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What Does Finny Mean In Chapter 5 Of A Separate Peace

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(Claim) In a Separate Peace chapter 5, Kowles uses Gene’s and Finny’s thoughts and actions to portray Gene’s vice and Finny’s virtue. For example, (Point 1) when Finny shares with Gene his awkward feeling about him causing the fall, Gene is suddenly equipped with the desire to admit. (Evidence 1) He says: “Finny, I have something to tell you, and you’re not gonna like it.” (Explanation 2) By being hesitant to share his suspicion and feeling sorry for having it, Finny rises way above Gene in nobility which irritates Gene and instigates him to admit. Gene wants to be even with Finny if not better. Later that summer, (Point 2) when Gene visits Finny in his home in Boston he confesses what actually happened at the tree. (Evidence 2) Finny says: “Of course, you didn’t do it. …show more content…

Sit down, you damn fool… I’m going to hit you if you don’t sit down.”(Explanation 2) Finny doesn’t want to believe Finny jounced the tree because he thinks good people won’t do that to their friends. Finny believes that everyone is a winner and there isn’t any competition between anyone like in blitzball and when he beats the swimming record. Later that day, (Point 3) Finny gets verbally aggressive toward Gene, and Gene jokes about jouncing the tree. (Evidence 3) He says: “I’ll kill you if you don’t shut up.” “You see! Kill me! Now you know what it is! I did it because I felt like that! Now you know yourself!” “I don’t know anything.” (Explanation 3) Finny gets hostile with Gene, one's Gene notices that Finny was being hostile he completely declines his confession of jouncing the tree, so he can balance the badness of him jouncing the tree and Finny wanting to kill

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468 Words | 2 Pages

That something deep down, some deep feeling made him do it, made him jounce the limb. Finny denies that Gene would ever do such a thing. Gene persistently tells him the truth which angers Finny and calls Gene a “damn fool”, still denying that it was his fault. Gene admits he jounced the limb which caused Finny to fall, and therefore, he blames himself for Finny's

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445 Words | 2 Pages

(Knowles 70) This dialogue, from A Separate Peace by John Knowles, illustrates the two characters Finny and Gene having a heated argument. This was because Gene confesses that he pushed Finny out of the tree and caused him to be severely injured. This is what created the inner enemy between them two. Gene and Finny started off as good friends.

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110 Words | 1 Pages

Through these words, we know that Gene and Finny shared a close bond with each other. A little envy is not enough for someone to cause great harm to his closest

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519 Words | 3 Pages

After Finny falls from the tree that generated him to break his leg and causes him not to be able to play football ever again. While Gene knows he is guilty, he wants to confess to Finny that it was he who shook the tree, but does not have the valor to tell him the truth, and since Gene will not tell Finny, Finny tells everyone that his injury was caused by him losing his balance and fell off the tree. Then after a while, Gene finally tries to tell Finny that it was he that shook the tree, but Finny won’t believe him and continues to believe it was him losing his balance. Then comes Brinker that assembles everybody to tell Finny that it was Gene that shook the tree, but then they start saying that Gene did it on purpose. Finny could not stand being there with everyone, so he tries to leave the assembly, unfortunately, as Finny tries to go down the stairs, he falls down and breaks his leg again, and was rushed to the doctor.

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692 Words | 3 Pages

The author writing Finny’s dialogue always assumes the innocence of Gene, no matter the sentence. It is the clearest in this excerpt: “‘Yes, I remember seeing you standing on the bank. You were looking up and your hair was plastered down over your forehead so you had that dumb look you always have when you’ve been in the water - what was it you said? ‘Stop posing up there’ or one of those best-pal cracks you’re always making.’ He was very happy.”

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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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611 Words | 3 Pages

Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects Gene greatly. Gene’s feelings cause him to be much more aggressive. For instance, on page 191, Finny told Gene, “it wasn’t anything you really felt against me, it wasn’t some

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1014 Words | 5 Pages

Gene is jealous of Finny; which shows his immaturity and leads up to the pinnacle of the novel. Due to Gene’s ego he gives into doing something that he will later regret, he jounces the limb the Finny was standing on. Growth can come only through conflict and struggle and therefore, Gene's sense of guilt, however much he hides it, represents his attempt to make things right. He gains the knowledge of evil in himself

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1008 Words | 5 Pages

He feels a lot of guilt for doing this. Gene comes to Finny later in novel and tries to explain to him that he really was the one who jounced the limb, which was the cause of Finny's plummet into the water. Finny simply does not believe Gene, but this makes Gene's guilt worsen. When the boys of the school decide to have a trial, Gene's guilt becomes increasingly worse. Throughout the novel, we see that Gene's guilt is seen more and more every time that the fall is

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776 Words | 4 Pages

Gene’s outburst in the tree was completely natural. Gene knew everything he could learn from Finny, to leave Finny alone would stand as a testament, in Gene’s mind, to Gene’s shortcomings. Gene had become lost in the past and in the mind of Finny as shown by Knowles with “"It's you, pal," Finny said to me at last, "just you and me." He and I started back across the fields… We were the best of friends at that moment”

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877 Words | 4 Pages

When he tries to explain this to his permanently injured companion, Finny brushes it off and denies it (57). Later, Brinker hosts a trial to deem whether or not Gene’s evil instincts could have hurt Finny (157). Finny once again denies that Gene caused the fall, except Brinker pushes the limits. He continues to argue that Gene was in the tree and has Leper testify against Gene until Finny can’t take it anymore- he marches out of the room and fatally falls down a set of marble stairs (168).

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622 Words | 3 Pages

Gene’s envy and imitation caused conflict and questions as to whether his relationship with Finny was actually a real

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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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978 Words | 4 Pages

Overall Gene is known to be the character that has worries and lets emotional situations get the best of him. Continuously throughout the story Gene allows what happens to Finny and the world around him slowly bring him down. The war acts as another filler for disaster in society and can get the best of the boys who are preparing to fight in it. Therefore Gene’s identity in A Separate Peace defines him as the weaker one the one who is sensitive.

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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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