A Separate Peace: Character Analysis

“Don’t fear the enemy that attacks you, but the fake friend that hugs you” -PravineeHurbungs. It is still undecided weather Finny realized this about Gene or not but, even withWWII going on, the cruelest enemy was right next to him. A Separate Peace is a novel by JohnKnowles, based in New Hampshire, 1942. The novel showcases, coming-of-age, jealousy , andloss of innocence through the main character Gene. Gene and Finny became roommates at the prestige Devon School for boys.

Gene comes of age through his understanding of the difficult challenges in his youth. Gene’s jealousy towards Finny’s perfect personality causes him to have childish emotions, such as resentment. Gene Forrester constantly battles within himself clashing emotions, specifically, hate and envy, towards Phineas. Since he strives to be like Finny, Gene does everything in his power to shove down his feelings of hatred and jealousy. After Finny beat the school swimming record, Gene suspiciously asks himself why Finny did not want him to share the news with anyone else.

This is shown in early in Anthem, when Equality discovers the wires and knows that they’re something special, “We forget all men, all laws and all things save our metals and our wires” (54). He shows no problem with going against everything he’s been told within a split second to be able to continue his pursuit. Going even further than just breaking the law, Equality’s willingness to put his discovery before himself is a recurring event. He goes a bit mad after making his discovery and will protect it at all costs, “We care not about our body, but our light is...” (61).

Doodles brothers pride brings many positive changes into Doodles life but in the same way it causes Doodles death. Bringing with it a lifetime of guilt and conscious. Ultimately this a story of a very confusing and complex relationship between Brother's. This story lead us to believe that Doodle's brother loved and hated

“I was thinking about it… about you-- I was thinking about you and the accident because I caused it.” Gene said those words to Finny. Finny didn’t believe Gene when he told him this news. Phineas is

While people of seniority make all the impactful decisions that have to do with the war, the young boys of Devon School are forced to accept the realities of war and join the fight. In the novel A Separate Peace, Knowles showcases a sinister tone throughout the first pages, when Devon School is described. Using diction and figurative language, Knowles integrates this tone into Gene’s narration. Knowles utilizes figurative language throughout his description of Devon School to create a sinister tone. In the first few pages of the book, Gene, the narrator, makes his return to Devon fifteen years after his graduation.

Differences in A Separate Peace Novel and Film Everyone at some point has felt envious of their bestfriend. In the novel, “A Separate Peace”, envy leads to many problems and changes in the film. Phineas is a main character that is bestfriends with Gene; he is athletic, a leader, and goes by Finny. Leper is a student that is viewed as weird. When he came back from the war he is portrayed differently in the film than in the book.

John plays with the feelings of the guilt taken over the boys. This feeling of war has influenced the actions of the boys Finny, Gene and Leper. John Knowles has used diction, imagery and figurative language to show the micro-level of the affects the everyday life of the boys in the story. Diction is very relevant in this story this Shows how the boys would interact with each other. He used diction to get some points across.

In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene returns to his school when he is an adult and narrates the story of his life at Devon school. When he returns to school he remembers the tree that is the reason Finny’s leg gets broken, and the hard marble stairs. Gene is a charismatic and talented in sports, while Gene is book smart. Beccause Gene is not better at sports than Finny he feels the need to compete with him at everything.

Gene says that, “I was beginning to see that he could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him a little…” (Knowles 25). Gene then tries to justify his envious feelings towards Finny by explaining that, “There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little.” However, this envy turns into more of a jealousy and Gene starts to see Finny as more of competition, rather than a friend.

Theme 1.1: Envy. In Knowles’s coming of age book, “A Separate Peace”, there are lots of mishaps that happen and the beginning of these mishaps is when one of his main characters, Gene, starts thinking malicious things about Phineas, his friend. It started out as a small inkling of envy, suddenly later on in the book, it turned into something that resembled a fractious disaster. As the chapters progress, Gene shows the readers his way of thinking towards Phineas, by describing his “unexpected excitement” (27) when Phineas was about to receive a scolding from Mr. Patch-Wither, the substitute headmaster of Devon during the summer session. Surprisingly, when Phineas (aka Finny) further explained why he wore the school tie as a belt,

Gene now tells Brinker, Finny 's apparent relief, that he no longer wants to enlist. Gene feels deep inner peace as he trains with Finny and sometimes finds it difficult to really believe in the widespread

A separate peace by John Knowles is book that takes place at a boarding school and a big part of it is looking at how tragedy can change a characters personality. Gene Forrester the protagonist and narrator of the novel is a great example of this. At the beginning of the book he is envious of his best friend Phineas and will do anything to be the best, but as the book goes on and tragedy strikes all he feels is guilt. Before the tragedy of Finny breaking his leg gene is envious of him.

Although he lives, Gene is ultimately the one truly destroyed by his envy. Gene has many theories that Finny is trying to trick or misguide him, sending him into a jealous rage. Thinking Finny was against him, Gene started to uncover Finny’s real intentions. ”That way he, the great athlete, would be ahead of me. It

Written by John Knowles, A Separate Peace portrays internal and coming-of-age conflicts from the perspective of Gene, an adolescent about to be drafted. Set during World War 2, Gene and Phineas, two best friends, establish the Super Suicide Society to be as reckless as the summer allows. Gene secretly loathes Phineas, and conceivably breaks his leg by pushing him off a tree. The rest of the story adorns the aftermath of the accident. Leper, a key member of the society, becomes the first to enroll into the war, but soon becomes insane.