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Character Analysis: A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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Forgiving and trying to relieve each other’s guilt is friendship. Recognizing an accident due to paranoia is also part of friendship. You might be scared to tell your friend the truth, but your best friend should always forgive you. In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, we see a strong friendship weaken due to one accident. Gene should have confessed to Finny about his involvement in the jouncing on the tree branch. He should have done this because the guilt would have practically killed Gene and they’re best friends, so Gene should be able to tell Finny absolutely everything. Gene should have told Finny about his jouncing on the limb because if he didn’t Gene would feel guiltier. After the accident, Gene goes back to their room …show more content…

Well that’s what Gene did, and that’s what he should have done because they are best friends. We know they’re best friends based on what Finny says, “’I know I kind of dragged you away at the point of a gun, but after all you can’t come by yourself, and at this teen-age period in life the proper person is your best pal…which is what you are’” (40). This is said at the beach, Finny kind of dragged him but he just wanted to be with his best friend. It is our duty as best friends to be honest because our friendship will just crumble in the end if we don’t. Finny also saved Gene from falling out of the tree earlier in the novel, “…and then I realized that in turning I had begun to lose my balance. There was a moment of total, impersonal panic, and then Finny’s hand shot out and grabbed my arm, and with my balance restored, the panic immediately disappeared” (24). Finny could have easily lost his balance as well and could have caused them both to fall. If Finny is willing to risk his own life for Gene, he should be able to handle the truth behind the tree accident. Finny should be aware about the truth because best friends are always supposed to tell each other everything, no matter how hurtful it may be. One might say, Gene should not have told Finny because then they could lose their friendship. However, losing a friendship is easier than losing your mind from guilt and if Finny were really his true friend he would find a way to forgive Gene. Gene should have told Finny to prevent his guilt from eating him alive. Also, friends should be able to tell each other absolutely everything without fear. In true friendships, you should tell each other everything. They will forgive you, no matter what, that’s what makes it

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The boys in the Butt Room react to Brinker’s accusation as a joke, and playfully accuse Gene of his attempt to purposely hurt Finny and knock him out of the tree. The boys start to question gene of what happened during the time of the fall, and if he was the one who purposely caused Finny to lose his balance. The reason Gene is to play along and make up a story about his attempt to murder Finny was to hide the truth of his actions and to keep them from finding out “ Oh, you know about the tree, I tried to let my face fall guilty, but I felt instead as though it were being dragged toward. Yes, huh, yes there was a small, a little contretemps at the tree” (Knowles 90).

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After Finny falls from the tree that generated him to break his leg and causes him not to be able to play football ever again. While Gene knows he is guilty, he wants to confess to Finny that it was he who shook the tree, but does not have the valor to tell him the truth, and since Gene will not tell Finny, Finny tells everyone that his injury was caused by him losing his balance and fell off the tree. Then after a while, Gene finally tries to tell Finny that it was he that shook the tree, but Finny won’t believe him and continues to believe it was him losing his balance. Then comes Brinker that assembles everybody to tell Finny that it was Gene that shook the tree, but then they start saying that Gene did it on purpose. Finny could not stand being there with everyone, so he tries to leave the assembly, unfortunately, as Finny tries to go down the stairs, he falls down and breaks his leg again, and was rushed to the doctor.

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The author, John Knowles, in the novel, “A Separate Peace”, conveys the lesson of friendship, or rather the lack of, with his use of diction. The strategy in which the author phrased certain sections of dialogue between Finny and Gene is there to show that Finny cares for Gene despite Gene’s obvious discontent. The friendship is a one-way street, and the author uses diction to represent this unbalance in the relationship, leading to friendship being a key theme throughout the book. There exist many examples of this diction throughout the novel, one of these is during their illegal beach trip. “I hope you’re having a pretty good time here.

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Gene considers Finny to be his best friend. In this type of friendship there is an implied vow of trust, loyalty and sense of forever friendship "Finny could shine with everyone, he attracted everyone he met. I was glad of that too. Naturally. He was my roommate and my best friend" (Knowles 40).

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Gene from John Knowles novel, A Separate Peace, a dynamic character changes in accordance to the events of the story. Gene is a very intelligent student. Throughout the novel we see Gene almost become persuaded by the actions of his friend Phineas. Phineas is a bouncy character who loves sports and doesn’t see the value of studying like Gene. Gene frequently tries to balance his academic and social life, but he gets sick of this balancing act when he backlashes at Phineas for interrupting him from his schoolwork, “Okay, we go.

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He feels a lot of guilt for doing this. Gene comes to Finny later in novel and tries to explain to him that he really was the one who jounced the limb, which was the cause of Finny's plummet into the water. Finny simply does not believe Gene, but this makes Gene's guilt worsen. When the boys of the school decide to have a trial, Gene's guilt becomes increasingly worse. Throughout the novel, we see that Gene's guilt is seen more and more every time that the fall is

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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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Later, on his jealousy deepens when he realizes that Finny isn’t selfish like him. As a consequence, he cripples the one person who is his best friend. Gene’s jealousy doesn’t only create an inner war and destroys his peace, it also destroys Finny’s. ““You want to break something else in me! Is that why you’re here!”

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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.

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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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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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Before he tried and confess to Finny he asks himself what would Finny do in my situation, “If Phineas had been sitting in this pool of guilt, how would he have felt, what would he have done? He would have told me the truth” (Knowles 66). This was very helpful for Gene in order for him to confess to Finny. But, when he confessed to Finny he wouldn’t believe him. “I was thinking about you and the accident because I caused it,” “What do you mean you caused it?”

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His heart was too pure to suspect Gene’s jealous intent. This injury caused a chain reaction eventually leading to Finny’s miserable

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Gene finally fully confessed when Finny was in the hospital after falling down the steps. Gene told Finny he tried to tell him a couple times before when the story states “ Finny, I tried to tell you before, I tried to tell you when I came to Boston -” (145). Finny already knew Gene did it but he was not ready to hear it completely yet. Finny forgave Gene after he said he believed that it was a blind impulse.

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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.

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