Finny's Weaknesses

In a world of many people, conflicts arise within those people. The novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, tells a story about two boys, their coming of age story and the conflicts that arise with their coming of age. In the novel, both boys try to stay true to who they are as people. But only one of those boys stays true to who they are. Overall, the way each boy responds to events that occur shows who they really are inside and how different the boys are. Throughout the book Knowles teaches the reader each of the boy’s has their struggles but, each boy also has their own unique strengths. For example, when Finny came to get Gene to go and watch Leper finally jump out of the tree and Gene could not go and watch that because he had to study

For Example, one of Gene’s weaknesses is that he is constantly thinking everyone is out to get him, so he does things that he will later regret, “I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb” (60). This quote shows that Gene will do things because of jealousy, frustration, or regret. This also shows Gene’s weakness because before this Finny told Gene that he should study instead of go to the tree yet Gene decided to go to the tree and kept in mind that Finny was out to get him. Another example of Gene’s weaknesses is that he never says what he wants to say, so when Finny asked Gene if he would go with Finny to the beach for the night, Gene wanted to say no so bad and yet he says, “‘All right’, I said” (46). This shows that Gene’s subconscious will take over and say things that he thinks that other people will want to hear. This also shows that Gene isn 't good at telling people exactly what he wants to do and this doesn 't help him later on. We see that one of Gene’s struggles is to do what other people want and not what he does but when Gene does do what he wants to do then it doesn 't end well, while Finny on the other hand says exactly what he wants to say. An example of Finny’s weakness is, Finny has certain moralities that he lives by and his weakness is that he would never believe that one of his best friend’s broke one of his morals, we see this when Gene and Finny are talking they say, “‘I jounced the limb. I caused it’ [Gene said]... ‘Of course you didn’t’ [Finny said]... ‘Of course you didn’t you damn fool’” (70). This shows Finny’s weaknesses because he will believe his closest friend didn’t purposefully hurt him because he has put so much trust into Gene. This also shows another weakness that Finny has becuase it shows that Finny will put so much trust into one person that he will