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Now and then character analysis
Now and then character analysis
Now and then character analysis
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Gene and Finny are different in many ways. Gene is from the South, so going to a school in the North is a little odd for him. He doesn’t have the nicest house, but it is suitable for him. On the other hand, Finny lives in a beautiful, white house. This would seem to be the opposite of where Finny would live, with his outgoing personality.
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.
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).
Finny’s choice to be ignorant and deny the truth allows him to continue being abused by Gene. He enables Gene and allows himself to be the victim in the relationship because of his feelings. This unhealthy trait adds to the complexity and toxicity of the
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.
He knows what Gene is comfortable with and knows they are nothing alike but he doesn’t see that as a reason to not hang out and do certain things. At the same tree where the SS meetings were held, Finny fell out and broke his leg. The truth was, Gene was behind him and got upset about the friendship from long term problems and jumped the limb which caused Finny to lose his balance and fall. After he was in a cast and healing, the secret was killing Gene. He went to the infirmary to tell him the truth but it didn’t really go as planned.
Being totally aberrant characters, Gene and Finny acquired an atypical friendship. Their friendship is based on lying. Finny, a confident, rebellious, kind, and unique person, has no intentions in ruining Gene’s life. Gene, a jealous pal who desires to be Finny, tries to be on Finny/s side by jumping off the tree, as well as clinging to him all the time. The friendship between Finny and Gene is a one- side dominated friendship.
Towards the end of the story Gene mentions how Finny is different
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
One way Gene’s jealousy and imitation is an effect on his relationship with Finny is that it caused lots of jealousy towards Finny because of his abilities, appearance, and actions. An example of this is when Gene stated “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).
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
Gene acknowledging that he is grateful to have Finny as his friend is important because it shows how the competition between the two friends is so far healthy
The most important things to a successful friendship is trust and being open with one another. These are the main aspects Gene lacked throughout the novel. As a result, Gene is affected in a positive and a negative way. An illustration of Gene influenced positivity is from turning more social from investing more energy with Finny. He supports Finny's insane thoughts and offers him some assistance with starting a social club at school.
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.
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.