Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

In the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles the protagonist, Gene, has a psychological moment where he is coming of age and becomes mature at the moment of when he jostles the limb causing Finny to fall.
In the novel the author made Gene jealous of Finny since he was very athletic and also was able to get good grades without trying. While Gene on the other hand had to study every night in order to get good grades. Soon Gene wishes he could be as good as Finny in sports which is causing Gene to be jealous of Finny. The text states, “...but it seemed, standing there in Finny’s triumphant shirt, that I would never stumble through the confusions of my own character again.” (62) This statement from the narrator, Gene, was saying that when he had on Finny’s pink shirt that he felt exactly like Finny and had the thought that this is what he was set out to be.

Then one night Gene was studying really hard and Finny had said let's all have some fun, let's go to the river and jump! Gene thought, no I need to study. Soon Gene decided to go with Finny and Leper to jump. Finny gave the idea of double jumping off the limb. The text states, “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance had gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with an extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make…” (59-60) The fall had happened because of