Gene's Identity In A Separate Peace

Peer and family relationships help to change and shape both the identity of Josie and Amal from the novels Looking for Alibrandi and Does my head look big in this? Identity is who someone is and their characteristics. Everyone has an identity although finding that identity can be a challenge but something that has to be done. Identity often changes for the better and is necessary in life. Having positive and negative relationships are a key to changing someones identity. Learning from negative relationships will help create identity, rather than just believing all relationships will be positive.

In A Separate Peace, the characters battle with their identity. Similar to the many other characters that struggle to be themselves, Gene tries to be other people. Given that Gene has a difficult time with his identity, he tries to be someone he is not: Gene tries to be Finny. Finny can be described as athletic, outgoing, and a risk taker, all things that Gene does not possess. Although Gene is far from Finny’s qualities he tries to duplicate them. Gene says “I decided to put on his clothes (Knowles 29).” When Gene puts on Finny’s clothes it starts his obsession of being Finny. The obsession Gene has continues, for example Finny told Gene that he wanted to one day become an Olympic athlete until he broke his leg. In response, Gene

The shift from terminating to liberating diction depicts the control Finny, Gene’s best friend, has on Gene’s identity itself. Gene notices exactly this when he recognizes that becoming Finny has been his goal since the beginning. Gene narrates how he “thought the issue was settled until at the end he said, ‘listen, pal, if I can’t play sports you are going to play them for me’ and I lost part of myself to him then” (Knowles 85). The terminating diction utilized here, through the words “issue”, “end”, and “lost” can be recognized as Gene terminating the sense of himself to the influence of Finny. After Gene recognizes that he is giving his identity to Finny he feels a “soaring sense of freedom, revealing that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas” (85). Gene now recognizes that he has been subject to Finny’s influence from the beginning, an action caused by himself. He also accepts that he will sacrifice his own identity to reach his goal, to become a part of Finny. Despite the fact that losing oneself to another is not always defined as liberating, the shift in diction to

The author’s use of parallel character’s aids the reader to comprehend the deeper meaning and realize the character’s maturation throughout the text. Knowles uses The Bible to allow for the reader to better understand the relationship of the characters. Gene often talks of how he “lost a part of himself to [Finny]” (Knowles 85) similarly to how Eve was “made from the rib [God] had taken out of man” (Genesis 2:22). This presents the reader with the realization that Eve and Gene are akin. People are also able to understand this when Finny dies because Gene “[felt] that [it] was [his] own funeral” (Knowles 194) and suffered just as much. In Genesis Adam and Eve’s “eyes… were opened” (Genesis 3:7) when Eve ate the fruit enabling both of them feel the impact of Eve’s actions. This is also the case in A Separate Peace, both Gene and Finny mature because of Phineas’s fall. Finny “looked older than [Gene] had ever seen him” (Knowles 70) and the reader is able to feel how “peace had deserted” (Knowles 73) Gene. Also, all of the character’s fates are determined by greed of either Eve or Gene, causing their maturation to occur. Over the course of the book Knowles continuously allows one to see how Gene and Phineas are made for each other, allowing them to learn and grow together, just like Adam and

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

Learning is a strong aspect in the novel. The characters learn who they really are and choose their own path. Gene, in the beginning was a character of self doubt, jealousy and greed. He never took a step back to realize that he had traits that others wished they had. Nothing was ever good enough for him, not even his best friend. He had to learn who he should be just like his companion Finny did. Finny chose to be a man of forgiveness, loyalty and strength even before the clock ran out of time. He truly did succeed in shaping Gene to be a good person. And Finny learned about himself as he held Gene’s hand along the rocky road. Gene started to learn about himself when he said in the novel on page 59, “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. I couldn’t stand this.” Gene was finally realizing that he was not going to be the best at every single thing he does, but that he has someone who can be the tour guide for him in his own life and who can show him who he really should be. This exact situation happens in our modern day lives. We see the things and characteristics that others have and we never take a step back to take in and learn that we are each different and we all have strengths and we all have weaknesses. Everyone shouldn’t be greedy for the ear to ear smile we “don’t have” or the blond hair that we can’t have. But what we can get, that we may not have is the ability to be accepting or forgiving. We can learn to acquire these traits as we learn from example and try these traits on.

As Gene feels the obligation to lose himself to become Finny, Knowles shows us that a loss of identity may be present in a relationship if there is an unequal amount of power. When Finny tells Gene that he has to play sports in the place of Finny himself, Gene says, “I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas” (77). Gene loses who he is to become the powerful Finny because told him to do so. He feels the need to give up his identity seeing that he has the order to do. This results in an unequal friendship because a true friend would never force someone to do something that would make them lose who they actually are. Gene and Finny’s unbalanced friendship eventually causes paranoia and insecurity on the less powerful side known as Gene because he is giving himself up.

“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

As George R.R. Martin once stated, “Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you” (“Quotes About Identity”, 2017). In the short stories, David Goes to the Reserve, and Compatriots, characters struggle with their sense of identity. Some know who they are, but lack the knowledge of who they want to be; while others do not perceive any identity, but know they can be so much more. To find their true selves, the characters have to confront and overcome the obstacles that hindered them in the past.

Gene Forrester, narrator of the book, is an introverted, studious adolescent. In the very beginning of the novel, Gene comes back to Devon in his adult years, and it is easy to notice his insecurities and timidness. His problems from his adolescence carry over into his later life. In his juvenility, Gene faces his dilemmas head on. The climax of the story takes place on the tree, where Gene jounces the limb and Finny breaks his leg. In “Authenticity and Identity Psychology Today”, written by Robert Edelstein, it describes that people will change themselves according to what is happening around them. “This is an ongoing process because our authentic identity”, our true self, “changes throughout our life in response to the impact of our life experiences” (Edelstein). After the accident, Gene shows how he has adapted to the new situation: sports are out the window, education is

For Gene unlike Adam and Cain has remorse for his action because Finny’s death gains him peace or salvation, although this does not reduce his guilt of causing Finny’s first accident. Finny excels above everyone in a rigor-scholar athletic school in athletics similar to Jesus surpassing everyone in morality to perfection. Furthermore, Finny took a Jesus-like approach to life by “never hat[ing] anyone” (Knowles 204). Jesus and Phineas’ death draws great comparison as well; Finny dies from his bone marrow while His own people murdered Jesus. Both are killed by something that is apart of them. Finny’s death like Jesus’ is not something to mourn over rather to be joyous because of the atonement from sin. Phineas’ work is complete; Gene is to carry on the spirit of Finny like Christians receiving the Holy Spirit when Jesus left the earth.

A Separate Peace, which was written by John Knowles, has many themes. They are interconnected throughout the book. The most clearly portrayed theme is fear. It seems to be connected with the themes of friendship, jealousy, and war. As World War II was occurring, fear had taken over Gene's life through these various themes. When he visited Devon fifteen years after leaving the school, Gene claimed, "I had lived in fear while attending the school and I can now feel fear's echo" (Knowles 10). He felt like he had gained a separate peace after escaping from this fear.

Identity is a state of mind in which someone recognizes/identifies their character traits that leads to finding out who they are and what they do and not that of someone else. In other words it's basically who you are and what you define yourself as being. The theme of identity is often expressed in books/novels or basically any other piece of literature so that the reader can intrigue themselves and relate to the characters and their emotions. It's useful in helping readers understand that a person's state of mind is full of arduous thoughts about who they are and what they want to be. People can try to modify their identity as much as they want but that can never change. The theme of identity is a very strenuous topic to understand

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.

As he arrived to the Devon school, an all-boys private academy in New Hampshire, Gene began a new chapter in his life. He sought out for new friends, a new academic lifestyle, and an apprenticeship to life in preparation for the future. At this point, the journey of spiritual reflection had begun. Phineas – nicknamed “Finny” –