Gene And Phineas In John Knowles A Separate Peace

The characteristics of a person can provide revealing details about how that person’s thoughts influence his/her actions. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene and Phineas are the personae upon which this fear and envy acts. Their rivalries throughout the novel contribute to their character profiles as well. The characterization of Phineas and Gene throughout the novel shows their many differences, while at the same time demonstrating how the element of fear clouds both boys’ minds, displaying how fear and envy are driving characteristics of the relationship between two people.

The juxtaposition of Phineas and Gene is apparent throughout the story. Knowles depicts Gene as being an academically motivated child who keeps his thoughts to

himself and refrains from expressing them openly – an example of this is when Gene states that “exposing a sincere emotion nakedly…was the next thing to suicide” (Knowles, 48). Phineas, on the other hand, is much more carefree and reckless, such as how he loves to jump off trees. He is not as academically inclined as Gene is; “Me…I could study forever and I’d never break C” (Knowles, 58). In addition, Gene is quite envious of Phineas, while Phineas does not express much envy towards Gene. Both Gene and Phineas are very unique boys whose contrasting natures exemplify their individuality.
Although Gene and Phineas are quite different, they are also very similar in how both boys carry with them a pressing internal conflict of fear.

Gene’s most notable fear involves the incident in which he jounced the tree limb that sent Phineas falling to the ground below (Knowles, 60). Gene is fearful of the incident being publicized and the resulting humiliation. When Brinker tries to extract the truth of this accident from Gene in the Butt Room, Gene’s hesitance to expose the truth is a clear representation of this fear (Knowles, 89-91). Phineas’ fear, however, was a fear of facing the truth. For example, when Gene admitted to Phineas that Gene jounced the tree limb, Phineas is unable to accept the naked truth. Also, Phineas’ refusal to accept the war as a national concern demonstrates how Phineas is unable to face the truth, which leads to his eventual downfall. The element of fear explains how both boys contradicted their own thoughts directly. For example, although Gene wished to never tell anyone about the tree incident, he eventually admitted to Phineas that the accident was caused by Gene. Also, Phineas denied his feelings about how the war was a false creation by directly exposing this contradiction to Gene. The boys contradicted themselves like this because the fear building up inside of them forced them to release the resulting stress by abruptly changing their perspectives. Both boys thus demonstrate how fear is a major factor in both character

profiles.
In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Phineas and Gene’s characterizations demonstrate how both of the boys are quite different, yet they are similar in that both boys possess an internal conflict of fear that persists throughout the novel. These similarities and differences show how two people can be vastly different, yet astonishingly connected. Although Gene and Phineas’ differences are common in the novel, their similarities are much more revealing and provide a deeper insight into the minds of these two personae, and how their actions were motivated by their many thoughts.