Is Gene a Killer? In A Separate Peace by John Knowles many wonder whether Gene was responsible for the death of his “best friend”(48) Finny. While Gene did feel some guilt for the death of his friend he never intended to kill anyone and cannot be held responsible for a series of chain events that lead to Finny's death which could have been prevented in many ways. The series of events that resulted in Finny's death can be traced back to when Gene “jounced the [tree] limb.”(60) With this action Finny fell off the tree and broke his leg. With no doubt Gene is responsible for breaking Finny's leg. If that incident never had happened then Finny would still be alive but it morally seems unfair to try someone for murder with an action caused long before with not only no intention to kill but also an action that no body could have foreshadowed being a cause of death. To say that Gene was responsible for Finny's death because he jounced a tree limb is unreasonable because Gene did not die from the fall. If he had died then and there from the fall then Gene could

be tried with manslaughter. But Finny's death was caused by a set of chain reactions and if we want to start with this event it's arguable that neither Finny nor Gene would have been inside the tree if it had not been for Finny's insistence. With this is mind it's also very important to consider the true aspect of how he died in surgery with a doctor who didn't seem to care all that much about the death of his patient. Who when explains to Gene what had happened simple said “Your friend is dead” (193) While it is not the doctors fault for bone marrow seeping into his patients blood stream it is still interesting to see how the doctor didn't t much of a regard for Finny's life or death. While Finny may still be alive if the doctor had been more careful. There is no way of knowing if he did all he could. Dr. Standpole could not be tried for murder with the given circumstances, Finny was given to the doctor in a bad condition and then died during surgery. The doctor is no more responsible for Finny's death then Gene was. Likewise Gene cannot be tried for murder of any kind because even when he did jounce the tree limb Gene felt terribly guilty and confessed to Finny; he apologized and was forgiven by Finny. When Finny stated "Something just seized you. It wasn't anything you really felt against me... It wasn't anything personal"(191) this shows how Finny forgives Gene even after he broke his leg a second time and doing so helps absolve Gene of some of his guilt. Finny gave Gene a second chance at being friends, and Gene

did not mistreat this second chance by harming him in any way. This helps to show how Gene was not responsible for Finny's death any more then Finny. After all it was Finny's idea to go into the tree in the first place. It was even Brinker who was responsible for Finny being in the assembly hall the night that Finny died. It was Brinker who brought Gene and Finny into the assembly hall and angered causing Finny to “plunge out the doors.”(177) He then fell down the staircase due to not paying attention to where he was going and if Finny had never been angered then he never would have fallen down the stairs causing him to die. Brinker is not to blame for Finny's death either. Brinker never meant to kill Finny, if anything he was attempting to help him in the way he believed was best. For instance, as many people have, I have been mad at a friend and while being angry I wished harm upon them. Then instantly realized that I didn't actually want them to get hurt. It relates to something I saw online one day. It was I wish that throwing water balloons at people was socially acceptable because then it's like I don't actually want to hurt you in any way, I just want to ruin your entire day. I think this quote can relate to how Gene was feeling, he didn't truly wish harm upon his friend and never the intent was never to hurt him. the end no one is truly to blame for Finny's death due to the fact that the entire motion was sent off by a series of events. Nearly all of the main characters in the book

including Gene, Brinker, the doctor and even Finny himself are responsible for his death. It cannot be traced back to one individual character because no one character is responsible. If all scenarios are put into place Finny's death was no one person's fault. Finny' death was an unfortunate accident that no one can blame a single character for.