Character Development Of Gene In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

Visiting his school, Devon, fifteen years later, Gene realizes that during the time he was studying there fear surrounded them, and he had not noticed. However, with his return Gene realizes that the fear “had surrounded and filled those days” and now when revisiting he was “unfamiliar with the absence of fear”, with leaving Devon he escapes feeling of fear (Knowles 10). He did not fear those days that he spent there and looks at them as lessons that help him grow. No longer feeling the hatred he had once felt, Gene gains peace from within him, and as he loses his hatred he is able to accept the real, adult, world. With the hatred gone, Gene also loses the fury he had at people and at life. Getting rid of those feelings, that were once so normal to Gene, he begins to possess peace within himself, allowing him to come of

When Gene visits Leper at his home in Vermont, he discovers Leper’s mental instability and fears the same will happen to him in the future when he enlists in the army. Gene states, “I didn’t care what I said to him now; it was myself I was worried about. For if Leper was psycho it was the army which had done it to him, and I and all of us were on the brink of the army” (Knowles 135). Gene is now coming to the realization that war can have negative effects on those involved and is beginning to fear the war. Previously, just as the other boys, he has been shielded from the ugly truths of war by attending Devon, alien to the idea of the violence that it contains. Now, he has achieved a new understanding and has now created an informed opinion on war. This serves as a turning point for Gene because he is losing his innocence and discovering more about the war beyond the walls of

Gene is starting to get paranoid that Finny is trying to sabotage his academics. When Gene is studying Finny asks him if he wants to watch Leper jump from the tree, Gene freaks out at Finny blaming him of sabotaging his studying.

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 middle of the novel, Gene starts to understand events as time passes. One particular event is when Gene visits Leper. Gene learns that, Leper has turned crazy. “I didn’t care what I said to him now; it was I I was worried about. For if Leper was a psycho it was the army that had done it to him, and I and all of us were on the brink of the army.”(144) Gene realizes that it wasn’t he who turned Leper crazy, but it was the army, and him and Brinker were about to enlist. Gene understands and realizes the horrors that are really out there in the universe. It transforms Gene by letting Gene understand the horrors and the reality of things that are happening.

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

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 made Finny his enemy, only because he felt envious of his personality and character. Knowles explains that all people should live life to its fullest, and avoid jealousy, envy, and hatred. A liberal humanistic review, shows that Knowles’ novel, promotes the enhancement of life.

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

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

Human nature is notorious for its trait of jealousy. One may grow hostile when he desperately seeks another’s possession or talent. This statement is evident in the character of Gene from John Knowles’ A Separate Peace. Throughout the story, he is jealous because his friend, Finny, has exceptional athletic ability. After one regretful action from Gene, Finny starts facing tough circumstances, eventually separating them. A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene demonstrates how envy can tear friendships apart.

Finny tells Gene that he once had aspirations to go to the Olympics, and Gene agrees to train for the 1944 Olympics in his place. This creates the threat of codependency of identity. Everyone is shocked when their friend Leper decides to enlist to go to war. During the winter Gene gets a telegram from Leper saying he escaped the war and wants to talk to Gene. Gene goes to visit Leper only to find out that Leper has gone mad. Leper who was present when Finny “fell” from the tree and reveals that he knows the truth. Brinker explains how they lost two potential soldiers Leper and crippled Finny. At this point Gene afraid that Brinker’s remark hurt Finny’s feelings, tries to cheer Finny up, but now Finny denying the war

One instance where Knowles uses characterization in order to achieve his purpose is when Gene develops the feeling that Finny is trying to sabotage his chance of being "head of the class, valedictorian" (41). Gene thinks since Finny is the best at sports, he also desires the need to be the best scholastically, although he is "a very poor student" (44). This is Gene's explanation for assuming that Finny "deliberately set out to wreck my [Gene's] studies" (43). Gene, enraged by Finny's actions, figures the motive behind Finny trying to keep him so busy is to throw him off track with his schoolwork. Although this incident caused much jealousy and rivalry in Gene, it actually benefited him tremendously. Gene reveals, " 'I became quite a student after that. . . . Now I became not just good but exceptional' " (44).

Finny is out of school for a while and Gene admits that he caused this on purpose and Finny is distraught about