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A Separate Peace: Character Analysis

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Emerson states “envy is ignorance; limitation is suicide”(370). John Knowles writes A Separate Peace about a boy named Gene returning to an old school. Gene is a teenage boy, smart, but jealous of his best friend Finny who is popular and liked by everyone. A Separate Peace demonstrates how Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him, affect his relationship with Finny, and his achievement of peace. Gene’s envy and imitation affects him in a few ways. One way he is affected is it causes him to conform to Finny. Since he can’t be Finny he does what Finny does. The text states, “...you can’t stand around admiring the view. Jump!” (Knowles 17). Finny is telling Gene to jump from the tree, which Gene really didn’t want to do. Since Finny was popular he did it anyway to stay relevant and look cool. Another way it affected him is it caused him to dress like Finny. While Finny was away Gene went through Finny’s clothes. Gene tries on some …show more content…

One way their relationship is affected is Finny becoming an enemy to Gene. In the novel Gene states, “The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all’’ (Knowles 54). Finny had made plans with Gene the night Gene needed to study for a big test, and since he couldn’t he blamed Finny. His delusion made him think that Finny saw him as a component. From then on Gene started to look at Finny as his enemy and not his best friend. Another way their relationship is affected is when Gene attempts to get rid of Finny to replace him. Gene and Finny were out hanging in the tree when Gene got the urge to shake the branch Finny was standing on causing Finny to fall. Finny ended up breaking his legs all because of Gene. Gene’s jealousy made him do it, he wanted Finny gone, and since he couldn’t be Finny he decided replacing him would be the best option. Gene’s envy and imitation caused conflict and questions as to whether his relationship with Finny was actually a real

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One way that Gene is affected is that he starts getting jealous of Finny, which causes Finny to get hurt. In the story, the author says, “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone…,” (Knowles, 60). This evidence proves that Gene has gotten Finny hurt, but did not mean to. Before they had gone to the tree, Gene was still jealous of Finny, so who knows if it were intentional or not.

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Gene is obsessed with Finny to the point that when he dresses and looks like Finny, he is at peace. Gene doesn't want to accept himself so he tries to become

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Gene is the first person to visit Finny while he’s in the hospital since the tree accident, and seeing Finny in that messed-up state makes him emotional. (#64) "At his touch, I lost all hope of controlling myself. I burst out crying into my hands. I cried for Phineas, myself, and for the doctor, who

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“A Separate Peace” portrays how Gene’s envy and imitation affects himself, his relationship with Finny, and how he finds his peace, or lack thereof, at the end of the book. Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects him in many ways. He starts to believe he was meant to become a part of Finny. After Finny broke his leg from falling out of a tree, he tells Gene that he must play sports for him. Gene then thinks to himself “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,” (Knowles 85).

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The article states,”In the end, Gene realizes that his real enemy is himself and his impulse towards mindless destruction-and he believes he overcame this enemy only after causing Phineas’s death”(Alton). This statement shows that after all that’s happened, Gene realized he was the problem and his own enemy. While being his own enemy, he caused Finny’s death. This completely changed not only Gene, but their relationship. After Gene and Finny;s relationship was affected, Gene achieves the Peace he is looking

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He is basically, through rhetorical questions, saying that he does not want to do what Finny does, but it’s like he cannot help it. This is affecting who Gene is as a person because he is not thinking for himself. Is Gene really even himself if Finny is doing the thinking for him? If he is not thinking for himself, he is not being true to himself. Another way that Gene is affected is that he allows his imitation of Finny get in the way of his schooling.

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Emerson states that, “envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide.” (370) John Knowels, author of “A Separate Peace,” is set during the height of WW2. Gene Forrester comes from a southern family, and when meeting Phineas, he slowly wants to become him, and eventually goes back to the school as a mature adult to remember his “separate peace.” In the book “A Separate Peace,”it shows how Gene’s envy and imitation affect him, his relationship with Finny, and his final achievement of peace. “A Separate Peace” shows Gene’s envy and imitation affecting him, his relations towards Finny, and his final achievement of peace.

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287 Words | 2 Pages

Gene was struggling with the concept of jealousy all throughout the novel. At first Gene thought that Finny was jealous of Gene, only to come and find out that Finny was never jealous. This realization made Gene even angrier than before. This anger was the cause of Finny’s fall. Gene was so angry with Finny, that when they were up in the tree

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The author states,”... 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 62).This quote shows that gene putting on finny clothes

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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).

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Gene’s survival was dependent on Finny’s death. When Gene jounces the limb he shatters Finny’s leg, as well as his heart. Finny knows that Gene purposely caused his fall, but can’t let his “best pal” be exposed. Finny will do anything to save Gene from Leprosy. Finny realizes that Gene “just didn’t know” what he had done, and forgives his sin, which saves Gene.

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741 Words | 3 Pages

Gene wanted Finny to get in trouble for what Finny had did, which had worn his tie as a belt. He hated that Finny got away with almost anything that he did wrong and wanted to go down someday. Another way their relationship is affected is through Gene’s lack of self-finding and liking. Gene hated that he never was like Finny, so he started to acting and do things that Finny did. That caused a lot of jealousy, guilt, and self-destruction from throughout the relationship that Gene and Finny had.

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791 Words | 4 Pages

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

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582 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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1024 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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