A Separate Peace Chapter 3

In chapter 11 of A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, Gene is back from Leper’s and wants to see Finny. Gene sees that Finny is in a snowball fight and Gene joins in when Finny hits him with a snowball. Later that night Brinker asks about Leper, Gene decided to tell both Finny and Gene that Leper has gone crazy. Finny admits that there really is war going on if Leper is so affected by it that he has gone crazy. At 10:05 pm that night Brinker and some others want to take Finny and Gene somewhere. They are both confused since it is after hours. Brinker takes them to the Assembly Room where he has taken it upon himself to investigate what really happened in that tree the day of Finny’s accident. Finny and Gene do not want to be in this situation

Charles Oduro Mrs. Weber English 9 Honors, Period 1 October. 18. 2017 A Separate Peace - Chapter 9 Summary:

Chapter four starts with the gray dawn and closes with a gray dusk. Also, it begins with Gene describing Finny coming to life as Lazarus and ends with the tragic fall that destroys his life. Finny wakes that morning with characteristic action, proposing a quick swim. But of couse Gene declines because he is thinking about his limits and rules. When he looked at the sun, he knew it was about 6:30, and all he could do was worry about his trigonometry test that would be at 10:00. For Gene, the meaning of the morning emerges not from the beauty of the dawn the beautiful beach, but from his worries and disappointments. Finny has lost their money, and they must now bicycle back to Devon without breakfast and arrive just in time for Gene to fail his

This quote shows how Gene is completely in denial about Finny being more athletic and having more desirable assets. Gene is jealous of what Finny has that he doesn't, and it seems like Gene has an infatuation with Finny. In total, this shows that Gene has jealousy issues and is in denial that he wants to be exactly like Finny but can only put him down because he wants to be exactly like him. To add to that, Finny also exhibits denial in many ways in this book. “Described (denial) it as refusing to acknowledge upsetting facts about external events and internal ones, including memories, thoughts, and feelings."

Since Finny could no longer play sports he wanted to live his dreams through Finny.He dream was to go to the Olympics. I think that Gene went along with it because he felt bad for the whole situation. He already felt guilty so this was a way for

Gene didn’t tell Finny the truth about the tree until after he was pressured by Brinker because he couldn’t fully acknowledge it was him. Gene says things like “Roommates are roommates”. Even if they do have an occasional fight.” (pg 41) to try and justify himself and his feelings. When Gene and Finny were up on the tree, Gene pushed him off to inflict pain on him due to his uncontrollable feelings.

There is an unspoken contract between Finny and Gene that they both know about, and that contract is that Gene has to do anything to help Finny because Finny can’t do the things that he normally does anymore. Finny is taking this contract as a way to live through Gene, whatever he can’t do anymore that he wants to do he makes Gene do it. Finny says,“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”(85). This conversation forms a pattern for their relationship after the impulse makes Gene jounce the branch. Their new relationship works in a way which Gene allows Finny to live through him by becoming apart of Finny and by letting Finny train him to be the athlete that Finny can no longer be. Even though Finny is living through Gene, Gene is also living through Finny. Gene’s words in this quote suggest, to experience life by living through Finny is to be able to gain a sense of purpose, and Gene likes this idea because he doesn't know what his purpose in life is yet. When Finny trains Gene for his fantasy of going to the 1944 Olympics,their friendship develops as a codependency. This codependency fills Finny’s need to live out his dreams and Gene’s desire to find himself and what his purpose is. By Gene becoming apart of

While the adolescent males conveyed valiant desires, they all remained fearful of the future. Finny was the one who possessed the ability to enliven his solemn peers. Rather than wallowing in his thoughts, Finny hosted the winter carnival. A social function of such magnitude kept the teenagers from focusing on the war, but rather on their several youthful possibilities. While enjoying himself at the carnival, Gene reflected, “It wasn't the cider which made me surpass myself, it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, and separate peace” (9.128). Gene repeatedly implied “peace” at Devon School, however this was only acquired thanks to Finny helping peers mentally escape the war. Though Finny viewed his actions as a positive diversion, Gene’s paranoia began to obscure his judgment. Gene retained a deep-seated loathing for Finny, mainly due to jealously. After convincing himself that Finny was sabotaging his educational achievements, Gene shook the branch both boys were standing on. Finny plummeted downward and injured himself to the extent of never being able to participate in sporting events again. When analyzing his greatest fears involving Finny in chapter four, Gene stated, “He had never been jealous of me for a

One of the things Gene feels lesser in is his competition with Finny in sports. For example, Finny broke a swimming record and Gene was very jealous that he broke it.

Gene starts to develop paranormal feelings toward Finny. The author states “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies” (Knowles 53). One night while Gene is studying, Finny disrupts his train of thought. Gene then starts to think that Finny is out to get him, while in reality he is only being a friend. Finny got angry with Gene when he finds out the truth of how he fell out of the tree.

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.

A Separate Peace, which was written by John Knowles, has many themes. They are interconnected throughout the book. The most clearly portrayed theme is fear. It seems to be connected with the themes of friendship, jealousy, and war. As World War II was occurring, fear had taken over Gene's life through these various themes. When he visited Devon fifteen years after leaving the school, Gene claimed, "I had lived in fear while attending the school and I can now feel fear's echo" (Knowles 10). He felt like he had gained a separate peace after escaping from this fear.

Finny's strong and solid character is again evident the night of the tree jumping in which he fell and broke his leg. Prior to the occurrence, Gene explodes when Finny automatically assumes Gene will be present at the Suicide Society tree "leap"(46). Finny's thinking that studies can just be abandoned at anytime infuriates Gene. Once Gene

As humans were on Earth their emotions kept the people they liked close and the people they didn’t out. Furthermore getting a human's trust is hard to earn but one wrong move they could lose all trust someone had with them; with losing trust someone could be sent into chaos. This chaos could show the dark side of human nature. As shown in the movie, The Dead Poet's Society and also within the book, The Separate Peace the readers are given an incite to the dark side of human nature.

In the beginning of the novel, Gene, is a clueless individual. He sees the worst in people and lets his evil side take over not only his mind but also his body. During the tree scene, Gene convinces himself that Finny isn’t his friend, tricking himself into thinking that Finny is a conniving foil that wants to sabotage his academic merit. Gene is furthermore deluded that every time Finny invites Gene somewhere it’s to keep him from studying and