Finny Character Analysis

There’s a quote in the book from Gene which says, “He had won and been proud to win the Galbraith Football Trophy and the Contact Sport Award, and there were two or three other athletic prizes he was sure to get this year or next (Knowles, 51). This quote can show Finny is really into sports and works hard towards it. Also, he and a few others played a game called blitz-ball, which is a game Finny created himself, and it is based off of what was used by the German’s in World War II. Now I am sure you are wondering if he had anything to do with friends.

Finny did a lot of risky things, that most people would not be able to pull off, but somehow he always manages to slip away with no punishment. Unknowingly, Finny went to a party, the headmaster was also attending it. As usual, Finny was out of dress code, wearing a neon shirt and their school tie as a belt. Somehow he talked himself out of trouble. Gene says “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him that a little (Knowles 9).” Finny continued testing his luck, with skipping chapel and classes, and test, and meetings. In the article "A Separate Peace: The Fall from Innocence" James Ellis writes “Incapable of the spiritual purity of Phineas, Gene finds himself jealous of Finny's ability to flout Devon rules.” All of this grew on Gene and started to make him very jealous of something he did not have. Trying the ultimate dare, Finny decided to go to the beach, Gene says “The beach was hours away by bicycle, forbidden, completely out of all bounds. Going there risked expulsion (Knowles 20).” Finny went through with his plan and spent a night at the beach, and received no punishments or disciplinary actions. As Gene was struggling with his identity, he saw that Finny could do things he could not. All those things made Gene jealous and gave him something to focus on, other than solving his identity

When he realizes that Finny legitimately cares about him, he feels guilty and strives to develop a more positive outlook on life. At the end of the book, Gene realizes that Finny never thought of anyone as evil and had a true desire to see people succeed.

I didn’t sleep much that night. My mind had too many thoughts. Phineas had every right to hate me and never speak to me again, or at least be angry with me. Yet he chose to believe that it was just a blind impulse on the tree that day. I couldn’t comprehend why that is. Was it a blind impulse? I lay there thinking that in no way did I deserve to be Finny’s friend. I somehow understood that our identities were beginning to merge, and we had some connection stronger than friendship. I think that it was this that kept us together, not what I did or what he believed I did, the unbreakable connection between

Phineas, also known as Finny, is a boy who plays a lot of sports. Although Finny might not look like an athlete, ”Phineas had been the best athlete in the school” (Knowles 8) Finny also wants to join the military, which people need to be strong for. Athletes, like Finny, usually run the school. So naturally, Finny can get away

Finny wouldn’t make a capable soldier due to his purity and innocence. In addition, Finny does not contain an ounce of malice inside of himself. He simply could not kill another human being. Throughout the course of the novel, all Finny ever wanted was fun, which for him was not found in winning or losing, but in playing. Finny’s main belief was “everyone always won at sports,” (page 27). However, war is based off winning and losing. You simply cannot have that mindset during a battle. Gene realizes, Finny lacks desire and comprehension, to do true evil. The closest Finny has ever gotten is in athletics, and even there he constantly switches teams to keep the “competition” going. ”You’d make a mess, a terrible mess, Finny, out of the war” (page 182). Even during a snowball fight Finny switches sides. According to Gene, Finny would not know what side to fight for.

Finny completely ignores the war going on all around him because since they won’t admit him in anywhere, he prefers to tell himself that it simply isn’t real instead of acknowledging his new handicap. Contrastingly, Gene remains aware of World War Two, and his point of view shows just how immature Phineas acts about it. When Finny complains about the absence of maids at the school, Gene sensibly replies by saying, “‘There’s a war on. It’s not much of a sacrifice, when you think of people starving and

Sometimes people read a text and do not go any further into the message inside. Howeverin the story A Separate Peace by John Knowles, The character of Finny represents innocence-aninnocence that is destroyed when it is forced to confront the hatred and evil in the real world.Finny is preserved by most as a picture of innocence because he acts like he has nothingto hide from anyone. The reader can infer this because, most of the teachers at Devon seem tothink of him this all good boy way. The reason the reader thinks this is because, they let the stuffthat Finny does, that is against the rules, slide and he does not get in any form of trouble.However when anyone else at Devon done these things they do not let them off as easy. Thisbeing because of the fact that Finny had a certain attitude towards life that made people not seethe bad in him.However later in the novel Finny falls from the tree and

Once Gene told Finny that he purposefully jumped in the tree to make Finny fall, Finny had to realize that the perennial friendship he believed he had with Gene, may have been built on lies. In the book, Finny’s first expression after being told that Gene caused his fall was actually a facial expression; “he looked older than I had ever seen him” (Knowles 99). This shows that as Finny heard his best friend admit to wanting to hurt him, the only person he had put his full trust in. Even though we don’t get to see what Finny is actually thinking, it is safe to infer Finny felt naive, and was completely shattered. Finny’s trust in Gene and throughout the rest of the novel, their friendship is never restores until the last few pages. Towards the end of the book, Finny completely loses his innocence when he finally admits that the war was actually occurring. In the book, once he sees Leper hiding and decides that he is crazy due to the war. Finny then says, “‘then I knew there was a real war on’” (Knowles 241). Throughout the novel, Finny stood very firmly on his belief that the war was fake -- that no one could hate each other that much -- but once he decided to admit that it was real, it was like his hope had gone

Finny has many dominant traits like, a breathtaking athlete, lighthearted, and a daredevil. However, Finny also has an unmistakable characteristic, in which hurts him throughout

or Finny as he was sometimes called, was the most popular boy in school. He was

Finny, he realizes, for all of his rebellious attitude, adheres without fail to certain self-imposed "commandments." Take sports for example – "You always wins at sports," in Finny's mind. He never thinks about the fact that other people lose. In his mind, sports are absolutely and undeniably good.

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.

This shows how Finny moves in groups. He isn't just athletic; he is also very intelligent and is always at the top of his class.

When he was a child, he was an experiment and held in captivity. He was forced to watch his friends killed and isolated. He received daily multiple injections from unknown substances; this is probably the reason for his superhuman strength. Finny has a tattoo on the back of his neck, for his captors are the ones responsible for it and the injections. It’s also revealed that he wasn’t alone; there were many people that has been experimented on. Since there was a raid on the facility, the goal was to destroy all of the evidence: the files and “results” from the illegal activities that went on in the institution. In order to survive, Finny killed the doctor, killing his friends, who was about to kill him. He escaped that place, and Ciel and Sebastian found him. At first, he prevents himself from going outside due to past traumatizing experience. He fears anything he touches will be broken. Luckily, this fear fades away and eventually enjoy being