Theme Of Emotions In A Separate Peace, By John Knowles

“Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him. It is the moment when his emotions achieve their most powerful sway over him, and afterward when you to this person ‘the world today’ or ‘life’ or ‘reality’ he will assume that you mean this moment, even if it is fifty years past” (Knowles 40). In the fictional tragedy novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the friendship of the two main characters, Gene Forrester and Phineas, is put to the test. Over the course of the story, the relationship that Gene and Phineas have starts to bring forth hidden feelings when the involvement of Gene in Finny’s fall out of a tree becomes questionable. The bond that these two characters share unfolds into a whirlwind of emotions. The relationship

John Knowles makes suggestions and clues as to Gene’s underlying and resentful feelings of Finny. For example, Gene becomes “unexpectedly excited” at the prospect of Finny getting into trouble with Mr. Patch-Withers for wearing a ties as belt. Gene’s resentment can also be identified when the older version of Gene reminisces on his time at Devon when he says, “We were the best of friends at the moment” (18). After his time at Devon, Gene realizes that his relationship with Finny does not seem like a normal friendship. In a literary criticism of A Separate Peace titled “Interconnected Symbols”, by James Ellis, the author proclaims, “Gene finds himself jealous of Finny’s ability to flout Devon rules in his quest to enjoy an ‘unregulated friendliness’ with the adult world” (Ellis 35). Ellis reveals that Gene’s envy stems from his perspective of

A doppelgänger is a double or mirror image of a person which is considered to be very negative. Knowles makes subtle hints at this theme everywhere in the story such as when Gene mentions that he and Finny are the exact same height down to half an inch. Also, Phineas is the only character in the entire book that is not given a last name. This is because Finny is a mere representation of Gene’s opposite behavior. The idea of the double image really shines through when Gene puts on Finny’s clothes while he is away in the infirmary. Gene describes, “But when I looked in the mirror…I was Phineas, Phineas to the life. I even had his humorous expression in my face, his sharp, optimistic awareness. I had no idea why this gave me such intense relief” (62). When Gene put himself, literally, in Finny’s shoes, he became aware of the resemblance between each other and how essentially similar they are. The theme of the doppelgänger is noticed by James Ellis when he reveals in his literary criticism that, “…Gene had come to see that this enemy never comes from without, but always from within” (41). Ellis states that although Gene’s hatred is directed toward Finny, Finny is ultimately a projection of Gene, which leads the envy straight back to Gene. The more the novel progresses, the more Gene realizes his multi-level connection with Finny. When Finny returns to Devon, he already accepts the fact Dr.