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Character Analysis Of Phineas In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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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 Gene is filled with hatred and envy towards him. For example, Gene thinks, “I found it. I found a single sustaining thought. The thought was, You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record, but so what? He hated you for getting an A in every course but one last term” (53). Gene thinks that everything is a game when it comes to the relationship between him and Finny and that they have to be equal. He believes that Finny is always trying to be better than him and that he is jealous of him for getting and A in every course. So Gene jumps to the conclusion that Finny is trying to sabotage that by making come to the beach with him, go to club meetings every night, and …show more content…

Throughout the book, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Finny displays several of his character traits in a few ways. Phineas shows the reader that even though times can get tough and people can lose things important to them, to stay strong and see the good side of things. He also portrays to the reader that it is okay to be who you want to be and to have fun and not worry away your whole

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