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Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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The privilege of friendship conquers the immeasurable boundaries of deceit and treachery. When a true friendship carves in stone, nothing can break that bond. A Separate Peace takes place in 1942, roughly a year after the Pearl Harbor incident. The main character, Gene, goes to an all-boys school named Devon where he and Phineas (or Finny) are best friends. Throughout the book, their friendship goes through trials to see how strong their friendship is. Gene betrays Finny by jolting his leg when hopping on the branch of The Tree. Finny in the end forgives Gene for his acts because Finny understands what overcame Gene. Friendship comes from blood, sweat, and tears which proves Finny is a better friend than Gene. First of all, Finny teaches …show more content…

Finny brings Gene along wherever he goes, and makes sure that Gene gets involved. Also, Finny strives to break Gene’s shell of academics so they can live life to the fullest. There are those who argue that Finny uses Gene to protect himself from taking the blame. There’s a chance that the only reason he keeps Gene is to have a safety net. Although, Finny can talk his way out of any situation that is set before him; Finny gets away with telling a Head Master ‘’No’’ without repercussion. Finny spilled his feelings to Gene telling him that he feels they are “best pals”. Finny states, “I hope you’re having a pretty good time here. I know I kind of dragged you away at the point of a gun, but after all you can’t come by yourself, and at this teen-age period in life the proper person is your best pal… Which is what you are” (48). After Finny tells Gene this, Gene can’t say it back because he is conflicted on what he feels towards Finny. Finny wholeheartedly feels the friendship they have, so he’s not using Gene for anything but a friend he can …show more content…

Towards the end of the book, Finny came to the realization that his best friend had betrayed him. He couldn’t believe the news and was furious towards Gene. Though, when Gene comes to drop off Finny’s clothing and items, Finny confronts Gene about the matter in a professional manner. He hears out Gene, accepts and understands why he did it, and what happened in the tree. The book states, “He was nodding his head, his jaw tightening and his eyes closed with the tears. ‘I believe you. It’s okay because I understand and I believe you. You’ve already shown me and I believe you.’” Their friendship fell into serenity, and Finny died with a clear mind. Finny becomes outraged after he finds out the truth. The night of the stair incident, Finny cursed and lunged at Gene when he came through the infirmary window. Finny felt betrayal towards Gene because his best friend destroyed the trust and bond they had. Still, Finny came to calm down and understand what Gene was thinking and feeling at the time of the

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444 Words | 2 Pages

Finny playfully criticizes Gene 's clothing and is grateful for the lack of cleaning service. Gene replies that it is not a big loss considering the war, and he is Finny 's bed for him. The next day, Brinker will explode, wondering if Gene is ready to recruit, when he sees Finny. He starts making a joke on Gene 's "plane" - to kill Finny and get the room to himself - but Gene interrupts him and tells Finny about Brinker 's proposal to sign up. Finny 's harmless reaction leads Gene to realize that Finny does not want him to leave.

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436 Words | 2 Pages

However, after the “incident” with Finny he had a different perspective of the river, which included a mixed feeling of guilt and fears. Gene had realized that he made a mistake and because of this mistake and shaken up feelings, his friendship went down the drain. Soon Gene also learns that friendship is all about trust and he broke that with his best friend, Finny. Even though their perspectives on friendship were completely different, they both realized that friendship is not all just about love but also needs a firm foundation of

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871 Words | 4 Pages

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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1036 Words | 5 Pages

In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the narrator Gene, and his best friend Finny, go through ups and down of their relationship. The book starts during the summer session of the prestigious Devon school and ends during the winter session. We are able to see the lives that these boys have during, not only the war time of WWII but, also the different times of the year which affects their actions. They seem to turn off their adventurous, risk taking, rule breaking ways during the winter time, but during the summer they are very wild, and take advantage of the rules. J. Knowles, while trying to show how these boys live at the school in New England during the war time, is also able to tie in elements of setting through the antithesis of behavior

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883 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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983 Words | 4 Pages

Gene never told Finny that he was also his best friend. Ever since that moment Gene felt as if he owed it to Finny, to do what he asked even though he was hesitant to do so. Finny did not consist of only good traits; furthermore, he had flaws just as everyone else. He was selfish, conceited, and manipulative. Multiple times he compelled Gene to do activities when he and Gene both knew that Gene should be studying.

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849 Words | 4 Pages

Gene becomes absorbed in his anger and jealousy of Finny that he begins to put blame on him. He concludes that Finny wants him to fail school, “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies….We were even after all, even in enmity.   The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all” (45). Gene realizes fast enough that Finny can get away with anything he wants, Finny only follows his own rules.

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1296 Words | 6 Pages

After realizing that Finny “had never been jealous of [him] for a second”, Gene feels a new wave of worthlessness and inferiority to Finny and learns that his main struggles are not between him and Finny but inside of himself. After understanding that Finny does not hate him, Gene acknowledges the existence of the darkness and bad feelings inside of him. Gene think that “[he] was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted [him]; there was always something deadly lurking in anything [he] wanted, anything [he] loved. And if it wasn’t there, as for example with Phineas, then [he] put it there [himself]” (101). Finny learns that “something deadly” exists inside of him, and is scared when he bares these feelings.

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463 Words | 2 Pages

When Finny falls down from the tree apparently purges Gene different feelings and steers their friendship in a different direction so that they start connecting to each other rather than hatred characterizing it. From this point on, he and Finny comes together to depend on each other for psychological support. Gene continues to plays sports because Finny cannot, which allows Finny to train him to be the athlete that Finny himself cannot be Finny tells Gene that he once had aspirations to go to the Olympics, and Gene agrees to train for the 1944 Olympics in his place (chapter 6). When Finny became injured, it triggered this new evolution among them to not hate each other but to start caring. This also change the mood of the story from greed to contentment.

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701 Words | 3 Pages

Why did I let finny talk me into stupid things like this? Was he getting some kind of hold over me?” This quote reveals that Gene feels the need to conform to Finny. Gene let Finny talk him into things he doesn’t want to do .Knowles has shown that Gene changes his opinions to adjust to Finny‘s likings. Gene’s “pang of envy” affects not just his but also his relationship with Finny.

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623 Words | 3 Pages

Once the doctor came out and explain Finny's condition to Gene, he says Finny wants to talk to Gene. Gene then thinks, “Finny would say nothing behind my back, he would accuse me face to face.” (64) Gene knew that Finny would be mad at him after the tree incident. He expected this because he knew that it was true what he did. Gene doesn't doubt that Finny

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871 Words | 4 Pages

Friendship~ in A Separate Peace by John knowles One cannot be friends with someone who they see as a competition or a threat to their success. The story A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a coming of age realistic fiction novel. It is set in 1842 during World War II at an all boys academy; Devon School. The boys there are trained to join the army. Once they reach the age of 18, they are recruited into the army and have to fight for the country.

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462 Words | 2 Pages

Finny refused to believe that Gene caused him to fall from the tree. Finny denied Gene's fault because it shattered the image of a perfect best friend, someone who was supposed to be there for him, not there to kill him. When Gene tried to confess, he remarked to himself, "It struck me then that I was injuring him again. It occurred to me that this could be an even deeper injury than what I had done before. "

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582 Words | 3 Pages

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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1024 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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