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A Separate Peace By John Knowlse: Character Analysis

1092 Words5 Pages

Sofia Vazquez Santacruz

Mrs. Griffin

04/13/2023

P.1

Peace with oneself

In John Knowlse’s Novel, A Separate Peace, illustrates Gene’s life at Devon boarding school, in New England during, World War II. Gene, a sixteen-year-old intelligent student with insecurities, forms a club involving jumping off a tree with his best friend, finny, also known as Phineas. Phineas's ability to get away with breaking rules and natural athletic ability cause Gene to feel jealous toward Phineas. Gene’s jealousy drives him to jounce the limb Phineas was on, which leads to Finny unable to enlist in the military due to his broken leg. Military enlistment becomes a big topic as Leper, being timid and peaceful, becomes the first boy at Devon to enlist in the …show more content…

Gene constantly justifies the hatred he feels toward his best friend in order to make himself feel better. After observing how Phineas always gets away with everything he does, Gene states, “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little.” (25) This suggests that Gene knows that feeling envious towards Phineas isn’t morally right, since one doesn’t try to justify a good act. A bad behavior brings one to feel guilty, and that is what Phineas is feeling for it, which is why he tries justifying his hatred towards Finny by repeating the word “little”. Using “little” helps Gene find tranquility in knowing that he secretly hates …show more content…

Out of anger Finny expresses himself and states“What good are you in a war with a busted leg!” (190) Finny doesn't feel at peace with his new identity that was formed the moment he broke his leg. Going from a gifted and talented athlete who enjoyed leading to becoming someone who can no longer participate in sports is challenging for finny. Phineas feels guilty of no longer being the talented athlete he used to be and causes him to form hatred toward himself for being incompetent to participate in a war. Finny explains why he would say the war wasn't real and states, “Why do you think I kept saying there wasn’t any war all winter? I was going to keep on saying it until two seconds after I got a letter from Ottawa or Chugking saing, ‘Yes, you can enlist with us.’ “ (190) Phineas can avoid this feeling of guilt for not participating in the war due to his broken leg by attempting to lie to himself and make himself believe there is no war. By being able to believe that there is no war, he can avoid feeling useless and not enough, which allows him to be at peace with his own identity. Phineas here suggests he's frustrated with himself for being useless in the war when he used to be a talented athlete and a natural leader. Phineas can't accept who he is now, and his guilt for not participating in the war doesn't let him be at peace with

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To illustrate this point of guilt, “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there. Only Phineas never was afraid, only Phineas never hated anyone” (Knowles 204). It can be inferred that Gene’s “enemy” was Phineas. Even though he was his best friend, Gene still thought at times that Finny was trying to compete with Gene over sports and academics, which displays how Gene can perceive Phineas differently throughout time.

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Gene was jealous of Finny athletic achievements, careless personality, and his natural leadership. “I was starting to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little (Knowles 20)”. Gene trying to justify his ill feelings by saying its natural to be jealous.

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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.

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Which makes Gene quite an annoyance. When the doctor tells Gene and FInny that Phineas would never play sports again Gene bursts into tears, whereas Phineas tells Gene “What are you looking so sick about?”(65). Phineas understood what happened to him is horrible but frankly Gene feels worse than he does about the situation. This is because Gene is depressed, and feels completely responsible for the situation that ruined his friend’s goals for the

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Gene’s relationship with his “best friend” Phineas describes how the relationship resulted in the killing of Gene's enemy, his own youth, and innocence. Gene is plainly described in the novel as envious of Finny, he is also depicted as the position of much hatred and dismay by his peers. Therefore, the fact that Gene kills his own youth is likely considering Finny’s success, Gene’s jealousy towards

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In this part of the story, Phineas is trying to relay to Gene that no matter how much he might try and push him away, he will always love him, and that eventually Gene will learn to love him. Another example of the friendship between Gene and Phineas is when Phineas boldly states that Gene is his best friend. “Exposing a sincere emotion nakedly like that at the Devon School was the next thing to suicide. ”(Knowles, pg.48) By having this thought, Gene gives Phineas’ the daring characteristic of stating exactly how he feels, no matter what the feeling or circumstance is. This once again shows how genuinely Phineas cares for Gene, and brings out the true theme of

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Since Finny cannot play sports anymore because of his broken leg, he tells Gene that he has to do it for him. Gene realizes that this is his destiny; to become an extension of Phineas. Another way he is affected is that he starts to lose his own ways by copying Finny. When Finny was in the hospital wing of the school, Gene put his clothes on and said “that I would never stumble through the confessions

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He envy’s Finny’s success, get angry because he feels Finny is trying to kill his studies, and fears that Finny will outshine him. Gene becomes his own enemy. “Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (Knowles 196). Gene was taken over by a mindless impulse. He believes that after Phineas’ death, he was able to overcome that very

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Gene struggles with keeping a positive relationship with Finny which symbolizes the loss of childhood. “I was Phineas, Phineas to the life. I even had his humorous expression in my face, his sharp, optimistic awareness. 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 stumble through the confusions of my own character again”(Knowles 54). Wearing the image of childhood, Gene feels comfortable.

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“ I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him for that a little, which is perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying your best friend a little” (Knowles 9). Gene had convinced himself that there was no harm in envying Finny, at least a little. Gene failed to recognize that he envied Finny for this far more than a little.

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Although gene envy and imitation affects him and his relationship with finny,Gene still achieves his peace. The first reason is when gene reaches his peace only after being away from phineas. For example,”an atmosphere in which I continued now to live,a way of sizing up the world with erratic and entity personal reservation(194)”(Alton).This example shows how gene reaches his peace when being separated away from finny. It describes him as being in a new atomsphere. It also shows how finny life and death taught him a way of living.

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“Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,’ and I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become part of Phineas” (77). They have become bonded because of guilt, Gene hurt Finny on purpose wether or not it

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To start, Gene’s envy and imitation of Phineas affect him in many different ways. One example of this is when Gene decides to play sports for Finny because Finny told him to. After this, Gene explains that he “lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring

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Gene, the main character and narrator, faces an internal conflict after his original feelings of admiration towards Phineas turns into envy, jealousy, and resentment. These emotions

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Gene was so in awe of Finny that he ended up wanting to become a part of him. “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 stumble through the confusions of my own character again” (54). Gene was so unhappy with his complex personality that he tried to adopt Finny’s character, going as far as putting on his clothes and envisioning himself as Finny. Another example of this is illustrated when Gene interpreted Finny’s words as an invitation to turn into him. “‘...Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,’ and I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas” (77).

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