Tragedies are an essential part of current literature. Though they might be heartbreaking, tragedies teach their readers life lessons that are hard to find anywhere else. Besides the tragic storyline, tragedies incorporate elements of forgiveness, compassion, and blitheness. John Knowles teaches the readers those lessons with his acclaimed novel A Separate Peace, where he adds tragic elements to his story to add meaning to the novel. Various elements of tragedy are crucial to the plot of A Separate Peace by John Knowles; the struggle between good and evil, catharsis, and tragic waste all create a dramatic atmosphere that adds deeper meaning to the novel.
Gene’s interaction with Finny triggers an inner struggle within Gene where his paranoia
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Finny’s demise demonstrates that people’s death can be both beneficial and virulent to their loved ones’ well being. After Finny recovers from his initial injury, he plans to train Gene for the Olympics. In the process, Finny tells Gene about his conspiracy on the war. Gene, confused, asks Finny what makes him so special that he gets to know the truth about the war in the first place. In response, Finny claims, “Because I’ve suffered” (Knowles 116). Finny thinks he has suffered after falling from the tree and breaking his leg. After forcing Gene to do 30 chin-ups, Gene says, “Phineas I know had been even more startled than I to discover this bitterness in himself. Neither of us ever mentioned it again, and neither of us ever forgot that it was there” (Knowles 117). Gene explains that both Finny and himself eventually move on from Finny’s bitterness. Him and Finny have created a friendship where they can both rely on one another. This relationship is ruined as a result of Finny’s death, because Gene no longer has a person with a great level of trust like he used to have with Finny. Several months following Finny’s death, Gene decides to enlist in the army. As a resolution once and for all, Gene admits to himself the truth about that summer. He says, “All of them, all except Phineas, constructed at infinite cost to themselves these Maginot Lines against this enemy they thought they saw across the frontier, this enemy who never attacked that way––if he ever attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy” (Knowles 204). Gene finally comes to terms with the reality of the situation. Gene explains that the enemy across the frontier, might not actually be the enemy at all. Gene believes that no one can be sure who is real enemy is. This is an analogy to Finny and the war, because Finny never had any enemies. His ability to overcome Finny’s death
himself. Gene explains, “ I spent as much time as I could alone in our room, trying to
When Gene is quick to realize that him and Finny will never be of the same power, Knowles shows us that a loss of identity may be present in a relationship if there is an unequal amount of power. Gene realizes that Finny is someone who can do anything and he states that “He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could be any rivalry between us. I was not the same quality as he” (59). Gene’s low self-esteem starts to build up as he explains that no matter how hard he tries, he will never be as good and powerful as Phineas. Finny has everything in his power and is capable of so many things also remaining his own person. However, Gene feels the complete opposite as he understands that to become someone as mighty as Finny, he has to change who he is to even get Finny to notice him as a threat. As a result of this unequal
“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
First, Finny continuously insists that “there isn’t any war” and even asks Gene, “Do you really think the United States of America is in a state of war?”; he furthers his argument by claiming that believers in the war such as Gene “are still under the influence of some medicinal drug” (Knowles 115). Finny displays innocence by denying the existence of one of the most devastating wars in world history. At the beach together, Finny expresses his happiness around Gene by telling Gene, “at this teen-age period in life the proper person is your best pal…which is what you are,” even though “something [holds Gene}back” from saying the same about Finny (Knowles 48). Finny’s optimism forces him to acknowledge his friendship with Gene even when he cannot decide if Gene feels the same way. Finally, as soon as Finny even considers the idea of Gene pushing him off of the tree, he insists that “it was a crazy idea, [he] must have been delirious” and then he immediately apologizes to Finny, “I’m sorry about that feeling I had” (Knowles 66). The mere thought of Gene hurting Finny goes against Finny’s optimistic ideals, thus explaining his rejection of this thought and his immediate apology. Of course, Finny inevitably confronts these ideas that he first considers fallacies, and the result of
As time has progressed, people have long debated the inner virtues and vices of humanity. In John Knowles’s novel, A Separate Peace, the raw reality of human imperfection is explained through the main characters, Finny and Gene. Finny and Gene’s personal character flaws represent various dynamic aspects of human nature as a whole; showing that they are flawed characters in a flawed world. Finny’s denial and Gene’s self-hatred and envy symbolize the same pitfalls of human character that so many in reality struggle with.
The novel begins with old Gene remembering what happened at Devon fifteen years ago. Gene and Finny go to Devon School during WWII. Even though they are friends , they are very different. Finny is the top well-rounded athlete who can get talk his way out of anything, while Gene is the studious, shy kid. Finny comes off as a jerk and thinks he has to be good at everything. I do not quite understand Finny and Gene’s friendship. Finny creates a secret society and in order to be in it you must jump from a tree limb. I also believe that Finny and Gene are both afraid of denial, change in time passing. The way they see things and the way Gene presents himself isn’t reality. Also, Gene has trouble finding his inner peace throughout the novel.
Best friends share a special bond. The bond of friendship is a strong bond, and it is often unbreakable. Best friends, by definition, are supportive and loving toward each other no matter the circumstance. What happens, though, when one friend begins to grow jealous of the other? Does the friendship persevere or does the friendship fall apart? In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, two best friends appear to have this unbreakable bond of friendship . Finny and Gene are two boys trying to survive their teenage years at The Devon School. The two are best friends until the unthinkable happens. Gene begins to grow jealous and envious towards Finny. The jealousy and envy take Gene to a dark place he has never imagined.. He does something that he can
“It is better to have an enemy who honestly says they hate you, than a friend who is petting you down secretly”-Unknown. While this is true, is a person who puts you down secretly even considered a friend? Not according to Webster’s New World Dictionary and Thesaurus’s definition of friend, “a supporter or an ally” and Dictionary.com’s definition of friendship, “a state of mutual trust and support between allies”. In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, Gene, the narrator puts his “friend” Finny down so is their relationship really classified as friendship? No, Gene and Finny are not friends because Gene purposely made Finny fall out of the tree, their relationship is considered rivalry, and Gene doesn’t support Finny.
In high schools all around the world there are students that might have a lot of friends or just a few, and it is the same with friendships too. Those friends and friendships could turn out to be negative or positive, depending on their impact on a student growing up. Like how a student could get peer pressured by his friends into doing drugs or underage drinking and then grow up being an alcoholic or a drug addict. A good situation could start out with a student that is challenged by his friends to do better in school and grows up to be a successful pro sports player or a successful business man who is very wealthy. Friends do have a great impact on who you turn out to be.
The defining moment in Finny’s life happens at the climax of the novel when he shatters his leg when attempting a double jump with Gene. His physical transformation destroys his dream of becoming a superb Olympic athlete or his ability of joining the military. Additionally, the predicted lack of full recovery slowly diminishes his hyper masculinity so he transfers his dreams into Gene. Initially, after his accident, Finny’s confidence stays strong for a while. He does not believe that his fractured leg would be a problem for him, so he doesn’t take proper care of it. Finny simply refuses to be aware of the severity of his injury. By disregarding all implications of his condition he explains, "Isn't the bone supposed to be stronger when it grows together over a place where it's been broken once?"... "Yes, I think it is."..."I think so too. In fact I think I can feel it getting stronger" (157). Finny’s naivety echoes how desperately he is trying to regain his pride and masculinity after his tragedy. Also, his repetition of the phrase “I think” signifies his denial and perhaps his inability to face Gene’s betrayal. Equally important, that later on his friendship with Gene slowly begins to shift into codependency as Gene’s resentment of Finny fades and Finny’s crippled leg permanently changes his status at Devon. Finny, who technically initiates this transformation, has to tell Gene: ““Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,” and 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” (126). Finny’s words not only catalyze Gene’s self revelation but indicate his master plan to achieve his athletic goal through his friend. Meanwhile, Gene has a sudden confession of his own. Namely, he wants to “become a part of Phineas.” From that point,
Finny accepts Gene as a friend, but Gene still doesn't want to accept the truth. As they are both about to jump from the tree, Gene jounces the limb and Finny falls to the ground. As he falls, Gene feels no concern for Finny’s well-being when he thinks, “It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make” (Knowles 60). Gene jounces the limb to relieve himself from all of the envy he feels towards Finny. Gene uses his envious character to judge Finny in an inhumane
Yet, in the end, we find a conclusion that pieces together every one of Gene’s actions, and reveals another hidden meaning (this story is full of them). During their final conversation, Finny expresses to Gene how he in fact did try to enlist, but was rejected due to his disability. Gene, dumbfounded by this new meaning behind Finny’s conspiracy theory, goes on to say how Finny is not suited for war. Yet, he is not just speaking about the war, but about reality. Finny was ill-prepared for the adult world, and life itself.
This battle began when Finny was thrown from the limb of the tree injuring his leg. When Gene visits Finny, shortly after the incident, he does not confess the truth. Instead he takes a listening ear as Finny tells him “‘I just fell,’ his eyes were vaguely on my face, ‘something jiggled and I fell over’” (57). Though Finny simply could not accept his best friend did this to him, he somehow knew was lying to himself. This may seem like a rational thing to do, but people often forget what the end result may be. As Finny illustrates, lies always have consequences, even the ones we tell to ourselves. Finny’s injury had a major impact on his life. He could no longer play sports, something that came natural to him. He was also of no use in the Military, and honorable for thing for young men to do at the time. These things definitely affected the way Finny defined himself. But Finny, trying to keep his ego as the perfect person everyone thought he was, chose not to talk about the pain he was feeling. Instead of facing the truth, he created a fantasy. A fantasy that the war wasn’t real at all, but that it was just manipulated to seem real like the “double sawing illusion” at a magic show. Finny deliberately chose to be blind to the truth, this was his version of a quick fix for the pain facing the truth would bring. Though this battle to face the truth was a part of the glue holding Gene and Finny’s
Some friendships last forever and others do not but in the novel, A Separate Peace (1959) by John Knowles, displays a different kind of friendship. The reader throughout this novel was very entertained. This novel takes place at the Devon Preparatory School in the years of 1942-1943.
Transformations occur all throughout life, from developing pimples as an adolescent, to a midlife crisis that changes everything. In John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace, there is a transformation in all key elements of the book, from the rivers, to the tree, to the characters. Three specific young men experience change not just because of the transitions through adolescence. These changes also come about because of war, an injury, and guilt. All of these transformations are specifically seen in Leper, Phineas, and Gene.