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Gene And Finny In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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During a period of time there were two best friends named Gene and Finny. They are very competitive with each other on any activities they completed. One boy has natural skills unlike the other boy who has to work very hard for what he wants. The hard working boy, Gene does not like the way that Finny never has to put effort into anything to get what he wants. Gene has strong feelings for Finny, but later Gene wanted more recognition for his accomplishments from Finny. As the time pasted, Gene’s jealousy increases more and more over Finny’s lack of work for his achievements. This all began with Gene creating a fake friendship between him and Finny which then Gene grew more and more hatred toward him. A Separate Peace shows even your closest friends have the capability to betray you. Gene came back to Devon School, an all boy school. While he was meeting everyone he met his soon to be best friend, Finny. After a while of getting Gene all settle in Finny’s wanted to hang out with him to get to know him. The boys found a tree and wanted to jump out of it into the lake. On this day they knew that they were going to be best friends. “We were the best of friends at that moment” (Knowles, pg 18) This is the beginning of the betrayed friendship. …show more content…

Thinking everything was fine, Finny did not know what Gene had in mind. Gene wasn’t as happy as Finny saw him as. The jealously took over Gene and caused him to shake the tree which caused Finny, his so call best friend, to fall out. After they got Finny help Gene went back to the scene and had a feeling that no one would have expect. “Is stopped in the middle of this hurrying day to remember him like and then feeling refreshed.” (Knowles pg 76) With all the competition with Finny it caused him to get injured and Gene did not care. The fall isn’t the worse of it all, Finny’s life

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(Knowles 70) This dialogue, from A Separate Peace by John Knowles, illustrates the two characters Finny and Gene having a heated argument. This was because Gene confesses that he pushed Finny out of the tree and caused him to be severely injured. This is what created the inner enemy between them two. Gene and Finny started off as good friends.

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Gene thinks that everything is a game when it comes to the relationship between him and Finny and that they have to be equal. He believes that Finny is always trying to be better than him and that he is jealous of him for getting and A in every course. So Gene jumps to the conclusion that Finny is trying to sabotage that by making come to the beach with him, go to club meetings every night, and

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I feel that he pushes back the idea that Gene could've caused it and does his best to forget it. Despite what he said Finny does care about the accident, but doesn't want to accept it. He tries to avoid it by running away from it, and he runs straight into another fall and break, which is the cause of his

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Events had turned around and now it felt like the guilt Gene had in him after the jounce made him do what Finny was asking for. Finny had been a role model to Gene. Gene learned a lot from Finny, persistence, determination, wisdom, and having no doubt about anything. Finny showed maturity and the state he

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On the other hand, Finny is a tremendous athlete, outgoing, and an average scholar. It seems as though their life is peaceful at the Devon School despite the war going on. However, Gene struggled internally to find peace with himself. In the novel, he says” my war ended before I even put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (Knowles 204) The reason Gene said that he killed his enemy at the Devon School because he was his enemy.

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There are many instances in “A Separate Peace" in which Gene and Finny are each other's foil character. Throughout this novel there are many different ways that Gene and Finny highlight one anothers aspects. During their interactions it is obvious how well these two characters serve as foils for each other. Finny is outgoing, charismatic, and carefree. While Gene on the other hand is analytical, introverted, and envious.

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(Knowles 60).After Gene apologies honestly and admits to waving the branch to Finny,he loves Gene’s truthless and accepts his forgiveness. Given that he and Finny were able to repair there partnership,Gene is at peace and pleasure. While Finny died, he recognized how his own fustration was to blame for his greatest friends loss. Gene realize s that Finny didnt do much to save his life as he did almost kill him. Becuase he

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In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene Forrester inadvertently causes the death of his best friend, Finny, a tragedy which results in his premature metamorphosis from an envious and insecure teenager into a man who loves himself and therefore others. At the beginning of the novel, during the summer session at Devon School, Gene describes his feelings about Finny’s evading disciplinary action for using a tie as a belt, a dress code violation: “He had gotten away with everything. I felt a sudden stab of disappointment. That was because I just wanted to see some more excitement; that must have been it” (Knowles 28). Gene is tired of Finny’s rule-breaking and is jealous of Finny’s powers of persuasion.

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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 believes that Finny and he hate each other, until he realizes Finny’s pureness, which Gene can not stand. At first, Gene believes that Finny wants to exceed him, and that the two are rivals. Everyone at Devon likes Finny. The teachers adore him, the students look up to him, the athletes aspire

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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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Gene and Finny used their school, Devon, as their own escape from the war. Finny had a great power over Gene and he began to realize that, which resulted in a strong rage internally. Jumping off of the tree brought them both closer,

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In John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, the main character, Gene Forrester, undergoes a traumatic journey to develop the aspects necessary for coping through adulthood. This novel is a flashback to the year of 1942, when Gene attends his final year at Devon High School, in New Hampshire. Although Gene appears to be Finny’s best friend, he follows in Finny’s steps so that his personality clones to be like Finny’s. Finny exposes new experiences that provoke Gene’s development into adulthood. As Gene engages in new experiences, he soon realizes that he envies Finny’s abilities.

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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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Charles Kuralt once said, “ The love of family and the admirations of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.” This quote shows how jealousy and popularity aren’t as important as relationships in your life. In the book, A Separate Peace, Gene has different priorities than relationships. Gene, a young boy who attends Devon boarding school, goes through many different trials along his grade school journey. He faces problems with friends and school life during the time of World War two and the draft being in full swing.

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