How Does John Noah Show Naturalism In A Separate Peace

Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him in many ways. Gene begins to lose his identity and start conforming to Finny. According to Knowles, “If I was head of the class and won that prize then we would be even…” (27). This quote explains how Gene follows finny by trying to be head of the class with him. Gene gets jealous of Finny being head of the class, so he tells him if he was head they would be even. When Finny introduce jumping off the tree to Gene at first he didn’t want to do it, but he wanted to be like Finny so he did it. In Knowles words, “what was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this? Was he getting some kind of hold over me? (5).

He tries to get Gene to join him in activities such as the Suicide Society. He even doubts their friendship and wonders if that is a way for him to become better. Gene begins to think that Finny doesn’t want him to succeed because Finny isn’t doing well in his studies. Finny is better than Gene at sports, so he thinks he’s trying to become better than him academically

In the fiction novel, “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles, there are plenty of characteristics exposed from the setting about the character Finny. How the setting of the novel helps reveal the character Finny is by the way he reacts towards his education, sports, and friends. He and a friend, Gene, go back fifth-teen years as if they were still at Devon High School, which is a boarding school for boys only.

    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

This surprise could stem from Gene's expectation that such an achievement would be openly celebrated, but it may also hint at his jealousy, as he may have wanted recognition for himself if he was in Finny's position. The fact that Finny's achievement takes root and grows rapidly in Gene's mind suggests that Gene's admiration for Finny is influenced by envy. Gene's decision to keep Finny's accomplishment hidden from others may stem from a desire to maintain a sense of superiority or control over the situation. By keeping the achievement to himself, Gene can maintain a sense of power over Finny's success, even if it's in his own mind. Finny’s athletic ability enrages Gene as this jealousy complicates their friendship and influences Gene's behavior throughout the novel.

Genes envy and imitation of Finny affect him. Finnys ability to talk his way out of trouble affected Gene’s feelings. According to Knowles,” he had gotten away with everything. I felt a sudden stab of disappointment “(28). This explains how Gene is discussing his disappointed feelings toward Finny.

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 is very competitive and he was satisfied to learn that Finny could not participate in sports anymore. He did not like the fact that Finny was better than him at

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.

Gene’s trust towards Finny first subtly comes through after returning from Leper’s house. “I wanted to see Phineas, and only Phineas. With him there was no conflict except between athletes… This was the only conflict he had ever believed in.” (Knowles, 152)When Gene returns from Leper’s house, all he wants to do is see

When Gene is quick to realize that him and Finny will never be of the same power, Knowles shows us that a loss of identity may be present in a relationship if there is an unequal amount of power. Gene realizes that Finny is someone who can do anything and he states that “He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could be any rivalry between us. I was not the same quality as he” (59). Gene’s low self-esteem starts to build up as he explains that no matter how hard he tries, he will never be as good and powerful as Phineas. Finny has everything in his power and is capable of so many things also remaining his own person. However, Gene feels the complete opposite as he understands that to become someone as mighty as Finny, he has to change who he is to even get Finny to notice him as a threat. As a result of this unequal

Finny’s radiant, idealistic, and spontaneous personality forces Gene to idolize his unique individuality. Furthermore, he has no desire in being victorious in any argument and does not

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).

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

“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