A Separate Peace Identity Analysis

Later on in the novel, after Mr. Patch-Withers calls the boys into his office to consequence Finny for wearing the Devon School tie as a belt.To get out of punishment, Finny makes up an elaborate lie about why he needs to wear the tie, and saying that it is a tribute to the school, as well as a necessity so that his pants did not fall down while at the headmaster’s tea. This causes Mr. Patch-Withers to laugh, something that the boys believe he has never done before. Gene reflects back on this moment in awe, thinking about how “[he laughs] along with Finny, [his] best friend, and also unique, able to get away with anything at all… He [gets] away with everything because of the extraordinary kind of person he [is]. It [is] quite a compliment to [Gene], as a matter of fact, to have such a person choose [him] for his best friend” (28). By saying that Finny is an “extraordinary person”, and that it is a “compliment to have him choose Gene to be his best friend”, it can be concluded that Gene looks up to Finny as a role model, and envies the fact that he is able to “get away with anything”. Gene feels that Phineas is so important to him and is such an inspiration to him, foreshadowing an adaptation to Finny’s identity, just like the previous quote.

In the book, a separate piece, Gene suspects Finny of trying to ruin his grades. The reasons are that he is paranoid, he thinks that they’re in a rivalry, and he thinks that Finny is jealous of him. These reasons are not logical, but when you’re paranoid, you don’t know what to think. He is mostly paranoid because Finny jokes that he’d be so envious if Gene became the head of the class. However, Gene didn’t take it as a joke and thought he meant it.

Gene responds to the rumors with denial. In John Knowles' A Separate Peace, Gene causes Finny's fall by impulsively jouncing the limb out of subconscious envy, causing Gene to feel regret afterward and wear Finny's clothes. The story repeatedly shows Gene's guilty envy of Finny. During a dinner with the headmaster of the summer session, Knowles shows Gene's

In “A Separate Peace”, it seems Finny and Gene, the main characters, could not be more different in terms of their lives, goals, and outlooks. The author, John Knowles, shows the reader how “best friends” can be very similar and very different at the same time. Finny and Gene were best friends at the beginning of the novel but slowly drifted apart towards the end of the novel. Gene with his forever bad attitude and Finny with his optimistic attitude and love of sports. Gene gave into the pressure around him and his friendship with Finny ended up being a bad one.

Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace, also reveals that human nature never changes. Knowles, reveals the tragic flaw of jealousy, that has continuously plagued human nature. Gene’s envy of Finny’s exceptional personality and character, reveals this terrible flaw. Human nature has always contained jealousy or envy, but Knowles’ novel reveals its truly destructive nature, through the characters’ thoughts and actions. Gene’s character, illustrates the progression of human nature and jealousy. A pattern is revealed, that simple jealousy forces action, which in turn, creates guilt and internal punishment. This represents the static nature of humans, who change very little. Gene’s envy, forces him to act, which creates enormous guilt that he must now carry. Knowles reveals that humans do not change or learn, even after a great tragedy. Gene may have learned from his actions, but all the other characters, will take no heed. This shows that although humans should learn from their past mistakes, they do not pay attention, and continue doing what they know they should not. Gene “jounced the limb,” (Knowles 60,) thus ending Finny’s life. Humans however, will not change, and another person

    Throughout the book, Gene matures from Finny’s death and training for the  Olympics. After exercising with his “coach”, Finny, Gene thinks “I felt magnificent. It was as though my body until that instant had simply been lazy, as though the aches… an accession of strength came flooding through me… I forgot my usual feeling of routine self pity when working out” (Knowles 120). Gene becomes more disciplined and athletically inclined as he trains for the Olympics, which shows he is growing up. He looks at his training as if he is preparing for the war, which also another sign of maturity brought on by the training for the Olympics with Finny. After Finny’s death, Gene reflects “I did not cry then or ever about Finny. I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family's strait-laced burial ground outside of Boston” (Knowles 194). Instead

Through A Separate Peace, John Knowles is stating that strength does not indicate survival, and that tragedy can strike the weakest or the strongest as in war. Throughout the novel, Finny clearly appears to be a stronger character than Gene. Finny wearing a pink shirt and the Devon school tie as a belt demonstrates Finny’s daredevil attitude, and his manipulative ability when he gets away with it. Even Gene realized that “Finny could get away with anything.”

I think that when Gene lies about claiming to be taller than Finny (p.16) is when he begins to feel a small amount of envy. In fact, later on page 18, Gene talks about the way Finny walks gracefully with each step. Furthermore, Gene talks about how Devon has never had a student who combined a calm ignorance for the rules with an urge to be good and who seemed to love the school truly and deeply. This, to me, shows how Finny gets out of trouble easily, besides being charismatic, a gifted athlete, etc. For instance on page 25, Gene states,“I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little.” He says that when Finny decides to wear pink to celebrate the first bombing and then later reveals his tie being worn as a belt to further push the discussion at afternoon tea. Despite Gene stating that there is nothing wrong with a little envy, he then says, “This time he wasn't going to get away with it. I could feel myself becoming unexpectedly excited at that” following the ‘belt-tie’ reveal. Soon after Finny, unsurprisingly, gets away with it again, and Gene says that he felt a stab of disappointment. However, Gene thinks to himself that Finny is a extraordinary person for being able to get away with everything and how he is glad to be his friend. Yet,

By the end of A Separate Peace, Gene gained the knowledge that his competitive nature created a situation where he believed Finny to be his enemy. Gene needed to learn how to separate himself from Finny and not compare himself to selfless individual. In addition, he achieved peacefulness because he no longer felt like Finny’s sidekick. Gene clearly understands his role in Finny’s accident, and he is able to compartmentalize his guilt about Finny and keep that guilt out of his life. A separate peace permits an individual to accept their sins of the past and not have their guilt affect all future endeavors. Gene strives to achieve peace with himself by removing himself from his negative, chaotic situation to achieve an internal peace. Attainment

n chapter seven of John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, Gene is adjusting to school without Finny by his side. His personality changed once he had to face school alone. Gene might not have realized it but Finny had a huge effect on his overall mood. Finny has a very upbeat personality that rubs off on the other students.

Learning is a strong aspect in the novel. The characters learn who they really are and choose their own path. Gene, in the beginning was a character of self doubt, jealousy and greed. He never took a step back to realize that he had traits that others wished they had. Nothing was ever good enough for him, not even his best friend. He had to learn who he should be just like his companion Finny did. Finny chose to be a man of forgiveness, loyalty and strength even before the clock ran out of time. He truly did succeed in shaping Gene to be a good person. And Finny learned about himself as he held Gene’s hand along the rocky road. Gene started to learn about himself when he said in the novel on page 59, “Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he. I couldn’t stand this.” Gene was finally realizing that he was not going to be the best at every single thing he does, but that he has someone who can be the tour guide for him in his own life and who can show him who he really should be. This exact situation happens in our modern day lives. We see the things and characteristics that others have and we never take a step back to take in and learn that we are each different and we all have strengths and we all have weaknesses. Everyone shouldn’t be greedy for the ear to ear smile we “don’t have” or the blond hair that we can’t have. But what we can get, that we may not have is the ability to be accepting or forgiving. We can learn to acquire these traits as we learn from example and try these traits on.

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 was attempting to be top of his class academically, but he was continuously being distracted by Finny. Oneday Gene decided to ask Finny if he would be upset if Gene was top of their class. Finny responded by saying, “‘I’d kill myself out of jealous envy’” (Knowles 52). Although Phineas said that in a joking manner, it is clearly that he really would be jealous if Gene was top of their class. Finny loved to be first, and he didn’t like when people threatened his position. After pondering on Finny’s comment, Gene realized, that he may have, “deliberately set out to wreck [his] studies” (Knowles 53). Finny clearly had extreme envy of Gene for better academically. It is unhealthy for friends to be jealous of each other, especially when taken to that extreme. Finny was being unsupportive and selfish, just so that he could be better than Gene.

Gene was jealous of Finny throughout the whole book because Finny was more athletically inclined then him, and Finny was able to do basically whatever he wanted to.¨ I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little¨(8). This lead Gene to want to be better than Finny, by being first in the class. One night while Gene was studying Finny interrupted him, as he wanted to go jump out of the tree. After a little argument Gene eventually went with Finny to the tree, but he was still kind of angry. This lead Finny to jounce the tree limb. ¨Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud¨(28). Because of this fall, Finny completely shattered his leg. He may have been able to walk again, but he would never play sports again. Because of Gene's jealousy toward Finny he decided to make a rash move, which cost his friend their

In John Knowles' novel A Seperate Peace, the hero, Gene Forrester, returns to his alma mater the Devon School in New Hampshire. Meandering through the grounds, Gene advances toward a tall tree by the stream, the purpose behind his arrival. From here he takes the reader back to the year 1942 amid World War II, when he was in high school. During the summer session of that year, he turns out to be dear companions with his thrill seeker roommate Finny, who can persuade Finny into hopping out of a tree into a stream, and the two begin a mystery society called the “Super Secret Society of the Summer Session.” based on this ritual Gene gradually starts to envy Finny's athletic capacities and his guiltlessness, and he feels that Finny envies him as well. Gene at long last understands that there was never any contention between them, when Finny says he wants to see Gene succeed. During Gene and Finny’s junior and senior years in high school, Gene believes that he is at war with Finny, but through the war realizes that Finny is only trying to help him grow, and because of that realization he acquires a separate peace