Throughout the course of the book, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, one character, Phineas, displays his traits in many ways. Phineas, better known as Finny, lives at an all boys school called Devon during the time of World War Two. He is a boy that gets into trouble, does not stay on task, and is a carefree person that like to have adventures. He brings his best friend and roommate, Gene, along with him to whatever mischief he gets into and throughout the book the reader gets an insight of what their lives were like. During the book, Finny is unaware, impulsive, and strong. Finny is unaware. Throughout the book Finny does not realize that the relationship between him and Gene is not a true and pure as he thinks it is. He is unaware that …show more content…
This trait comes into play when he goes on adventures without planning anything. For example, Finny says, “‘The only real swimming is in the ocean.’ Then in the everyday, mediocre tone he used when he was proposing something really outrageous, he added, ‘Let’s go to the beach’”(42). Even though the two boys had school the next day, the beach was hours away by bicycle, forbidden, and completely out of all bounds, they went anyway. Finny does not plan what they will eat, how much money to bring, where they will sleep, or what they will do if they are late or caught. He does not seem have a care in the world. When they wake up at the beach, Gene think that they should head straight back but Finny doesn’t care and decided to just go swimming again. This shows the reader that Gene gives future some thought and does not just play it by ear. Another reason why Phineas is impulsive is because he jumps to conclusions.This happens when he is talking to Gene about their summer club, “‘I didn’t know you need to study,’ he said simply, ‘I didn’t think you ever did. I thought it just came to you’”(58). Here Finny thinks that Gene never has to study and that all his knowledge and understanding just comes to him. He thinks that Gene comes with him to place and follows him everywhere because he has nothing better to do. In addition, Finny is impulsive when he does what he wants to and not always thinking about what he is doing. He just knows he wants …show more content…
This is portrayed when he is accepting of loss of his athletic ability which what made him, him, when he broke his leg. Finny says to Gene,“‘Well I was. And now I’m not so sure, not a hundred percent sure I’ll be completely, you know, in shape by 1944. So I’m going to coach you for them instead’” (177). Instead of complaining and sulking about not being able to do what he has always wanted to do and what he has always been good at, he moves on to a new project of making Gene take over for him, so he is going to train Gene to become the athlete Finny is. Furthermore, even though he cannot do everything he could before, he still tries to have fun even though he lost something important to him and times are not at their best. He does not let his leg get in the way. This comes into play during the winter term, “Only Phineas failed to see what was so depressing. Just as there was no war in his philosophy, there was also no dreary weather. As I have said, all weathers delighted Phineas. ‘You know what we’d better do next Saturday?’ he began in one of his voices, the low-pitched and evenly melodic one which for some reason always reminded me of a Rolls-Royce moving along the highway. ‘We’d better organize the Winter Carnival’” (128). Even though the weather was drab, dreary, cold, and snowy and Finny broke his leg, he still wanted to have some excitement so he hosted the