The friendship of Gene and Finny was a toxic but unbreakable bond formed through a sense of love and hatred towards one another and what they stood for. Throughout their friendship the two boys experienced both emotional and physical growth, and they discovered the true evil instilled in mankind. John Knowles portrayed these themes through the development of the relationship between Gene and Finny from the start of the novel to the end. A Separate Peace showed Gene giving into his evil nature by pushing Finny off of the tree out of jealousy. The novel also portrayed Gene’s struggle with himself and his twisted relationship with Finny, and how at the end Gene was able to let go and become self-aware. This was, however, at the cost of Finny’s demise.
At the begging of the novel, Gene was found at the site of Devon, now an adult, reminiscing his past years spent at the school. As he looked back, there did not seem to be any fear or regret about the choices he had made in those years. He looked at the school building as if it were a foreign object; it did not
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resemble the old Devon that Gene had spent so many crucial years of his life at. While Gene looked at the reformed structure, he mused, “I didn’t entirely like this glossy new surface, because it made the school look like a museum, and that’s exactly what it was to me, and what I did not want it to be (9).” As Gene was talking about the building, he was talking about himself as well. His experiences at Devon had caused his personality to grow immensely, which made his past self feel like a stranger to him, just like the building. He had gone from an indecisive boy who relied much too heavily on the validation of his ignorant friend, to an independent adult who realized that he is his own person, and the only validation that matters is the validation he receives from himself. As Gene thinks about how he has changed as a person from the time he studied at Devon, he says, “Well, I naturally felt older- I began at that point the emotional examination to note how far my convalescence had gone- I was taller, bigger generally in relation to these stairs (11).” The stairs are what Finny fell down which led to his death. The stairs were what killed the center of Gene’s universe. They killed what in the past days Gene referred to as ‘his other half.’ Now, when Gene is looking at the stairs as an adult, he is not intimidated. He is no longer held down by the notion that Finny is a part of himself. Gene states, “I had more money and success and ‘security’ than in the days when specters seemed to go up and down them with me (12).” He has realized that he was able to accomplish even more than he could have imagined in the past, all without the aid of Finny. The cold, marble stairs which had haunted him in the past are no longer of relevance, because Gene has realized that he never owed Finny anything. Growing up latched onto Finny’s side and then losing him made Gene realize that his reliance on Finny was just an illusion. As an adult, he is able to accept himself completely, which was something he was unable to do while growing up. Another theme which John Knowles expounded upon throughout the novel was the evil lurking within the nature of mankind. Gene grew suspicious of Finny’s true motives concerning him. Gene had always been brilliant in academics, and Finny had always been an excellent athlete. However, Gene was good at sports too, just not as skilled as Finny was. Finny was always very competitive, especially around Gene. This led Gene to conclude that Finny was jealous of him, and Gene let this notion get to his head much too quickly. According to Gene, this jealous attitude was to be expected of Finny with his competitiveness and excessive determination. Gene was never completely satisfied with their friendship, so he took any flaw he found very seriously. He started to believe that the only reason Finny was friends with him was to distract him from his studies, so that Finny could be the superior one. After all, Finny did keep him very busy with the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session, after school games of blitzball, as well as other time consuming physical tasks. Gene’s fears were strengthened when Finny made him go for a morning swim right before his exam. Gene was already hesitant about going, but his strange dependence on Finny didn’t allow Gene to refuse. Just as Gene expected, he failed his test that day. He disparagingly stated, “It was the first test I had ever flunked. But Finny gave me little time to worry about that. Right after lunch there was a game of blitzball which took most of the afternoon (51).” With Gene’s preconceived notions of Finny’s motives and all the distractions Finny provided for him, Gene’s suspicions did seem to fall into place. Gene’s fear was confirmed when Finny nonchalantly said, “I’d kill myself out of jealous envy (52).” Even though Gene subconsciously knew Finny was joking, he just couldn’t accept that. Gene said, “The joking manner was a screen; I believed him. Up like a detonation went the idea of any best friend, up went the hope that there was anyone in the world I could trust (53).” This was the breaking point of Gene’s repressed feelings towards Finny. Gene now felt more hatred for his friend than he felt love. He felt more betrayed than ever, and he would do anything to get revenge on Finny for presumably lying to him for all these years. All of Gene’s pent up emotions were released with a slight jostle of a tree branch. Almost every evening Finny and Gene would jump from the tree into the river. Later that day the two boys made their way to the tree again. Every time, Finny would jump and then Gene would follow right after. This time, however, things went down differently. As Gene stood on the branches with Finny, he felt numb from resentment. Without thinking, Gene states, “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb (60).” This is the point at which bitter resentment, a major aspect of man’s evil nature, possessed Gene. For years, Gene’s sole purpose was impressing Finny, and acquiring his validation. When Gene suspected that Finny had just been using him to prevent him from getting ahead, Gene fell apart and succumbed to his inner demons. He did the unthinkable, and took away Finny’s passion (sports, because he would not be able to play while crippled), just as he suspected Finny had done to him. In conclusion, A Separate Peace was a riveting allegory about how close bonds can bring out not only the best but also the worst in people, and how one friendship can change someone’s personality completely, therefore altering the entire course of their lives.
John Knowles cleverly tied in meanings behind inanimate objects like the marble staircase, making the staircase a device of both doom and exoneration. The staircase brought upon the doom of Finny, but also the release and self-enlightenment of Gene. By giving in to his dark nature and pushing Finny out of the tree, Gene unknowingly altered the course of his entire future. By giving into his twisted urges Gene was put through a journey of heartbreak, regret, and shame. However without experiencing these emotions like he had, Gene wouldn’t have been able to let go of the unhealthy bond he had with Finny, and he would have never been able to grow
up.
Have you ever read a book where one of the main characters was so envious of another? Well, here you have it. In John Knowles “A Separate Peace”, Gene is all for the jealous rage and resentful ways. Throughout the book, Mr. Knowles places the boys in a boarding school and sets the tale so that the reader knows all the focus is set upon Finny and Gene’s relationship. Speaking of relationships and Gene’s way, the storyline takes a turn and Finny actually ends up being almost physically pushed out of a tree. I say that shows a large characteristic of Gene. He is without a doubt, resentful towards Finny.
At the Devon School, the climate of war creates an even greater impedance in the way of Gene and Phineas’ development, as now both characters must attempt to understand death. For Gene at such a young age, death has never been a part of his life until Phineas dies. Phineas has always been fated to die, but Gene is not able to comprehend this until Finny falls down the marble stairs at the First Academy Building. On revisiting the marble stairs, Gene recognizes their “exceptional hardness” (Knowles 11). The hardness that Gene speaks of is representative of the hardness of coping with war and death during such a crucial developmental time. This imagery is utilized by Knowles in A Separate Peace to define that until Gene recognizes the incomprehensible nature of war and death, he will never escape the liminal state. By watching Phineas fall down the marble stairs, Gene is enlightened to the fact that war is real, death cannot be avoided, and both can never be
Gene understands that Finny is unable to make a transition into adulthood when he says, “You’d get things so scrambled up nobody would know who to fight anymore. You’d make a mess, a terrible mess, Finny, out of the war” (191). Finny is unable to make an enemy out of anyone therefore preventing him from finding any real internal war to fight. Gene is already experiencing a mental and emotional battle from Finny’s fall allowing him to enter adulthood. Childhood can not thrive forever, adults cannot carry the careless characteristics of a small boy, and this is why Phineas can never made it to adulthood; he can never fully reveal an internal fight with true emotion behind it. Gene is shattered to the doctor say, “‘This is something I think boys of your generation are going to see a lot of,’ he said quietly, ‘and I will have to tell you about it now. Your friend is dead.’ He was incomprehensible” (193). Nevertheless, this marks the end of Gene’s war and grants him entrance into adulthood. Phineas’ death is the true mark that one can not be a child forever, they must find a fight inside their head that requires emotional and intellectual strength to become an
Gene is much like Cain and because he is like Cain he has jealousy and hatred against Phineas who is Abel. When Gene wakes up at sunrise on the beach, while Finny is still sleeping. Gene realizes that he has an important exam and it will take him a long time to get back to Devon. He makes it back in time to Devon, but fails the
Insidiously and pervasively, Gene's original doubt creeps into his mind while at the beach, when Finny confesses that Gene is his best pal, yet Gene's hesitation holds him back, stating that “perhaps [he] was stopped by the level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth” (50). By pondering his motivations, Gene reveals that he truly does not believe that Finny considers him his best friend; Gene doubts Finny because he believes that hate forms the cornerstone of the relationship, which in turn leaves no room for love. Instead, Gene believes the confession of friendship serves the purpose of disillusioning him, that, as a conniver, Finny wants Gene to falsely trust him. Through a lack of communication, neither boy truly knows where they stand as a friendship based on trust and mutual affection fosters no home for envy, and yet Gene believes that Finny is his adversary. Finally, Gene ponders how he “might have asked, 'Who are you then?'” while realizing that Finny cares more about him than the fake rivalry; as Finny's personality seems to suddenly veer away from competitive, Gene feels he “was facing a total stranger” (50). Because Finny fears destroying the friendship by addressing its problems, he never empathizes with Gene and therefore does not see Gene's deluded misinterpretation of the association or the hatred that he fosters towards Phineas. Finny throws Gene off guard as he expressed his true feelings because, fed by doubt, Gene does not believe that Finny truly cares for him. Again, Gene's fears escape his mind as he exclaims “to drag me down too!” (57) when Finny talks of how he could have reached out to Gene in the moments before his fall. In his mind, Gene molds Phineas into a resentful person, so he automatically assumes the worst with Finny's intentions. Like an animal of prey, Gene retreats suddenly when
He becomes aware of Finny’s endurance, as “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 [Gene] had” (203). Following Finny’s death, Gene states how absolutely nothing could break Finny, not even a war. But the evilness of his shadow and unconscious self could, and cause Finny’s death. One’s shadow can be toxic when displayed to the outside world, especially when it is not in check by the individual. Gene has accepted his dark side when he admits he had been the cause of his friend’s death. In the very end of the novel, Gene finally takes responsibility for all of his shadow’s actions against his best friend, as he thinks to himself, “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (204). Gene’s transformation from the beginning of the novel to the end is clearly seen in this quotation, as he no longer denies his shadow’s existence and now claims responsibility of the darkness inside himself. He illustrates himself as being on active duty at all times at school, staying on guard for any of Finny’s tricks that may potentially cause him to fall behind in his studies. His war with Finny, whom he once
Chapter 7: After the Fall also claims that Gene “wants to become what Finny was as a means to escape from himself”, however, the novel presents evidence that Finny was the one who tried to become Gene. The literary analysis claims Gene’s signing up for extracurricular activities and his wearing of Finny’s shirt suggest that Gene is
The novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, is the coming of age story of Gene Forrester. This novel is a flashback to the year 1943, when Gene is attending Devon School during his senior year and the summer before it. "Gene's youth and inexperience make him ill-equipped to deal with situations that require maturity" (Overview: A Separate Peace 2). However, Gene is a follower of Finny and therefore gains experiences that provoke his development into adulthood. Some of these experiences include: breaking Finny's leg, training for the 1944 Olympics, and killing Finny. Through these three experiences Gene is forced to grow out of his childish-self and become a man.
Gene's story is set in a boarding school called Devon during World War II and
In the novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the main character, Gene, transforms from a clueless individual, to one who understands events by the middle of the novel, when he starts to gain knowledge. By the end of the novel, Gene is a wise individual who has obtained his knowledge with age.
feels that he has to get revenge. This anger leads to Gene jouncing Finny out of the tree.
In the early pages of the novel, Finny confesses that Gene is his best friend. This is considered a courageous act as the students at Devon rarely show any emotion. And rather than coming back with similar affection, Gene holds back and says nothing. Gene simply cannot handle the fact that Finny is so compassionate, so athletic, so ingenuitive, so perfect. As he put it, "Phineas could get away with anything." (p. 18) In order to protect himself from accepting Finny's compassion and risking emotional suffering, Gene creates a silent rivalry with Finny, and convinced himself that Finny is deliberately attempting to ruin his schoolwork. Gene decides he and Finny are jealous of each other, and reduces their friendship to cold trickery and hostility. Gene becomes disgusted with himself after weeks of the silent rivalry. He finally discovers the truth, that Finny only wants the best for Gene, and had no hidden evil intentions. This creates a conflict for Gene as he is not able to deal with Finny's purity and his own dark emotions. On this very day Finny wants to jump off of the tree branch into the Devon river at the same time as Gene, a "double jump" (p. 51), he says, as a way of bonding. It was this decision, caused by Finny's affection for Gene and outgoing ways that resulted in drastic change for the rest of his life.
...iendship between Gene and Phineas is amidst themes such as lack of reality, low maturity levels, and false appearances. Their relationship deteriorates and leads to death because they fail to learn these valuable life lessons. The purpose of Knowles’ novel is to exaggerate the life of two young boys to the extreme in order to reveal the unfortunate things that can occur in a relationship when these themes are not taken seriously. As stated in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, "It (A Separate Peace) can be viewed, for example, as a tale of Original Sin, with the Devon School as an Eden enclosing the great Tree of Knowledge through which humankind falls far from innocence but is redeemed by the suffering of a totally innocent one. It may also be approached as a reworking of the classic tale of the need to accept the potential evil within everyone and thus make peace with one’s self."
In "A Separate Peace" many characteristics of becoming a man can be seen. For example, as the novel progresses, so does Gene's maturity. Gene's first seen in the novel as a boy, not yet brought on by nature, but as one gets deeper into the novel, one sees change; Gene embarks on life change that all men journey through once in their life. Gene begins to see his life and others from a totally new standpoint, as though even from a newer perspective. In Chapter two and chapter three, Gene, develops a sheer envy for Finny, and acknowledges it as the truth. He is extremely envious of the methods in which Finny uses to escape his unusual actions and his popularity. He embeds himself in a pool of self-assurance, by repeatedly telling himself over and over again that having
“Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud, It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear forgotten.” (Knowles 59-60). Gene Forrester, one of the main characters in John Knowles' novel A Separate Peace, describes his best friend Phineas' fall from a “tremendous tree, an irate steely black steeple beside a river,”(Knowles 6) at their all boys boarding school, Devon. Gene is an introverted young boy who is very academically gifted. Finny, however, is an extremely extroverted childish young boy who is very athleticaly gifted. Finny's fall eventually leads to terrible things, such as death and guilt. Throughout the novel Knowles uses Phineas' fall from the tree to symbolize his loss of innocence, to show Gene's guilt, and to develop Phinea's death.