Theme Of Conflict In A Separate Peace

In a place flooded with war and violence, a school is separated from reality; living within the walls are the boys of the school, shielded from the ugly truths that lie beyond. During this time of adolescence, the boys are forced to grow and mature while the walls that protect them begin to fall. One boy, Gene, lives within this wall and matures into a young man during this time through many events and conflicts he faces. Through these events occurring, he is now able to withstand the violence of the world, war and trauma. This coming of age is demonstrated when Gene causes Finny to fall out of the tree, discovers the reality of war, and Finny dies.

These notions come almost immediately when Finny urges Gene to jump out of the tree. Gene thinks to himself, “Was he getting some kind of control over me?” (p.17). This demonstrates his paranoia as a simple invitation for a ‘fun’ activity is misconstrued as a mind game. Gene thinks that Finny is establishing power over him, but in reality Finny is just being a friend. This mindset changes towards the cessation of the novel as Gene gains his own tranquility. He begins to realize who he was as a person, good or bad, and accepts his characteristics for what they are. This change is evident after Finny tragically dies during surgery, leaving Gene at peace he’s never felt before. When questioning why he feels this way, Gene ponders, “I killed my enemy there” (p.204). He understands that since Finny is gone, he can finally be free from the envy and competitiveness that held him in the relationship. Gene also understands that he was the only one who truly felt this way, as Finny was exactly who he acted like. Finny’s actions were never malicious and Gene begins to comprehend that Finny’s charismatic attitude was genuine, he never put on a show. These two traits contrast greatly, but the author

Gene brings a lot of jealousy and turmoil in this novel, especially towards Finny. Finny is a very athletic character, who is good at everything he does. “No locker room could have more pungent air then Devons.” Finny does not care what people think of him at all, and he always finds a way to get out of everything that he does wrong. Finny was a good leader of the pack, and Gene did not like it.

With each scenario, it is shown that most of the time Gene’s enemies are only in his head- not many are in a battle to reign supreme as he is. The war put together with these power struggles allows for such a well done piece, for the reader learns that even in times where others are in battle one does not have to be anchored against someone. Phineas and Gene’s relationship is also instrumental in delivering this message because the reader can witness Phineas, with his free and peaceful ways and realize that Gene does not have to be on the defense and seek power all of the time. Phineas is a unique contrast to Gene that helps Knowles prove his point. Just as in the book, life shows us that this urge to beat an “enemy” is unnecessary and can often have consequences like the ones Gene experienced. It is crucial to recognize the reigning powers in life and not let them take over and cause one to find evil in everyone- Knowles displays this perfectly with Gene and his

Gene becomes more disciplined and athletically inclined. He is undertaking circumstances that he knows will never come true, the 1944 Olympics, yet making the best of them to please his best friend. Gene is learning to do things although he does not want to do and that have no purpose. This is a difficult task for an immature child; however, through Gene's ability to train for the inexistent Olympics, shows that he is growing up. He looks at his training as if he were preparing for the war. Accepting that he must go to war is also another sign of maturity brought on by the training for the Olympics with Finny. Through his preparation for the Olympics, Gene's coming of age becomes more and more evident.

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

To start off, all the boys show the theme coming of age in their own personal ways. Gene shows this theme because he has more inner battles and struggles that he has to overcome than any other character. For example, Gene shows this when he along with others discuss enlisting. Gene starts contemplating and thinking of everything he has to lose. He also

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 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.

I think the main struggles he faces throughout the novel are jealously and internal guilt. Throughout the book, Gene struggles with his envy towards his best friend Finny. Even after Phineas breaks his leg, Gene is jealous of the way Finny still manages to have motivation and how Finny pretends that nothing even happened. Although Gene feels resentment for the duration of the novel, after causing Finny’s fall off the tree, he starts to feel major guilt inside of him. Even though Finny does not know that Gene jounced the tree for most of the book, I think that made Gene feel even more guilty. In the end, Gene ends up not only losing his struggle, but also losing his best friend. Gene realizes that all along, he thought Finny was the enemy, but if he had acted like Finny, like he always compared himself to be, he would have realized that the antagonists are maybe not always the enemy after all. So after Finny passed, Gene never killed anyone during World War II, and never saw anyone as an enemy, just as Finny would have

“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

One of the most major conflicts of the book is Gene wishing he could be like his best friend Finny and being dangerously jealous of him. Genes jealousy got the best of him when he decided to step on a branch on purpose, which leads to Finny falling and breaking his leg. Sadly, Finny breaks his leg again and dies from bone marrow passing into the bloodstream during surgery and it was caused by the first break of his leg that Gene caused. Gene learns from this that he should not compare himself to others, because it is simply not fair. There is growth shown in Gene when he learns this and he knows that if he let it happen again it could have tragic consequences. It took losing a best friend for Gene to know that he

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

They both no longer have an internal conflict inside, but focus on helping one another with the other one's weakness. The reader is then able to to see how a flat character such as Finny, can reveal a different side of a dynamic character Gene. Finny tries to find ways to have fun with Gene, whether that is before the fall playing a game or after the fall helping to train Gene to become a better athlete. Gene changes from being envious of Finny to depending on him for advice. Gene changes so much that he feels a huge part of Finny is inside of him, and it is awkward for Gene to be at his own funeral.

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.