A Separate Peace Maturation

Throughout the story Finny thinks him and Gene are friends; when they are really enemies. In the novel Gene says, “what was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into this? Was he getting some kind of hold over me?” (Knowles 5). The narrator’s jealousy, starts to grow more towards the other character. The hate Gene has for Finny builds up and eventually leads to his death. Their relationship got more affected when Gene admitted to causing the accident, and caused Finny to never play sports again. When Gene admits to hurting Finny, it changes both of the characters, and their friendship was hanging by a

The reason this change in the novelhappens is because Finny has made it a point to prove to Gene that the war was not real. Thereader can infer from this behavior that Finny only wanted to keep Gene around him so he wouldnot be lonely. However as the story continues the reader figures out that this inference was truealong with another. This other hidden truth was that Finny was only pushing the war awaybecause he was not able to be apart of the war. After the reader finds this out the minds shit asthey find out that the last bit of innocence thatFinny had was that him and Gene could not be friends if he had enlisted.The reader notices that up until the point that Finny broke his leg that he was this perfectimage in people's eyes. However when he does break his leg and walks around the school incrutches those people have a different view on him. This change in perspective notifies thereader in that loss of innocence in Finny and at

Once Gene told Finny that he purposefully jumped in the tree to make Finny fall, Finny had to realize that the perennial friendship he believed he had with Gene, may have been built on lies. In the book, Finny’s first expression after being told that Gene caused his fall was actually a facial expression; “he looked older than I had ever seen him” (Knowles 99). This shows that as Finny heard his best friend admit to wanting to hurt him, the only person he had put his full trust in. Even though we don’t get to see what Finny is actually thinking, it is safe to infer Finny felt naive, and was completely shattered. Finny’s trust in Gene and throughout the rest of the novel, their friendship is never restores until the last few pages. Towards the end of the book, Finny completely loses his innocence when he finally admits that the war was actually occurring. In the book, once he sees Leper hiding and decides that he is crazy due to the war. Finny then says, “‘then I knew there was a real war on’” (Knowles 241). Throughout the novel, Finny stood very firmly on his belief that the war was fake -- that no one could hate each other that much -- but once he decided to admit that it was real, it was like his hope had gone

Finny was such a large part of Gene, so crying would seem like self pity. There was a lot of tension between Finny and Gene after the accident on the stairs, so Gene still feeling like a part of Finny after all of that shows that the two were truly connected.

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.

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

Throughout the novel, you can see that Gene in a constant jealousy between Finny. Gene, he has the strengths of academics but he lacks the personality of goodwill and tries to be someone he is not. While on the other hand Finny is weak in academics but is strong in athletics and is wholehearted. Finny is a stronger character morally he is faced with the idea that his “best friend” Gene could have killed him. Finny is a stronger

“The tone of his words fell dead center, without a trace of friendliness or unfriendliness, not interested and not bored, not energetic and not languid” (Knowles 188). Gene and Finny were best friends and always talked to each other with excitement. Now that the truth came out, Finny shows no emotion at all to Gene. Gene’s habits have affected their friendship

Their differing personalities was the stressor of their relationship at times. The smarter of the two, Gene was always wanting to stay inside their dorm and study instead of doing other things with all of the other boys. Although Gene is super studious Finny is the opposite. He is what now-a-days we would call a “Jock” he enjoyed sports and being popular. Nothing else interested him, he didn’t like to study or do anything that meant he had to stay inside for long periods of time. Blitzball was the sport that Finny invented while Gene was studying in the dorm for his French final. Up until the very last time that our two main characters talked to each other they were butting heads, From Finny getting Gene to jump from the tree to Funny breaking the school's record for swimming and not wanting to tell anyone they were forever having conflicting

It shows how sometimes Gene was very jealous of Finny, so jealous that he harmed him. The irony in this is that Finny and Gene have been friends for so long, and Finny didn’t get angry with Gene, but instead forgave him, which caused Gene to become more jealous of someone who was supposed to be his friend. Even though Finny never did anything to deserve the fall, he still fell, and Gene became friends with other boys, but was not jealous of them the slightest bit. Other offers of friendship oddly opened Gene’s eyes. So in the novel, Gene displayed the dark side of adolescences, by hurting his apparent best friend.

It is clear Gene is traumatized, a broken soul wandering endlessly through the Fields of Asphodel. The entire story is varnish over what truly lies within the depths of Gene’s id. Was Finny was simply a manifestation of Gene’s opposite personality? Did Gene truly had much more troubling matters to deal with than a friend dying at a school? It is much more likely that Gene suffered post traumatic stress disorder after World War II. As Gene states, “The war was and is reality for me, I still instinctively love and think in it’s atmosphere.” It is clear that Gene has never moved on, and has regressed back to his teenage persona, to reshape his memories into less despairing ones, than the ones that plague his subliminal and innermost thoughts. Leaving these anguishes separate from his ego. Memories in which Gene is Judas who betrays Christ, instead of potentially monstrous horrors suffered in the cruel and hellish trenches of the war. Denial. Regression. Gene is a broken man, who is so consumed by the darkness of the cave, that he cannot see the true light.

Gene thought that Finny was sabotaging his education because he was jealous of Gene. Gene ended up overthinking everything when Finny turned out to be a true friend. It was too late. Gene had already jounced the limb to get rid of his evil. Finny fell, eventually died, and Gene was devastated. Finny would have never expected his “best friend” to make him fall out of the tree. Even when Gene said “Finny, I’ve got something to tell you. You’re going to hate it, but there’s something I’ve got to tell you.” (Knowles 66) Finny didn’t suspect a thing by it. He would never even accuse Gene of such an action. Gene has learned that he can’t take his own motives and make an impulsive decision when it comes to genuine

Second, the injury puts Finny in the hospital, separating the two, which cause Gene to suffer depression. As Finny is badly wounded, he has to leave his boarding school, Devon, for a long period of time. He spends his time in the hospital, away from Gene. FurthermoreThis makes Gene regret his decision even more. Not only are Gene and Finny physically separated, but also emotionally separated. Essentially, Gene loses his

Respect, jealousy, and some healthy competition are some of the things that are all combined to make a good friendship between two people. A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a flashback fifteen years to when best friends, Gene and Finny, went to Devon Boarding School. These boy’s made many ,good and bad, decisions while they were away at their school in New Hampshire. Friendship, beliefs, sports and academics are three very big concepts while identifying Gene and Finny.

Often times individuals choose their friends based on the commonalities they share and the experiences that bring them together. However, like any relationship, lacking genuine intentions can cause a friendship to fail. A Separate Peace by John Knowles characterizes two main characters, Phineas (Finny) and Gene, as they attend a New England boarding school in the midst of World War II. Certain behavior indicates that Gene is jealous of his close friend Finny, therefore Gene and Finny cannot be best friends. Gene’s initial resentment grows causing to him to seek Finny’s failure, mentally disband their friendship, and inflict physical pain upon him.