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Now and then character analysis
Now and then character analysis
Now and then character analysis
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John Knowles, the author of the book a separate peace uses a highly descriptive paragraphs and a child narrative to give the reader the perspective of a teenage student as he explores the true meaning of friendship, the loss of innocence, self-realization. In the novel, Gene struggles with the memory of him causing his best friend Phineas to fall from a tree, ruining Phineas's athletic dream and eventually resulting in his death. Through the first person point of view, the author reveals that Gene struggles to confess to Phineas that the fall was his fault. Because Gene was afraid of Phineas’s reaction to his confession, he admitted that confessing to Phineas would have made him accept reality and prevent his death. Through this experience, Gene has realized and understood his envy and antagonistic motives, losing his innocence during the process. The childlike innocence of Gene at the beginning of the novel represents a happy and ideal life. Even though Gene has a lonely, introverted, and highly intellectual personality, he befriends his handsome, popular, self confident athlete. Instead of …show more content…
Gene realizes that his goal is to obey the rules and be academically superior in order to gain approval from the authority figures, whoever is encouraging him to disobey the rules must have the desire to witness his failure. Therefore, Phineas must be the enemy. Gene hides this one-sided love-hate relationship, allowing him to be consumed with anger, hatred, and jealousy. As Phineas proved in his free, careless ways that his intention was not to harm Gene in any way, this angers Gene because Phineas’s “insult” made him felt insignificant. This angers Gene even more and eventually led to him expressing his anger unintentionally by causing Phineas’s fall. This physical and emotional release frees Gene, making him feel more
A Separate Peace is a coming of age novel in which Gene, the main character, revisits his high school and his traumatic teen years. When Gene was a teen-ager his best friend and roommate Phineas (Finny) was the star athlete of the school.
In John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, characters Gene and Phineas begin their journeys to adulthood in a war torn environment. The dynamic formed between a world full of struggle and the crucial age of development in high school proves to be an excellent setting to examine the abilities of both Gene and Phineas to “come of age.” Being a Bildungsroman, the theme of coping with war and death is highlighted via the imagery that surrounds both Gene’s epiphany moment at the marble stairs, and its introduction at the beginning of the novel. Additionally, Knowles employs a flashback to set a nostalgic and somewhat reflective mood, which further extends this meaning. In Knowles’ “coming of age” novel A Separate Peace, the use of imagery surrounding the marble stairs, and a reminiscent flashback aid Gene is discovering that war and death can never be understood.
When the novel starts Gene is lost and confused about his feeling towards Phineas, he is not sure if he is jealous or just looking up to Phineas. However, the moment he causes Phineas to fall off the tree he realizes his inner-self and realizes his true feelings. He realizes that it was not a little jealousy or anything else but it was hate that was building up inside him. He first realized what his true emotion was when he...
When Gene pushes Phineas out of the tree in a burst of jealous rage, he gains this profound meaning of friendship. Even after the incident, Phineas doesn’t blame Gene for pushing him out of the tree. Instead, Phineas chooses to believe that a gust of wind had jostled the branch causing his fall. This is the story that he tells people and he believes himself. When other students get suspicious of what really happened, they hold a mock trial in attempts to find the truth. Phineas continues to lie for his friend and conjures an elaborate story to clear Gene’s name. This evidently shows that Phineas would much rather lie to others and to himself, to protect the good name of Gene.
Later on in the book, after the accident, when Gene looks at himself in the mirror while wearing Finny’s clothes, on page 54, it says “… it was no remote aristocrat I had become, no character out of daydreams. I was Phineas, Phineas to life. … standing there (it seemed) that I would never stumble through the confusions of my own character again.” That meant that following that day, he was going to try to live each day more like Finny. Through out the book Phineas taught Gene more and more about himself, he taught Gene to live each day to the fullest, because you might never have another.
When reflecting on his memories of the man he knew as Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway recalls the unique individual’s finest quality: “It was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again” (Fitzgerald 2). Although Gatsby occasionally stepped off the straight and narrow, he never lost sight of his ultimate goal: Daisy’s love. Even when it seemed as though everything was working against him and that he would never regain his lost love, Gatsby kept going, knowing that the strength of his hope would see him through. His childlike determination, while ultimately his downfall, was what made Gatsby truly “great.”
In ‘A Separate Peace,’ the novel demonstrates throughout how Gene is envious of his friendship with Finny. There have been multiple
In the novel, A Separate Peace, the characters Finny and Gene are pretty much complete opposites, yet they are great friends. In general, Finny has the upper hand, because of his ability to socialize and work well with other people. Gene even says, “He possessed an extra vigor, a heightened confidence in himself, a serene capacity for affection which saved him. Nothing as he was growing up at home, nothing at Devon, nothing even about the war had broken his harmonious and natural unity. So at last I had.” (John Knowles, page 194-195) Gene clearly states that Finny is “unlike other young man, and that nothing could cause a disturbance in
Throughout life, people are constantly finding themselves, whether it be physically or mentally. The novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, highlights this feature. The main character Gene Forrester is repeatedly overshadowed by his best friend, Finny, this forces him through a state of anger, distrust, and aggravation. Although Gene has several attributes to be proud about, he decides to focus on Finny's actions instead. Through the use of characterization for Gene Forrester, Knowles demonstrates the fact that when one finds their own identity it allows for them to overcome hardships and undergo growth.
Maturity is crucial in leading a successful and meaningful life. Being mature allows people to make reasonable decisions and life choices. This is true for the boys John Knowles has created in his novel A Separate Peace. In this book, two teenage boys named Gene and Phineas attend Devon, a private school, during the struggle of World War I. Throughout the novel John teaches the audience that growing up in a time of hardship and conflict creates maturity. Knowles implies that greatness in others can cause an individual to think and do things that normally would not be considered, and he creates this idea by using the literary elements of irony, conflict, and tone.
Deception involving the accident of Phineas falling out of the tree was because of Gene and what he would or would not say about the event that took place up in the tree. “I couldn’t make the last confession” (Knowles 162), is what Gene said close to the end of the novel. Gene deceived Phineas about the accident every time it was brought up by not telling him the truth about how he really fell. Gene was very deceptive which caused his relationship with Phineas very difficult in Genes mind.
Analysis: This quote is based on the theme of envy. It is clear that Gene feels that Phineas can get away with anything. The reader can tell that Gene hate him because of this.
John Knowles implies Phineas’s naivete through the implementation of dialogue. Phineas confesses to Gene that “[he] hope[s] [Gene is] having a pretty good time here… you can’t come by yourself, and at this teenage-period in life the proper person is your best pal” (48). The boys live in a masculine society, which places an emphasis
In conclusion, we have learnt that nostalgia is what will keep an individual from reaching the future and any further longing for the past, will lead to an end of the possibility of a future for the individual. Gatsby, being an example in the story, was delusionally filled with nostalgia and as a result he met the tragic fate that he met at the end of chapter 8, with his death after being shot by George Wilson. Overall, the lesson that Fitzgerald has taught to his readers, is that we must leave the past behind and move forward towards the future or else the past will pull us behind with it and the future will no longer exist for us, for a tragic end is the result of delusionally continuing to be nostalgic.
Competition and rivalry have the ability to make people shine and accomplish things they never thought possible, and the ability to bring a person’s dark side and get them to do terrible things. Phineas and Gene’s friendship is viewed very differently by each of them. Where Phineas sees Gene as his best friend Gene sees Phineas as a competitor. Gene sees him as someone trying to keep him from being successful in school. This warped view of their relationship is the cause of many of the eventual problems of the novel and arguably the death of Phineas.