Defense Mechanisms In A Separate Peace

Psychological defense mechanisms are common tactics used with or without realization to protect oneself. These various defense mechanisms are often used to protect one from confronting his or her weaknesses and desires that occupy the back of their mind. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Phineas exhibits psychological defense mechanisms due to the fact that he can not accept the reality of an experience. Denial is a common defense mechanism that consists of refusing the truth and simply denying a traumatic experience. Repression is a step above denial; repression involves dismissing and forgetting the trauma. In A Separate Peace, Finny suggests a double jump with Gene, his best friend, Finny loses his balance in the tree and falls, after

After the incident at the tree, Finny demonstrates denial and repression to protect himself from accepting the fact that his best friend would betray him so he does not have to grow up.
Finny uses denial to deny the fact that Gene intentionally jounces the limb because he does not think his friend would do such a thing which allows him to deny reality. Following Finny’s incident at the tree, Gene goes to visit Finny at his home in Boston. Gene decides to confess to Finny that he causes the accident, that he intentionally jounced the limb so Finny so could fall. Upon hearing this, Finny doesn’t believe that someone he considers a friend would do such a thing. Finny’s initial reaction to Gene’s confession is to deny the confession. The more Gene reveals the truth, Finny believes Gene “‘ [did not] do it” and wants Gene to, “‘shut up’” (Knowles 70). Finny’s denial of Gene's confession indicates that Finny wants to protect his friendship with Gene. After their time at the beach, Finny acknowledges Gene as his best pal. Readers know that Finny is an innocent, carefree person and only sees the positive. If Finny were to agree with Gene’s confession, not

Repression is another defense mechanism similar to denial, however, it is one step above denial. Repression involves forgetting “an unpleasant experience” and while this may be beneficial at first when someone does not “come to grips with the experience…it may come back to haunt [them]” (Whitbourne). Since Finny can not come to terms with the accident at the tree it comes back and becomes the reason why he perishes. Finny chooses to forget the unpleasant truth, and when Finny is confronted with the truth he can not handle it. When Gene first comes to visit Finny in the infirmary, Finny explains how he has this feeling. Although Finny does not directly say he believes Gene jounced the limb, readers can infer Finny is implying Gene must have purposefully jounced the limb. Instead of Finny explaining his feelings, he decides to completely forget what he feels because he can not grasp the fact that his friend would do such a thing. However, when Finny is in the butt room with Brinker and is asked about his recollection of the accident, Finny can not recall what happens at the tree. When Brinker first asks Finny about the accident, Finny questions himself trying to recall what happened and his response to Brinker is he “‘kind of forgot’” (Knowles 171). Finny forgets the accident at the tree because he still wants to salvage his friendship with Gene. Like