes extremely jealous and envious of Finny, which fuels this resentment, and eventually turns deadly. Knowles presents a look at the darker side of adolescence, showing jealousy’s disastrous effects. Gene’s envious thoughts and jealous nature, create an internal enemy, that he must fight. A liberal humanistic critique reveals that Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, has a self contained meaning, expresses the

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

Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him significantly. Gene starts to develop a personality just like Finny. As said in the novel, “‘If I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,’ and I lost part of myself to him then” (Knowles 85). Due to Finny’s broken leg, he is not able to play sports anymore so he tells Gene that he needs to play sports for him. Gene loses himself to Finny.

In the novel, “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles, the seasons develop actions and characters in the story. The story takes place at an all-boys boarding school in New Hampshire during World War II based off of the author’s previous experiences at a boarding school. The two main characters, Finny and Gene, experience character development alongside different seasons. In written works, seasons are commonly used to symbolically represent a change in the character’s personalities. The nature or setting of the story is used to specifically evolve Finny and Gene in seasons such as the summer, autumn, and winter. Each season change also generates an entirely different mood.

Genuinely, Gene admits “it was just some ignorance inside [him]” causing him to betray Finny (182). Gene understands that the enmity between him and Finny never existed since Finny does not act upon Gene, as a result Gene feels like an infinitesimal importance to Finny’s life. Due to Gene feeling insignificant, he carelessly jounces the limb like a child would do. After coming to the realization of what he has done to Finny, Gene confesses to Finny that he had deliberately jounced the limb even though he might lose Finny because Gene acknowledges the fact that Finny deserves the right to know what has happened to him which indicates Gene’s growth into adulthood. Since Gene accepts the fact of causing Finny’s maimed leg, he willingly obtains the responsibilities from his actions. Out of Finny’s infirmary window, Gene sincerely tells Finny, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” as a self realization that people do make mistakes (175). His apology amplifies his maturity because Gene did not find others to blame on for his

Only after Finny’s death, is Gene capable of letting go of his jealousy and frustration, that resolves his conflict, allowing internal peace. Throughout A Separate Peace, Gene’s continuous change in character along with the reality of war only created an ongoing battle within himself that severely affect him and those around him. Without realizing, Gene ironically inflicted his jealousy upon himself and therefore suffered the most pain, that is until he found his separate

Finny is a staunch intimate friend, unlike Gene, who always aspires to get finny into torment. Gene had poisonous lethal cogitations such that Finny was after him to ruin him academically. These are all notions that had no essence . Gene just assured himself that Finny was begrudging him for being an A student. Having always had a scuffle within himself, gene yearned to be Finny. Finny never got into adversity and that what engendered Gene’s dissatisfaction and uneasiness. One night, Gene jounced the limb of the tree and Finny fell fracturing his leg. This was considered a turning point in Gene’s life when he knew that Finny would hardly amble, meaning that he could no longer play sports like he did before. Gene , then, perceives the

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

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.

Furthermore, Gene does not simply see Finny as a friend but a partner in crime. “Finny trapped me again in his strongest trap, that is, I suddenly became his collaborator” ( Knowles 1959). Gene and Finny are allies, it is them against the rest of the world, Knowles is highlighting the fact that although these two are friends Finny can manipulate Gene in any which way he chooses making them moreso enemies. Gene is blinded by Finny’s wit and charming manner, but the surroundings in Devon have an equally heavy effect on their relationship.

While Gene is first moving from the south to go to Devon, he thinks that he might have to act like someone else to fit in. However spending time with his daredevil roommate Finny, he soon realizes that he could just be himself. In the story, Gene tries to counterbalance against Finny, who is his closest friend and at the same time the school’s athlete star. Friendship is a combination of admiration, respect, jealousy, and can sometimes blur one’s identity. Gene lets his evil side of him take over both physically and mentally causing him to trick himself that Finny is a conniving foil that wants to sabotage his academic merits. As the number of Finny’s invitation to activities increase, Gene starts to think that Finny is intentionally trying to make Gene fail out of school. Gene starts to dislike how Finny often interrupts and invites him to the tree jumping. “Holding firmly to the trunk I took a step towards him and my knees bent and I jounced the limb,” (Knowles, 60) In Chapter 4, with anger and jealousy built up within Gene, he loses his battle against his inner-self and thoughtlessly causes Finny to fall off the tree and shatter his legs. Gene was unable to confess to Finny and admit to himself that he had caused the accident. However, Gene overcomes the obstacles, and he expresses regret and confesses to Finny that he was the one that shook the branch of the tree that caused Finny to