...Steve Furtick once said, “The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel." In A Separate Peace by John Knowles Gene and Finny are two of the main characters who go to Devon; an all boys school. Through trials such as the war and Finny's accident the characters reveal the truth about themselves and how they act with tragedy. With tragedy Gene experiences insecurity and guilt. Gene is an insecure friend towards Finny. He compares his academics and athletics with Finny. He feels like Finny is just using him and they don't have a strong true friendship. Throughout the chapters Gene demonstrates insecurity towards his friendship with Gene. Gene has never told Finny how...
Words: 628 - Pages: 3
...Many people have different relationships that they have developed with their friends. Often friendships are formed by each person having the same personality traits. Some friends form relationships by having the same dislikes. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles Finny and Gene developed a relationship based on each of the boys’ fears. Gene is afraid of Finny’s physical achievements and capabilities. Finny, on the other hand, is afraid of Gene’s academic performance. In the story Gene plays the role of the narrator. Also, in this book Gene’s tell about his younger years in a flashback from his adulthood. In his flashback he is a sixteen-year-old average teenager. In the book, average is described as self-conscious, uncertain, jealous, and...
Words: 501 - Pages: 3
...In A Separate Peace by John Knowles Leper Lepellier, one of Gene and Phineas’s schoolmates, was the first seventeen-year old at Devon to enlist into the war. He has come back from training in an unstable emotional state. Leper possesses knowledge that could hold far-reaching consequences for Gene and Finny. Leper had seen Gene purposely jounce the limb and in his current state of mind there is no way of knowing whom he could reveal this fact to. He has experienced very demanding and arduous things during the war and his time there has changed his personality. Leper is no longer the shy, innocent, and sensitive naturalist he used to be. He holds no sympathy towards Gene and would divulge his secret without a second thought. Leper holds knowledge that could potentially impact both Gene and Phineas’s lives....
Words: 648 - Pages: 3
...Gene is an intellectual who excels academically, Finny is an accomplished athlete with mediocre grades. Gene is self-conscious and reserved, Finny is very kind, social confident, and filled with self-confidence. Gene is inclined to play by the rules, while Finny seems to get away with everything. Gene studies relentlessly, while Finny's athletic success seems to come naturally to him. Finny is honest, without pretension, and genuinely affectionate toward. In the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene and Finny are in many ways opposites-their academics, athletic skills and behavior. Gene wants to be a valedictorian and on the other hand Finny doesn't care about school. Finny is not a good student . “ Written test were his downfall because he could not speak them, and as a result he got grades which were barely passing” (Knowles 54). Finny is not a good students, and he would work in short burst but did not study as hard a Gene. Gene realizes that if he keeps working hard he would be the best hardworking student in the school. Finny is not a good student, but he is really good at sports. Gene is the exact opposite of funny, good in school but not in sports. Finny is good a good athlete when Finny and gene were both fooling around in the swimming pool area there was a bronze plaque and A. Hopkins had a record of 53.0 in 1940, finny tried...
Words: 461 - Pages: 2
...The human nature has intrigued philosophers since the ancient Greeks with Aristotle. This is exactly what John Knowles explores in his novel, A Separate Peace. A Separate Peace begins with the main character, Gene Forrester, coming back to the boarding school that he attended 15 years ago, Devon. When he arrives his memory flashes the reader back 15 years in the past, to the summer of 1942, where we are introduced to Finny, Gene’s best friend, and the reason of Gene’s return to the school. As the story develops, the reader discovers that Gene is subconsciously jealous of the near perfect Finny, leading Gene to cause an accident that would cripple Finny for the rest of his life. The rest of the story explores the friendship between the two boys...
Words: 376 - Pages: 2
...The Character Development of Gene Forrester In the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene Forrester experiences much personal growth. He starts off the book jealous and suspicious of his best friend Phineas, and by the end he has grown into a more mature adult, who thinks more rationally. He overcomes his insecurities and addresses his impulsive nature. This is all accomplished through Phineas’ injury and death. Gene fights this internal war and defeats his own demons before ever going overseas to be a part of World War II. In the first chapters of A Separate Peace, Phineas displays his abilities to talk his way out of trouble. About this Gene says, “It was hypnotism. I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him...
Words: 750 - Pages: 3
...F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy.” Aristotle was the first to use the term a “tragic hero.” A tragic hero is a character who obtains a flaw but only realizes it after it is too late to change the course of events. In the book A Separate Peace, one of the main characters, Finny, would be considered a tragic hero. Finny is a tragic hero because he shows virtuous qualities, he has a flaw that leads to his downfall, and he recognizes this only after it is too late. Finny is a tragic hero because he shows virtuous qualities. Many times throughout the book, A Separate Peace, Finny refuses to see the evil in anything. The first time Gene, Finny's best friend, tells him that Finny's broken leg was his fault,...
Words: 496 - Pages: 2
...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...
Words: 554 - Pages: 3
...Another character that Finny--from A Separate Peace--is like, is Mr. Keating the professor from the film Dead Poets Society. They both have a great influence on other characters in each of the two works. In the book it states, “The Devon faculty had never before experienced a student who combined a calm ignorance of the rules with a winning urge to be good… a model boy who was most comfortable in the truant’s corner”(23). Finny not only influenced his fellow classmates to go outside of their comfort zone and try new things, but he also inspired his professors. Although he is just a student, they listen to him and value his thoughts. They listen to his thoughts and ideas and take what he says into consideration. Mr. Keating from Dead Poets Society,...
Words: 251 - Pages: 2
...question, who usually is victorious in those conflicts? This usually ends up deciding who can survive in this world and who can’t. In a Separate Peace however it varies due to what the situation is. In John Knowles A Separate Peace, the author proves that Gene is strong enough to survive in the modern world due to his actions, his personality, and how it contrasts to Finny’s. Firstly, Finny has always been a really nice person, he has never been even slightly related to a boor while Gene has been a very quiet and conservative of his thoughts. Gene reveals his secret personality too Finny when Knowles creates the scene between both of them where they discuss their relationship between themselves and the war. Whiling they are contemplating about the war, Finny keeps...
Words: 888 - Pages: 4
...Friends are not just people to talk to, but they are also people that one can rely on even when they are not on the best terms. In the novel, A Separate Peace, the author, John Knowles, creates a controversy of whether the two main characters, Gene and Finny, are truly friends. Knowles inserts many instances that tell if Gene and Finny have a real friendship. Throughout the novel, Gene and Finny exhibit that they are not true friends because of the jealousy and hate involved in their relationship. Gene and Finny display a fallacious relationship through the envy that builds up throughout the novel. Gene shows signs of jealousy when Finny gets away with an act, “He had gotten away with everything. I felt a sudden stab of disappointment,” (Knowles...
Words: 742 - Pages: 3
...friend·ship ˈfren(d)SHip/. Noun. The emotions or conduct of friends; the state of being friends. A state of mutual trust and support between allied nations. Are two people really considered friends if there is no truth? This is a question one might ask themselves while reading the novel “ A Separate Peace,” by John Knowles. Gene and Finny have a push and pull relationship when it came down to them being “friends.” A jealousy from Gene is what led to the downfall of it. Gene is an introverted, rule-abiding, hard working student. He almost never breaks the rules. On the other hand, Phineas is an extroverted, athletic, manipulative, and charismatic student. He often gets in and out of trouble easily. Their relationship from an outside person’s perspective, would seem as if they needed each other. As a reader, you will see often how Gene falls into Finny’s traps, yet does not really mind after the fact. It is like Finny needs someone to manipulate, and Gene does not mind being that someone. Gene goes wrong when he begins to have a jealousy towards Finny. The jealousy constantly grows all while Gene was being Finny’s “best friend.”...
Words: 565 - Pages: 3
...Knowles also displays Gene as the character that experiences the greatest fall from innocence because of his suspicious behavior towards Finny. All of this started when Finny and Gene decided to double-jump off the tree. While Gene stands on the branch “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb” (59). This behavior possibly causes Finny to shatter his leg, taking him out of sports and possibly preventing him from ever being able to walk again. Even if this is not the only reason for Finny falling from the tree, this behavior of jouncing the branch could only come from a feeling of jealously or resentment towards a person, which can only happen through past experiences with that specific...
Words: 304 - Pages: 2
...Friendship can play an important part in many people’s lives. Every friendship is unique, and consists of different phases. There can be phases of joy and happiness, or of envy and competition. John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, showcases the phases of Gene and Finny’s friendship. In Gene and Finny’s friendship, examples of loyalty and rivalry, betrayal and guilt, and confession and forgiveness can be seen. All friendships have times of loyalty, and times of rivalry. Finny and Gene’s friendship showcases these traits on a more serious matter. At first, before the loyalty phase of their friendship, Finny and Gene were no more than friends, it was not until Gene jumped out of the tree after Finny that they really started to become good friends. When Gene says, “I suddenly became his collaborator” (19) is really when his loyalty starts. This statement of Gene’s shows that the friendship just happened instead of continuously building on, like most relationships. Gene would have done anything for Finny, as it is shown in the story, when Gene drops everything to go to the beach with Finny, sacrificing his studying time. Finny even told Gene that he was his best friend at the beach,...
Words: 642 - Pages: 3
...Eventually Gene does loose his innocence. After he realizes that what happened to Finny was his fault, he started to look at life a little differently. He admits to doing all those things. He knows he was wrong, That is a sign that he is starting to loose his innocence. He looses it for sure when he goes to war. He basically hid out at the Devon School for years, until he manned up and finally was going to the war. When Finny died he felt it was his fault too. When the first time he broke his leg, his guilt got the best of him. He felt horrible. After he confessed he felt a little more at ease. But now Finny is gone for good. Think of how he is feeling now. I’d feel awful. But he doesn’t talk about Finny now. It happened, and he is really...
Words: 252 - Pages: 2
