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Trials In Friendship In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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Trials in Friendship According to researchers at Florida Atlantic University, only one percent of teenage friendships last more than five years. That may seem like too small of a number, but there are many reasons why some friendships are doomed from the beginning. This is extensively shown in A Separate Peace by John Knowles. Two best friends, Gene and Phineas, or Finny, are taken on the adventure of figuring out how to understand and better their friendships. They go through many unavoidable hardships together, and Gene ends up severely injuring Finny as a result of his obsessive defensiveness. Gene learns that being part of a friendship includes struggling with jealousy, competition, and unsureness of one’s self.
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Gene was so in awe of Finny that he ended up wanting to become a part of him. “I had no idea why this gave me such intense relief, but it seemed, standing there in Finny’s triumphant shirt, that I would never stumble through the confusions of my own character again” (54). Gene was so unhappy with his complex personality that he tried to adopt Finny’s character, going as far as putting on his clothes and envisioning himself as Finny. Another example of this is illustrated when Gene interpreted Finny’s words as an invitation to turn into him. “‘...Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,’ and I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas” (77). Gene was having to deal with the consequences of his vile actions and decided to free himself from them by achieving what Finny was unable to achieve, starting with sports and branching off to school work. Gene began to envision himself as though his only role in life was to be an extension of Finny. In reality, Gene was trying to mask his own convoluted character by latching onto

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1162 Words | 5 Pages

Gene is a bit more reserved and shy than Finny. Early on in the story, Gene becomes obsessed with being equals with Finny and envy of him. He starts to believe that Finny makes up games and clubs to sabotage his studying and grades. After he makes Finny fall, he realizes he was wrong and Finny wasn't trying to hold him back at all.

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438 Words | 2 Pages

After a game of blitzball Gene and Finny go back to the dorm and gene begins to study finny then comments “ You work too hard”(51) and “ Nobody is surer of graduating..”(51). Showing that he works his butt off to make it to the top to be above everyone when specifically he wants to be above finny. His jealousy is shown a lot throughout the story but in a minor way such as when he hopes finny will get caught when he uses the devon school tie as a belt gene is sure “ this time he wasn’t.. ”(27).Gene eventually realizes finny gets away with everything and makes him furious. Events such as those further lead to the biggest event when he pushed Finny off the branch of the

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791 Words | 4 Pages

Gene becomes his most petty and vicious self. This is a battle for Finny and Gene because both of them battle with and come to learn their true identities. Gene realizes what he has done and feels terribly guilty. He is worried that Finny is going to realize that his fall was because of him. He is also worried that once Finny sees his face he will automatically accuse him.

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893 Words | 4 Pages

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

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711 Words | 3 Pages

Gene Forrester’s Character Development The quote “Envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide,” (Emerson 370) accurately describes Gene Forrester from “A Separate Peace”. John Knowles is the author of “A Separate Peace” and it is set in New Hampshire at Devon High. Gene Forrester is not your normal protagonist; he thinks his best friend Phineas is “out to get him” and he eventually grows to envy him. He used to conform to Finny in the beginning, but he later grows into his own character.

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572 Words | 3 Pages

Gene’s loss of innocence is demonstrated by his intent to hurt Phineas, the change from summer to winter, and the Devon students’ involvement in World War II. Finny’s fall is symbolic of a fall from innocence. To start, Gene’s belief that Finny was trying to sabotage his education evokes doubt about their friendship. In order to outdo Finny, Gene “…took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb.

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822 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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963 Words | 4 Pages

Gene and Finny are best pals since the day they met at Devon, but betrayal of one another destroys their friendship. "It's you, pal," Finny said to me at last, "just you and me." (18). Finny and Gene were suppose to be the best of friends, however betrayal consumes them. Finny did forgive Gene for jouncing the limb and not being there for him when he fell down the staircase in Devon like a good friend would have.

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1239 Words | 5 Pages

They are supposed to be best friends, but Gene envies him and thinks he is trying to make him look bad. After Finny’s accident, Gene struggled with guilt and his life was changed because of it. “I spent as much time as I could alone in our room, trying to empty my mind of every thought, to forget where I was, even who I was. One evening when I was dressing for dinner in this numbed frame of mind, an idea occurred to me, the first with any energy behind it since Finny fell from the tree. I decided to put on his clothes” (Knowles 29).

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1701 Words | 7 Pages

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

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741 Words | 3 Pages

Gene wanted Finny to get in trouble for what Finny had did, which had worn his tie as a belt. He hated that Finny got away with almost anything that he did wrong and wanted to go down someday. Another way their relationship is affected is through Gene’s lack of self-finding and liking. Gene hated that he never was like Finny, so he started to acting and do things that Finny did. That caused a lot of jealousy, guilt, and self-destruction from throughout the relationship that Gene and Finny had.

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791 Words | 4 Pages

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

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1268 Words | 6 Pages

In John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, the main character, Gene Forrester, undergoes a traumatic journey to develop the aspects necessary for coping through adulthood. This novel is a flashback to the year of 1942, when Gene attends his final year at Devon High School, in New Hampshire. Although Gene appears to be Finny’s best friend, he follows in Finny’s steps so that his personality clones to be like Finny’s. Finny exposes new experiences that provoke Gene’s development into adulthood. As Gene engages in new experiences, he soon realizes that he envies Finny’s abilities.

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1195 Words | 5 Pages

Gene starts to become jealous of Finny’s traits. Gene starts questioning Finny’s motives to always push him well beyond the rules and his personal boundaries. Gene starts to take out his emotions and anger on Finny. Gene did not want Finny to realize that Gene was jealous of Finney’s ability to be free, have lots of fun and ignore the school rules. Due to Gene’s jealousy and lack of trust towards Finny, and Finny’s lack of respect for Gene, their friendship starts to go downhill quick.

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582 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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