The novel, “A Separate Peace, by John Knowles shows readers the rocky friendship between two young boys, Gene and Finny. The novel guides readers through the complicated friendship between the duo during their senior year of high school, and the lifelong friendship they have created. The audience takes away from the story a different outlook on what it means to be a true friend. Firstly, Gene had a distorted outlook on friendship. Jealousy is a common trait among any relationship, but Gene’s insecurities created by Finny caused the destruction of hisr friendship with Finny. Throughout the story, Gene was proven to be envious of Finny and his accomplishments compared to his own. This can be proven when Gene states, “Now I knew that there …show more content…
I couldn’t stand this.” (Knowles 51). In this citation, Gene realizes that he has falsely accused Finny of distracting him to weaken his academic advantages over Finny. Gene has become somewhat obsessed and paranoid over the idea that Finny is better than him. By accusing Finny of sabotaging his academics, Gene has validity that Finny wants to become better than him. By accusing Finny of taking away the one advantage he has, Gene has a valid reason to resent Finny besides his looks and brawn. To Gene, Finny represented a greater version of himself that he aspired to become. Despite knowing that Finny is loyal to Gene, Gene continues to dislike Finny as he is fighting an internal battle with himself. Genes hatred towards himself reflects onto the friendship bettweeen Finny. In another example, Gene proves yet again the amount of jealousy he holds against Finny. The text cites, “ I had no idea why this gave me such intense relief, but it seemed, standing there in Finny’s triumphant shirt, that I would never …show more content…
Finny demonstrates the loyalty behind friendship, because he is forgiving to Gene despite knowing the terrible acts Gene was responsible for. The text cites, “I’ll kill you if you don’t shut up” (Knowles 62). In this quote, Finny is pushing Gene away after he admits to deliberately causing Finny to fall off of the tree limb. Finny refuses to believe that Gene is capable of hurting him to preserve the friendship that they share. Finny knows that a true friend would never deliberately hurt someone, so he desperately attempts to deny that Gene has any role in his accident. By standing by Gene despite what he has done, Finny proves how loyal he is to Gene and how important their friendship is to him. Another example states, “He was nodding his head, his jaw tightening and his eyes closed on the tears. “ I believe you. It’s okay because i understand and I believe you.” (Knowles 183). In this citation, Gene apologizes to Finny for hurting him and now Finny is forced to face the situation. Despite knowing what Gene has done to him, he forgives Gene. This proves, yet again, that Finny is a true friend to Gene. To forgive someone for essentially trying to kill you shows how much finny valued their friendship, and how hard he tried to preserve
In John Knowles A Separate Peace he writes about the transition from childhood to adolescence. In this coming of age novel taking place in the 1950’s two teenage boys Finny and Gene form a relationship based on fear and adventure. The two opposite teens, finny a outgoing basically perfect teen and gene being a lesser perfect balances out the relationship between the two. The fact that they are somewhat minor opposites aren’t the only thing that brings the two together. Finny’s fear of anything bad or evil and gene’s fear of hitting rock bottom forms a relationship between the two teens which sets the stage for us all.
But then he drops it and apologizes for ever thinking about it. Gene is still in guilt over the accident. This is not consistent with Finny’s personality because throughout the book, Finny has shown to be not one to accuse and to mistrust his friends. Gene tries to tell Finny the truth and is unable to bring himself to say it. In addition, Gene becomes defensive on the part of Finny and still feels guilty.
[Gene said]... ‘Of course you didn’t’ [Finny said]... ‘Of course you didn’t you damn fool’” (70). This shows Finny’s weaknesses because he will believe his closest friend didn’t purposefully hurt him because he has put so much trust into Gene.
Gene becomes more and more jealous of Finny’s identity and therefore has to fight an internal battle against himself as his desire to be like Finny grows stronger and eventually leads to a tragedy. Gene is jealous of Finny because he can get away with anything. However, jealousy isn’t just a random feeling, it is a desire to obtain something that others have - sometimes no matter what the cost is. In the beginning of the novel, Finny decides to wear his pink shirt that his mom sent him, even though it was against school rules. Gene thinks that Finny is going to get in trouble for wearing a non-school uniform, but instead begins to understand that, “Phineas could get away with anything” (Knowles 25).
He still encourages Gene to do the things that Finny no longer can because he wants to see someone else flourish, and most importantly: his friend. After Finny’s death, Gene even declares that “nothing … had broken [Finny’s] harmonious and natural unity” (Knowles 203). Since Gene exclaims this, the reader understands that Finny
Gene envies Finny for being able to escape any punishment with his charm. Originally, Gene is fine with that characteristic because to him jealousy was no big deal. “I couldn’t help envying him a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying your best friend” (25). Though the more Finny gets away with his shenanigans, Gene realizes that he wants to see someone punish Finny as he later states, “This time, he wasn’t getting away with it.
Finny used to ask Gene to go and do other things instead of studying. Gene normally did what Finny asked. Gene decided that Finny was trying to hurt him when they story states, “Suddenly he turned his fire against me, he betrayed several of his other friends,” and he was doing things on his own (102). The second stage of Finny and Gene’s friendship is betrayal and guilt.
A loving friend turns murderer after his retched jealousness and overanalyzing pushes him to new lows. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the true character of Gene Forrester is shown as he narrates his point of view of the story. Gene Forrester is a relatable ever changing, humanistic, and someone who is always in contention. Although at points Gene seems mentally unstable, he is a round, dynamic character that adapts and is generally mentally sound. Gene being the narrator of his own story shows from his perspective just how he views people and their interactions.
One way Gene’s jealousy and imitation is an effect on his relationship with Finny is that it caused lots of jealousy towards Finny because of his abilities, appearance, and actions. An example of this is when Gene stated “He had gotten away with everything. I felt a sudden stab of disappointment. That was because I just wanted to see some more excitement; that must have been it. " (Knowles).
Therefore, Gene always tried to make Finny jealous and that pushed him to hurt him in the
Once the doctor came out and explain Finny's condition to Gene, he says Finny wants to talk to Gene. Gene then thinks, “Finny would say nothing behind my back, he would accuse me face to face.” (64) Gene knew that Finny would be mad at him after the tree incident. He expected this because he knew that it was true what he did. Gene doesn't doubt that Finny
He is very intelligent, however he is also extremely insecure. As a result of his insecurities, Gene becomes frustrated and allows himself to be overcome by his self-hatred, which causes him to harm himself and act unreasonably insecure. Gene is not inherently evil, rather he becomes corrupt as a result of his insecurities which provoke confusion and vice. Gene allows himself to obsess over Finny’s success and loses sight of his own self. Throughout the beginning of the book, Gene shows his personal insecurities through self-hatred and envy towards Finny, who he views as perfect.
Without forgiveness, Gene would still be living in fear and hate, buried by his burden. Gene learns tremendously from his experiences. All his enemies were imagined, there was no need for “Maginot Lines” to protect himself from an enemy that didn’t exist. After Finny’s funeral Gene becomes “Phineas-filled” and his “war is over before it ever begins.” Gene realizes, “I was ready for the war, now that I no longer had any hatred to contribute to it.
They are supposed to be best friends, but Gene envies him and thinks he is trying to make him look bad. After Finny’s accident, Gene struggled with guilt and his life was changed because of it. “I spent as much time as I could alone in our room, trying to empty my mind of every thought, to forget where I was, even who I was. One evening when I was dressing for dinner in this numbed frame of mind, an idea occurred to me, the first with any energy behind it since Finny fell from the tree. I decided to put on his clothes” (Knowles 29).
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.