Strengths And Weaknesses In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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,

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

As Gene departs from Finny, he does find his own peace. Finny’s life and death taught him a way of living. Gene declares, “During the time I was with him, Phineas created an atmosphere in which I continued how to live, a way of sizing up the world with erratic and entirely personal reservations, letting its rocklike facts sift through and be accepted only a little at a time, only as much as he could assimilate without a sense of chaos and loss” (Knowles 202). Gene struggles throughout the novel, but becomes stronger and more self-aware. He learns how to deal with life when it becomes overwhelming. Gene’s achievement of peace is also seen when he acknowledges himself that the real enemy is within himself. Alton emphasizes, “We’re all liable to corruption from within by our own envy, anger, and fear.” As best friends, Gene and Finny were both likely to develop envy or anger. In this world and how human friendships work, it is normal to have these feelings. However, Gene has a bad case of it, and it affects him greatly. Gene concludes, “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (Knowles 204). Overall, Gene fought his own private war of growing up.

Gene becomes very jealous when he is not as good at something as Finny especially when it is involving sports. Gene is someone that is considered someone that is constantly worrying about what others think of him, when in reality all he cares about is how people compare him to

And if it wasn’t there, as for example with Phineas, then I put it there myself” (Knowles 101). This reveals Gene to be self-destructive and insecure. He is self-destructive when it comes to him and Phineas’ relationship. He purposefully makes himself think that Finny is jealous of him because of his own insecurity and jealousy. Once he realizes it he feels bad and this is a way to justify his actions.

Throughout the book, Gene envies Finny, and this envious mentality changes their future relationship. An example of this is when

Admiration is perceived as having a high amount of veneration, respect, and regard usually for another person. Although this is a very positive aspect of a person, too much admiration can result in jealousy. In A Separate Peace, Gene admires Finny deeply, which causes many controversies within their friendship since Gene becomes blatantly jealous of Finny. John Knowles uses characterization of Gene Forrester to portray how he becomes jealous of Finny which brings forth the theme that in a close friendship, admiration may lead to jealousy.

The relationship that he had with his so called friend Finny was based off of jealousy. Gene was insecure of who he really was and that translated into their friendship (McGavran). Gene and Finny are total opposites. Finny is a friendly guy who is good at athletic events and does not even have to try. He never gets in trouble and that bothers Gene. In chapter 2, Gene hopes that Finny will get in trouble because he is not wearing his tie the way it should be. However, he becomes disappointed because it gets out of it (Knowles 20). Gene on the other hand is very smart and not outgoing. Nothing really comes easily for him (McGavran).

Friendships cannot last, because of humanity’s nature of being jealous, dishonest, and the fear of being viewed as subpar. In the naturalism novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the main character Gene started out as Finny’s best friend. He admired Finny greatly, and was happy to have such an amazing and special friend. Shortly thereafter, Gene started to display these unfortunate characteristics that ultimately cause him to lose his best friend. Jealousy is one of the factors that demolish relationships.

His personality differs numerously when comparing to the narrators. Finny is popular and extremely athletic. Gene is jealous Finny is considered to be one of the popular guys and is attracted to because he is innately good, despite his constant rule-breaking. Gene’s jealousy starts to erupt after Finny had broken the school record in swimming. After Finny had done this, Gene had said “To switch to a new sport suddenly, just for a day, and immediately break a record on it---that was about as neat a trick, as dazzling a reversal as I could, to be perfectly honest, possibly imagine” (Knowles 23). This is when Finny’s selfishness starts to appear. Finny didn’t want the narrator to tell, because “It had made Finny seem to unusual for not friendship, but too unusual for rivalry” (Knowles 23). Their personalities are too different, Finny is popular and into sports, Gene is more towards academics. Finny breaks the rules, but on the other hand, Gene follows them. Without having similar personalities, this causes Gene and Finny’s relationship to come closer to the

Gene’s secret antipathy of Finny continues to grow until Gene does the unthinkable when they are playing in the tree. “Holding family to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb” (Knowles 85). As a result of Gene’s actions causing Finny’s fall, Finny breaks his leg. Finny is no longer able to participate in sports and not eligible for enlistment. Another way Gene and Finny’s relationship is affected is when Finny gets caught wearing the Devon School’s tie and Gene hopes for him to get in trouble. Knowles states, “The time he was not going to get away with it. I could feel myself becoming unexpectedly excited at that” (27). Finny is charismatic and could get away with a lot of things, but Gene did not like that. He wants Finny to get the consequences that he deserve for doing the things he has done. Gene often gets mad that Finny would not face the consequences and that caused Gene’s enmity. What is apparent in this relationship is that Gene ascribes all of his own suspicions, enviousness, and resentment to Finny, assuming Finny thinks and feels the same way as Gene. In fact, however Gene misreads everything about Finny and his

War is defined as a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state. In A Separate Peace, the author John Knowles uses a variety of examples of war and peace. The book is a flashback of a kid that went to the Devon school during World War 1. The students were safe in the school until they are 18 then they would have the chance to enlist or get drafted. In the novel John Knowles illustrates that war and peace can keep people safe or cause tragedy in people's lives. Some literary devices that John shows in the novel are Conflict, Point of view, and imagery.

A Separate Peace A Separate Peace was a beautifully written book by John Knowles. It tells (tells 2nd one not needed) of the struggles and hardships of teenage boys during a brutal and unforgiving time, the Second World War. It was the summer of 1942-43 at Devon School located in New Hampshire, based after the already existing Exeter Academy. Devon “emerged naturally” as Knowles put it.

A Separate Peace is a coming-of-age novel written by John Knowles in 1959. Set against the background of World War II, A Separate Peace explores patriotism, morality and loss of innocence through its narrator, Gene Forrester. The novel also focuses on another main character, Phineas (also known as Finny). Gene and Finny, in spite of being complete opposites in personality, are close friends at Devon, an old prep school. Gene's quiet, withdrawn, and academic individuality counterparts Finny's loud, carefree, and athletic behavior. Both Phineas and Gene are shown as allegorical and symbolical characters throughout the narrative in A Separate Peace. "It made Finny seem too unusual for—not friendship, but too unusual for rivalry. And there were few relationships among us at Devon not based on rivalry." (Chapter 3)

One instance where Knowles uses characterization in order to achieve his purpose is when Gene develops the feeling that Finny is trying to sabotage his chance of being "head of the class, valedictorian" (41). Gene thinks since Finny is the best at sports, he also desires the need to be the best scholastically, although he is "a very poor student" (44). This is Gene's explanation for assuming that Finny "deliberately set out to wreck my [Gene's] studies" (43). Gene, enraged by Finny's actions, figures the motive behind Finny trying to keep him so busy is to throw him off track with his schoolwork. Although this incident caused much jealousy and rivalry in Gene, it actually benefited him tremendously. Gene reveals, " 'I became quite a student after that. . . . Now I became not just good but exceptional' " (44).