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Friendship And Jealousy In The Separate Peace By John Knowles

861 Words4 Pages

In the Separate Peace, one of the main characters, Finny says, “And at this teen-age period in life the proper person is your best pal.” “he hesitated and then added,” “Which is what you are, and there was silence on his dune” (Knowles 48). This quote shows the theme of the works of friendship presented throughout this novel. This is important because one of the biggest themes in this book is friendship and jealousy in friendship. Gene shows these themes really well. I think a lot of teens could relate to how Gene feels, in the sense that he doesn’t really know how he feels about Finny being his best friend, and being envious of him at the same time. In this novel, one of the main characters, Gene Forrester was a very jealous friend, and person …show more content…

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?” “I jounced the limb. I caused it” “Of course you didn’t” “Yes, I did! I did!” “Of course, you didn’t.” “You damn fool. Sit down, you damn fool!” (Knowles 69-70) This shows the back and fourth between Gene and Finny, with Gene trying to tell him and convince him that he caused the accident, and Finny denying it and telling him to shut up. Finny wants to believe that Gene would never hurt a soul intentionally. Finny has shown over and over again by denying Gene telling him that it was his fault that he wants to believe that Gene is a genuine

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Gene visits Finny in Boston after he broke his leg from the first time, unable to control his guilt. Gene realizes he has to tell him what happened when he sees him lying helpless in his bed. Gene explains “[he] jounced the limb. [He] caused it. [He] deliberately jounced the limb so Finny would fall off”(70).

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Diction In John Knowles A Separate Peace

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The author writing Finny’s dialogue always assumes the innocence of Gene, no matter the sentence. It is the clearest in this excerpt: “‘Yes, I remember seeing you standing on the bank. You were looking up and your hair was plastered down over your forehead so you had that dumb look you always have when you’ve been in the water - what was it you said? ‘Stop posing up there’ or one of those best-pal cracks you’re always making.’ He was very happy.”

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Character Development And Setting In John Knowles A Separate Peace

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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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“I was thinking about it… about you-- I was thinking about you and the accident because I caused it.” Gene said those words to Finny. Finny didn’t believe Gene when he told him this news. Phineas is

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How Does Gene's Envy Affect The Relationship Between Gene And Finny

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Gene’s envy and imitation affected his relationship in different ways. The novel says, “ that I will never stumble through the confusion of my own character again ” (Knowles 59). Gene states this after the incident when he decided to try on Finny's Clothes. As he puts the clothing on, a layer of confidence is overcome by Gene. Later in the novel, Finny speaks on the connection and he informs Gene that it is vital he become a soldier.

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Finny's Guilt In A Separate Peace

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At the trial, Finny began to remember things that he did not remember immediately after the fall. He remembered that Gene was actually indeed up there with him, and could have jounced the limb. That makes Finny very upset and he storms out of the room. In his rush, Finny falls down the stairs and re-shatters his leg. “The excellent exterior acoustics recorded his rushing steps and the quick rapping of his cane along the corridor and on the first steps of the marble stairway Then these separate sounds collided into the general tumult of his body falling clumsily down the white marble stairs”(Knowles 177).

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Gene Forrester’s Character Development The quote “Envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide,” (Emerson 370) accurately describes Gene Forrester from “A Separate Peace”. John Knowles is the author of “A Separate Peace” and it is set in New Hampshire at Devon High. Gene Forrester is not your normal protagonist; he thinks his best friend Phineas is “out to get him” and he eventually grows to envy him. He used to conform to Finny in the beginning, but he later grows into his own character.

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Theme Of Innocence In A Separate Peace

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At the end of the novel, Gene finally confesses what he did to Finny which took a lot of courage even though he did the wrong thing to begin with. As exemplified on page 115, Finny matures so much throughout the novel and apologizes for his actions towards Finny, he says, “… it was just some ignorance inside me, some crazy thing inside me, something blind, that’s all it was.” When apologizing to Finny and acknowledging that he did make a mistake and caused harm to Finny because of it. This is an example of Gene’s progression from a childlike mentality of not owning his mistakes, to claiming them and accepting his consequences.

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1418 Words | 6 Pages

He felt that, if he admitted that Gene had ultimately broken his leg, he would be putting the friendship between him and Gene in jeopardy. After Gene tells Phineas that he jostled the limb, Phineas angrily replies, "I'll kill you if you don't shut up." (62) This shows how much Phineas values his friendship with Gene, as he is willing to go to extreme extents to preserve it. However, Phineas' inability to admit the truth ultimately brought his own death. Near the end of the story, Brinker held a trial to determine exactly what happened between Gene and Phineas on the tree

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1239 Words | 5 Pages

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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John Knowles A Separate Peace

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At the trial, Gene refused to admit to causing Finny’s accident, proving that he cared more about his reputation than owning up to his

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A Separate Peace Guilt Analysis

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Dismissive and harmful effects of guilt are all around Gene. These effects caused Gene to lose confidence, and lose his ability to grow as a person. Furthermore, the theme guilt is crippling is shown throughout the entirety of the novel. This is mainly shown when Gene feels guilty about Finny, since Gene broke his leg. The first time Gene feels guilty about what he did is when Phineas first put in the hospital after Gene jounced the limb.

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Analysis Of Finny And Gene's Friendship In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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Gene and Finny are the main characters in this story, they teach you a lot about their friendship. Finny and Gene’s friendship can be described by their rivalry and loyalty, betrayal and guilt, and confession and forgiveness. The first stage of Finny and Gene’s friendship is loyalty and rivalry. Gene usually does what Finny wants to do.

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Defense Mechanisms In A Separate Peace

917 Words | 4 Pages

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

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How Does A Separate Peace Relate To High School Students

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Phineas, after being tormented by Gene’s actions, still finds forgiveness in his heart. Shortly after Gene visits Phineas in the infirmary, Gene tells Phineas how it was he who purposely jounced the limb (Knowles 191). Phineas, in response to Gene’s great remorse, says, “Something just seized you. It wasn’t anything you really felt against me, it wasn’t some kind of hate you’ve felt all along. It wasn’t anything personal” (Knowles 191).

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