Essay about Gene's Coming of Age in A Separate Peace

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 knew Finny was mad, but felt the need to talk to him. Gene climbed into his infirmary room trying to apologize, and explain. Eventually Gene reassured him that it was some a crazy impulse and not a deliberate take out. This is the last discussion the two had. The next morning the doctor confidently informs Gene that he will have Finny’s bone reset by the afternoon. However during the surgery he faces a complication, where some bone marrow travels into his bloodstream straight to his heart. With a war going on the doctor informed Gene of his best friend’s death by starting off with, “This is something I think of your generation is going to hear a lot of.” Gene Forrester said he never cried at this news because he “Couldn't escape a feeling that this was [his] own funeral.” That was how close the two

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

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.

Only gradually does he admit to the existence of war, in which Gene is unhesitant to follow in pursuit. This is because Gene regards Finny as a virtuous boy whom he has faith in and wishes to resemble. Fifteen years after the events of the war and the narrator still lives in the atmosphere which his deceased friend created for him. It is without question that Finny was the main contributor in altering the way Gene used to perceive conflicts in his life, and having such a profound influence on Gene, how he perceives them even 15 years later.

    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

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,

Many people think that it is easy to let go of the past, to move on, to let it all go, apologize to those you hurt, and forgive the people who have hurt you. But in reality, others would agree that it is definitely easier said than actually done. The book, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, is about a boy, Gene Forrester, who is attending an all boy boarding school in New England during the beginning of World War 2. He battles to find his inner self while also battling with the hardships of having a best friend, Finny, who everyone adores and who is good at everything he does. This book is chalked full of events, dramatic as well as calm, between these two boys that happen during a particular summer. They not only find their inner selves and make a stronger bond, but they stretch the limits of their relationship and they lose the innocence of their world. Coming of age is a necessary, but often challenging stage of life which involves seeing oneself and the world as they truly are. Coming of age is the main theme of this book because the boys need to be able to grow and mature into the young adults that they need to become.

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.

He no longer cared about his grades, and his personality went from introvert to very outspoken. His negative trait carries on throughout the whole book, but the underlying competition between him and Phineas lived on. When Phineas died, Gene’s negativity and hostile actions almost dissipated on the spot. “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. I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case.” If Gene did in some way become a part of Phineas, then part of Finny lives on in Gene. The narrator alludes to this when he says that he still lives his life in Finny’s created “atmosphere.”

Finny was such a large part of Gene, so crying would seem like self pity. There was a lot of tension between Finny and Gene after the accident on the stairs, so Gene still feeling like a part of Finny after all of that shows that the two were truly connected.

He thinks Finny is trying to sabotage his studies so that he can be number one at that too! In reality, Finny is just trying to be a good friend. Gene is jealous of Finny’s athleticism, but he covers it up by the thought that all Finny wants to do is hurt him. In attempt to have some fun, Finny wants Gene and some other boys to jump from a tree limb into a river. This challenge is something that has never been done by a boy their age. After doing it once, Finny later convinces Gene to leave his studies and come do it again. While the boys are on the tree limb, Finny stumbles, falls into the river, and breaks his leg. Since Finny can no longer participate in any sporting events, he decides to train Gene for the 1944 Olympics. Gene eventually comes to the conclusion that “[Finny] had never been jealous of [him] for a second. Now [he] know[s] there was and never could have been any rivalry between [them]” (Knowles 78). Gene realizes that Finny wasn’t ever jealous of him, and that pushing Finny from the tree is a mistake that he will later regret. Finny dies after falling down the stairs and a failed surgery, so Gene begins to feel guilty for his actions. Gene had earlier decided to enlist in the war, and had told the other boys about it. After a lot of thinking, he eventually decides not to enlist in the war. Gene now begins to see the wrong doing he had participated in earlier,

“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

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.