A Separate Peace Book Report Essay

As the time pasted, Gene’s jealousy increases more and more over Finny’s lack of work for his achievements. This all began with Gene creating a fake friendship between him and Finny which then Gene grew more and more hatred toward him. A Separate Peace shows even your closest friends have the capability to betray you. Gene came back to Devon School, an all boy school.

The highlight of Gene’s life in the novel A Separate Peace occurs when he causes Finny to fall off the tree and breaks his leg. The reason why Gene causes Finny to fall off the tree because it all started when he thinks Finny tries to sabotage his effort to become valedictorian. In the beginning, Gene and Finny

In the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knolls Gene's and Finny's friendship with one another brings out each character's virtue or true self. Gene is the smartest kid at the Devon school , and Finny is very athletic. Finny's athletic ability is what leads to the rivalry because Gene wants to be able to achieve an athletic ability like Finny. This novel tells the story in Gene's point of view of how he has grown into adulthood during World War II. The author John Knolls does not give a very good view of Finny because the story is through Gene's eyes where Gene envy's Finny.

From Gene’s view of their friendship together it seems a little one-sided with Finney’s friendship being conditional to her. Finney is a great friend who is loyal and trusting. Finney pushes Gene into doing things that she may not normally do like cutting class. While Gene is secretly jealous of Finney and wants him to get in trouble and even jostled that made Finney fall, which Finney later forgives.

There we can finally see that Gene never cared about Finny even though Finny loved him like a brother, and did no wrong to him. Only a heartless, self centered person would laugh at someone in pain especially his fallen friend. As hard as it is sometimes evil things or people can destroy good works. The novel A Separate Peace definitely has the theme of good vs evil. The many struggles between good and evil can be observed in Gene and Finny's relationship.

Tyler Chang Mr. Gurrieri English 1 Honors; Class 4 16 November, 2017 Growth and Change in A Separate Peace John Knowles is an award winning author of the novel, A Separate Peace, tells a story of a few college kids and how they began to change in a short period of time. With a world war going on behind the scenes, Finny and Gene, who are best friends, start a war between themselves. Finny, who is an athletic, popular, and taunting person pushes Gene, who is intelligent, unathletic, and lonely out of his comfort zone to try new things. Gene continues to follow Finny until one day he has had enough of him. Both wars progress and grow larger and relationships begin to break apart.

In John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, the main character, Gene Forrester, undergoes a traumatic journey to develop the aspects necessary for coping through adulthood. This novel is a flashback to the year of 1942, when Gene attends his final year at Devon High School, in New Hampshire. Although Gene appears to be Finny’s best friend, he follows in Finny’s steps so that his personality clones to be like Finny’s. Finny exposes new experiences that provoke Gene’s development into adulthood. As Gene engages in new experiences, he soon realizes that he envies Finny’s abilities.

In the novel A Separate Peace, there are multiple themes running through the story. The theme that affected the plot of this story the most was coming of age. All throughout the story Gene is seen growing and maturing. He makes the transition from his childhood into his adult life. This is important because it shows how his attitude and actions are affected by growing up which in turn changes and molds the plot and overall resolve and resolution of the novel.

John Knowles, author of A Separate Peace, uses both character development and setting to support his decision in selecting the title. He uses the main characters of Gene and Phineas (Finny) and their troubled yet deeply bonded friendship as a way to illustrate the separate peace that takes place both within the boys themselves and in the friendship that is built between the two. Knowles also uses the setting of the novel to demonstrate the vast difference between the peaceful Devon School grounds and the war raging outside of the school’s walls. The title, A Separate Peace, as chosen by the author is symbolic of the main characters, Finny and Gene’s, struggle to find peace within themselves and with each other while set in a place that significantly contrasts the events of the real world.

Strength develops in someone through their experiences which have the ability to make them an emotionally stronger person. A quote by Ernest Hemingway presents that “the world breaks everyone, then some become strong at the broken places.” Even those who suffer the most will have the ability to bounce back at a stronger state. This theme reveals its relevance in A Separate Peace by John Knowles as we analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the main characters, Finny and Gene. Although some may insist that Finny’s emotional state fits the mold of a weak character, I have confidence that Finny has the most inner strength out of the two boys given his description and actions throughout the novel.

Overall Gene is known to be the character that has worries and lets emotional situations get the best of him. Continuously throughout the story Gene allows what happens to Finny and the world around him slowly bring him down. The war acts as another filler for disaster in society and can get the best of the boys who are preparing to fight in it. Therefore Gene’s identity in A Separate Peace defines him as the weaker one the one who is sensitive.

Finny not being able to play sports anymore that meant Gene was next in line for the top athlete at Devon. In addition, this incident leads to Finny having several health issues and dying towards the end of the novel. Gene knew that Finny had no admirations towards him and that made him angered. Gene was hurt when Finn died but he still didn’t change once he went to war or when he came back to visit Devon in his elder years. “He had never been jealous of me for a second.

Even through Gene’s envy and imitation effected his relationship with Finny, he still managed to find peace within everything that happened. Throughout A Separate Peace, Gene found peace within himself and within his relationship with Finny. The first reason this is so is because he (Gene) realizes that Finny isn’t the enemy after all. In An Overview of “A Separate Peace”, Alton states, “

Friendship A Separate Peace has a very unique description of friendship. Throughout the book, Gene is jealous of Finny’s looks and what he is able to do. Gene has a lot of ambivalent feelings toward Finny. He wants to be Finny, but at the same time he is jealous of him.

(Page 204) Gene, allowing himself to act on his jealousy, ultimately resulted in the death of his best friend Finny “By the end of the novel, Gene has accepted both his own guilt and the gift of Finny’s friendship. The experience has helped him to grow into an insightful, responsible, and compassionate