Identity In A Separate Peace

The title of the book, A Separate Peace is completely relevant to the story of the two boys Gene and Phineas and their relationship. The title shows how the boys put themselves in completely different realities, a separate peace. This first occurs when Gene manages to push Phineas out of the tree causing him to shatter one of his legs. Phineas refuses to believe Gene, his best friend would purposely hurt him. “I don’t know, I must have just lost my balance. It must have been that. I did have this idea, this feeling that when you were standing there beside me, yー I don’t know, I had a kind of feeling” (Knowles 66). This quote shows that Phineas has

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

Essentially, Gene’s conflict begins as he develops feelings of envy towards Finny’s outgoing personality and appealing charisma, which causes him to hide behind a persona in the one-sided rivalry he has with Finny. When Gene flunks a test for the first time, he finds an excuse to justify his failure, concluding that Finny purposely interrupted his studies by inviting him to the beach. Gene reasons, “Sure, he wanted to share everything with me, especially his procession of D’s in every subject.

Once Gene decides to spend time with Finny rather than doing his schoolwork, the shift from disciplined to more carefree diction determines Gene’s conflict, creating a more resentful tone. This tone directly corresponds with the conflicting diction as Gene says “Finny kept me entertained. He told long, wild stories” (46). By using words such as “entertained… wild… joking... musical”, Knowles is combining a carefree tone with a disciplined one that Gene first experiences. As mentioned earlier, when he states the decision he made “destroyed the studying I was going to do for an important test” (46), it mirrors the emotional state Gene is facing as well as the contrasting diction. Gene agrees to go to the beach yet he cannot come to terms with the repercussions of the adventure they are taking. He says it “blasted the reasonable amount of order I wanted to maintain in my life” (46). Gene himself is conflicted, which creates a resentful tone as he is unsure if the choice he made is the right one because it will affect his studying. Gene struggles with his constant “need to study” (57), until Finny requests Gene’s presence on different adventures. When they arrive at the beach, Gene describes a wave as “immeasurably bigger than I am, rushing at me... and took control of me” (46). The wave he experiences symbolizes Finny’s impact on Gene

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

Throughout A Separate Peace, Gene’s relationship with Phineas is constantly being questioned. One second they’re the best of friends, whereas the next moment they’re enemies. “It made Finny seem too unusual for not friendship, but too unusual for rivalry. Gene’s confused with Phineas

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.

The novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, follows the life of a young Gene Forrester and his friend Phineas. The boys’ antics get them into numerous rigorous and life-threatening situations and furthermore let them learn about each other's true nature. A Separate Peace’s plot can easily be compared to the Shakespearian quote; “Never waste jealousy on a real man: it is the imaginary man that supplants us all in the long run.”. This mere sentence can easily summarise the jealousy that Gene holds towards his friend. Gene’s jealousy is mostly for Phineas’s impeccable ability to get away with his risky stunts without punishment while still remaining completely humble. In the end, Gene’s jealousy of Phineas dilutes his view of him as a person and companion. Gene believes Phineas to be a conniving manipulator when in reality, he was genuinely a down to earth boy. Throughout the novel, copious relations to the quote are littered among the text and ultimately carry the story from start to finish.

Identity in life can be influenced by both yourself and others. The clothes you wear, your attitude, and interests are significantly altered by you and the things you see around you, such as trends, ads, news, videos, and more. During World War II, though, your identity was affected by the yourself, the war, and those around you, as you didn’t know many other people than those you were close to. In A Separate Peace, both Gene and Finny, who are very close friends, affect each other’s identities throughout the novel.

This final piece of Finny’s identity that Gene takes on bridges the gap between Gene’s submissive identity and Finny’s confident, established self. This allows Gene to fully become who Finny used to be, and lets him bury his weaknesses in Finny’s

The theme present in the quote and throughout to whole novel A Separate Peace (ASP) by John Knowles is the friendship between Gene and Finny, whether it being dependent or not. The theme in the quote and book though is interdependent because the friends both rely on each other at different moments. The quote is: “I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case” (184). In ASP Finny and Gene at different moments are dependent on each other. Therefore, it makes them interdependent.

The common themes of A Separate Peace and Dead Poets Society encompass over-arching themes of identity and friendship during adolescence. An example of the friendship between Gene and Phineas could be described in this quote, "I threw my hip against his, catching him by surprise, and he was instantly down, definitely pleased. This was why he liked me so much. When I jumped on top of him, my knees on his chest, he couldn't ask for anything better" (Knowles 19). Here, in the beginning of the novel it is evident that their relationship is fueled by envy of the other boys fortes, athletics and academics. In chapter five of A Separate Peace, Gene Forrester abandons his identity in the manifestation of wearing Phineas's clothing, "One evening when I was dressing for dinner in this numbed frame of mind, an idea occurred to me, the first with any energy behind it since Finny fell from the tree. I decided to put on his clothes" (Knowles 62). This merge of identity occurs subsequently to Finny's fall as he is no longer able to participate in

A Separate Peace starts off with an innocent and naive Gene. This young Gene hasn’t gone through much, and still has yet to experience everything this world has to offer. After school started, “[Gene] naturally felt older—I began at that point the emotional examination to note how far my convalescence had gone—I was taller, bigger.” (John Knowles pg.2 pdf). Although Gene was growing physically, he wasn’t growing mentally. He notices this and says, “ I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was

A separate peace; In the book “A Separate Peace” a book by John Knowles there are two young teenagers that are going into the war. He defines the theme with excellence. The true person that gene is to Phineas deals with the characteristics, personality, and difference’s. In the three body paragraph’s they include the characteristics similar traits, personality how they get along, and their difference’s what they don’t do alike.

Throughout A Separate Peace, Gene’s desire to assimilate into his friend, Phineas, is expressed many times. It is hard to tell whether it is out of jealousy, hatred, or envy, but this desire to become Phineas seems to become Gene’s top priority. At Devon, Gene is constantly comparing himself to Phineas and finds himself feeling envious of Phineas due to his athleticism, friendliness, and ability to always get his way. Gene feels as though Finny is superior and becomes jealous of Finny. For these reasons, Gene tries to be more like Phineas by completely absorbing himself into Phineas’ personality. John Knowles portrays Finny as Christ-like, and displays many parallels between the Garden of Eden and other important stories and events that shape