A separate peace by … opens with Gene, the narrator, revisiting his old school in Devon, New Hampshire. As he walks through the campus, he sees the tree that begins a flashback into his schoolboy days. The scene jumps (Hehe “jumps” see what I did there) to Gene standing by the same tree that led to this flashback with his friend/roommate Phineas and a timid guy named Elwin who is nicknamed Leper. Finny (Phineas) suggest that they jump out of the tree; Gene thinks it’s a bad idea, but no one else complies. As the story continues, we find that Finny is a great athlete, very charismatic, and gets away with rebelling against the rules. Gene’s jealousy of Finny’s charisma and athleticism causes him to believe that Finny is equally jealous of his intellectually inclined academic skills and feels as if Finny is trying to sabotage his grades by depriving him of studying time with distractions of hanging out. …show more content…
This makes gene frightened and even more envious of Finny. On the same day that Gene realizes that Phineas is actually a good-hearted person, Finny suggests that he and Gene do a double jump out of the tree and into the river. Finny jumps down and gene doesn’t causing Finny to fall and “shatter” his leg and ultimately end his athletic career forever. When Gene goes to visit Phineas in the hospital he’s scared – but Finny doesn’t notice. Phineas believes he fell out of the tree, but Gene thinks he could’ve pushed him. Finny leaves school to recover and the summer session ends. The school year starts and Finny is still healing. Gene comes by to visit and tries to confess to pushing Finny out of the tree, but Finny doesn’t want to believe that and tell him to