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A Separate Peace Gene Character Analysis

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The problems within society often roots from the internal conflict of one person. In the novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the antagonist has the greatest impact on the story. The main character named Gene creates the plot of the story. As an insecure tennager in high school, Gene has problems with self-identity. This leads him to have internal conflict with his best friend, Finny. Gene has fun and exciting times with Finny, but he feels that there are also times when they compete like rivals. Gene is the antagonist of the story because he represents the ignorance within humanity. Gene Forrester who is both protagonist and antagonist has conflict within himself which impacts his friendship and the theme, the danger of codependency to identity.

Through the majority of the story, Gene has internal conflicts pertaining to his resentment but also his appreciation towards his best friend, Finny. Gene and Finny were friends who always hung out and had fun with each other. One day, Finny confesses to Gene that he is his best friend. Gene had conflicting thoughts in his mind, that contained the truth, which stopped him from …show more content…
Finny directs Gene to become more like himself and Gene also thinks that he is Finny. Since Finny is limited by his leg, he lives through Gene. This dependency of Finny living through Gene and Gene wanting to be Finny is dangerous for their own identity. Because the friends have this kind of relationship, it limits Gene from finding out who he really is. After Finny dies, Gene is constrained because he feels as though he died as well. He feels that he cannot live without Finny. This relationship made him a reliant person who always needs someone else to define himself. He always feels the need to copy someone else. This theme is the main subject to the story. Gene’s personality of always needing someone to copy ultimately led to the perils of

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