A Separate Peace Character Analysis Essay

Major Players
I identified the first major player in the novel as Phineas. The quote I feel began his role reads: “No one but Phineas could think up such a crazy idea. He of course saw nothing the slightest bit intimidating about it. He wouldn’t, or wouldn’t admit it if he did. Not Phineas.” (14) This quote sets the reader up by describing the sort of person Finny : a daredevil with wild ideas and an air of fearlessness about him.
The role of Gene Forrester, the narrator of the novel, starts with the first line of the book. “I went back to the Devon School not long ago, and found it looking oldly newer than when I was a student there fifteen years before.” (9) The plot of A Separate Peace is him retelling those months at Devon, so his role began with him returning fifteen years later and seeing the school grounds, bringing back memories.
Elwin “Leper” Lepellier- “Leper closed his mouth as though forever. He didn’t argue or refuse. He didn’t back away. He became inanimate.” (17)
Brinker Hadley’s role begins in chapter seven when he picked on Gene while he had the room to himself. “‘Here you are in your solitary splendor,’ he went on genially. ‘I can see you have a real influence around here. This big room all to yourself. I wish I knew how

to manage things like you.’ He grinned confidingly and sank down on my cot, leaning on his elbow in a relaxed, at home way.” (87) This scene established Brinker as a sort of stick poking the bear; he prodded and poked at Gene, just like he did to Phineas in chapter eleven.
Cliff Quackenbush- “Quackenbush was the crew manager, and there was something wrong about him. I didn’t know exactly what it was. In the throng of the winter terms at Devon we were at opposite extremities of the class, and to me there only came the disliked edge of Quackenbush’s Reputation.” (76)
Internal and External Conflicts
Finny-
Turning Point
In my opinion, the turning point occurred when Phineas told Gene to stay in their room.

Gene realized that Phineas didn’t view himself as his rival and that he actually cared about him. He relayed, “[h]e had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he. I couldn’t stand this” (59). Gene got angry at Finny, and probably partially at himself, for not feeling any jealousy toward him, for having the moral high ground. If not for Gene and Finny’s exchange, Gene would not have reason to jounce the limb in the first place, because while he viewed Finny as the bar to beat, he never had thoughts of doing something to harm

him.

Alternative Turning Point
Gene could have, as an alternative, agreed to Phineas’ plans, as he always did, not giving reason for him to talk to him about his grades, thus not letting Gene know that Finny actually cared for him. Instead, Gene would not jounce the limb and continue to believe his relationship with Phineas was a rivalry. Not only would this change the overall outcome of the novel, as Phineas wouldn’t have fallen out of the tree, nor would he have fallen the second, fatal time, but it would also give Knowles the opportunity to explore the dynamic of rivals, or in this case, a single-sided rivalry. Perhaps instead of not enlisting when he saw the disappointed look on Finny’s face, Gene would have gone to war and either died or came back with no reason to return to Devon.