Character Analysis: A Separate Peace By John Knowles

Gene: Transition from Young to Old

Hi guys, (sobbing), this is really hard to do, and I cannot believe this day has actually come. Finny was my best friend, my role model, and my everything. While he rests in peace, I want to share some words for him, wherever he may be. Finny lit up every room he walked into, won over everyone and everything he encountered. Ever since we met, a while back, we have been inseparable. We are Finny and Gene, the two immensely different best friends that have stuck together throughout the years. Finny had top notch athletic skills and could lead and win any sports contest or game, anywhere, no matter what. Once, he even broke a school swimming record just for fun! I always looked up to Finny’s leadership and athleticism

In the novel, A Separate Peace, young Gene worships Finny and cannot notice his own strengths and potential. Gene’s eulogy for Finny as a young boy was quite different from the way he would approach a eulogy speech as the adult version. As a young kid, Gene always looked up to Finny and admired his every move. As a result of living in Finny’s shadow, Gene struggled with confidence and a sense of his own identy, and he was blinded from his own talent by Finny’s accomplishments and skill. In his time at Devon, Gene was unable to be his own individual self; instead, he tried his hardest and longed to become Finny. At the beginning of chapter five, Gene uses Finny’s injury and absence to step into another life, Finny’s life, “I decided to put on his clothes... the rich material against my skin excited a sense of strangeness and distinction; I felt like some nobleman, some Spanish grandee... It seemed, standing there in Finny’s triumphant shirt, that I would never stumble through the confusion of my own character again”(62). Gene describes that wearing Finny’s clothing makes him feel like a “nobleman” and a “Spanish grandee”. These few simple words alone describe how prodigious Finny is in Gene’s eyes. These feelings show through in his first eulogy where he thinks of a few key things. Firstly, he talks about Finny as if he were a god and explains

Gene is clearly still a bit hesitant about the past that he feels the need to return to Devon, but he has made incredible progress getting over his loss and moving on with his life. At the start of the book, when Gene first goes back to Devon as an adult, he has an epiphany and says something remarkable to himself, “Changed, I headed back through the mud. I was drenched; anybody could see it was time to come in out of the rain” (14). At this moment, Gene is finally moving on from Finny’s death and tragedy. Gene was figuratively “drenched” in sorrow and was filled with negative energy in the wet, damp “mud”. For Gene, coming “in out of the rain” meant moving on from a world that was clouded with darkness, the regret and sorrow from Finny’s death. Having re-visited the sites of the accidents, older Gene can now move on. He could finally live life without constant mourning for Finny. Older Gene is keeping Finny in his heart, but not on his mind. In his adult eulogy, Gene recognizes all of Finny’s incredible abilities and skills without putting himself and others down or even below Finny at all. Gene also states that losing Finny is very difficult, but rather than saying that he has lost himself, Gene just says that he has lost a true friend to the other side. Lastly, Finny ends his speech by saying that Finny is up somewhere playing blitzball, which recognizes his talent and