Gene's Coming of Age in A Separate Peace

751 Words2 Pages

Gene's Coming of Age in A Separate Peace 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 jounces a limb of the tree he and Finny were standing on, causing Finny to fall and break his leg. Gene's jealousy of Finny's perfection causes him to have childish feelings of resentment and hatred. After Finny's leg was broken, Gene realized "that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between" (Knowles 51) him and Finny. Gene looked at himself and became conscious of what a terrible, self-absorbed friend he had been. Understanding there was no competition caused him to discard the majority of his feelings of jealousy. Getting rid of these feelings made him grow-up because he was no longer spending countless hours believing a childish game was being played between Finny and him. Gene began to understand more of Finny's goodness and love towards all, making him strive to be more like Finny. When Finny trains Gene for the 1944 Olympics, Gene becomes more mature. Through Finny's coaching of Gene, Gene acquires many characteristics of the already grown-up Fi... ... middle of paper ... ... age of Gene Forrester. Because Finny causes Gene to grow up, we are able to realize that one must grow up to move on in life. In that process of growing up, several people impact your life. This novel shows us how our identity is basically created by those who are present in our lives; however we must not measure our abilities against another person (Overview: A Separate Peace 2). We are shown how the impact of one person can make a great difference. The goodness in people is what one should always take away from a relationship. This is shown in the relationship between Gene and Finny. The experiences Finny gives Gene cause him to grow up and become a better person because of them. Sources Bryant, Hallman. A Separate Peace: the War Within. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co, 1990. Knowles, John. A Separate Peace. New York: Macmillan, 1961.

Show More
Related

  • The Boys of Winter by Wayne Coffey

    601 Words  | 2 Pages

    A main part of this story is about picking the Olympic team and how they became as strong as they were. Before beginning the tryouts, coach Herb Brooks scouted every player that was trying out. He watched film on them, talked to old coaches, and in some cases watched them play in a game or practice. It is important that he did this because then he did not come in to the tryouts not knowing any player and it showed that he already had in mind who he wanted for his team. As tryouts approached all the players and coaches were preparing for a week long tryout. Herb Brooks sat by himself in a booth and watched the first day of tryouts and picked his team on the very first day. This stunned all the othe...

    Read More

  • Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    First, I believe that Gene and Finny were not sincerely friends throughout the novel due to their relationship being driven by competitiveness. Along with the competitive atmosphere came jealously, envy and enmity. Gene created a rivalry between him and Finny. Since Finny was

    Read More

  • Leadership In John Knowles A Separate Peace

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    As an example, he once thinks of a creative idea to say that the pink shirt his mother gave him he is wearing as an emblem towards the war. Only a leader, like Finny, would come up with such a creative idea to relate it to the war as an emblem. In addition to, Finny one day does not want to play badminton because he feels it as a sport is absurd, so he invents a sport with a medicine ball that evolves around all his talents named blitzball. Finny, as a leader, creates sports and activities in the matter seconds, so all will have fun. In conclusion, Finny develops a plan for him to train Gene for the Olympics and says “Leave your fantasy life out of this. We’re grooming you for the Olympics, pal, in 1944” (117). Finny is able to create an idea to lead Gene in training for the Olympics to get away and do something not involving the war. He uses his creative abilities to the fullest when acting as a

    Read More

  • Gene's Shadow In John Knowles A Separate Peace

    1246 Words  | 3 Pages

    Additionally, Gene justifies his hatred towards Finny by assuming Finny feels hatred towards him because of his excellence in academics. At this moment, Gene does not attempt to deny his shadow. Rather, he embraces his shadow completely, allowing it take him over and make false accusations against his own best friend. In Gene’s mind, “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies. That explained blitz all, that explained the nightly meetings of the Super Suicide Society, that explains his insistence that I share all his diversions.

    Read More

  • Self-Perception in Shakespeare's King Lear

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    To begin, Lear's two eldest daughters dishonour him on several occasions. The first of three situations involves solely Goneril, the eldest. In Act I scene iii, Goneril gives a direct order to her manservant, Oswald:

    Read More

  • Rivalry In A Separate Peace

    1545 Words  | 4 Pages

    Every person feels rivalry or competition towards others at some point in their lives. This rivalry greatly affects our ability to understand others, and this eventually results in paranoia and hostility. It is a part of human nature, that people coldly drive ahead for their gain alone. Man's inhumanity towards man is a way for people to protect themselves from having pain inflicted on them by others, and achieving their goals and desires without the interference of others. This concept of man's inhumanity to man is developed in A Separate Peace as the primary conflict in the novel centres on the main character, Gene, and his inner-battles with feelings of jealousy, paranoia, and inability to understand his relationship with his best friend Phineas. Competition is further demonstrated by the occurrence of World War II. It is shown that, "There were few relationships among us (the students) at Devon not based on rivalry." (p. 37) It is this rivalry and competition between the boys at Devon that ripped their friendships apart.

    Read More

  • The Fall of Innocence in A Separate Peace

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Lear's Pride Creates his Madness

    1855 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... Lears blessing, and declared his daughter. Lear also realized that Kents speaking out was for Lear’s best and that he too was abused and banished. What stings Lear even more is that he is now completely dependent upon his two shameless daughters, Goneril and Regan. Plus that he must now beg them when he took care of them like a father when they were once children, to drive Lears further into madness he realizes that as king he was so ignorant and blind with power that he never took care of the homeless and let them suffer. All these realization and the fact that Lear is in his second childhood a tender stage drive him into the peak of madness.

    Read More

  • King Lear Analysis

    1030 Words  | 3 Pages

    King Lear’s two oldest daughters, Goneril and Regan were liars and were not trustworthy women. They both would do and say anything just to get an edge. Like for example in Act I of the story King Lear, had owned a huge piece of land that he had decided to divide it between all three of his daughters and all they had to do was just express or tell him how much they loved him. His two oldest daughters were very clever and deceiving, they knew that they could say the right words to get their father to be happy and satisfying. The two daughters had said that they loved him more than anyone could ever love someone or something; they said the love that they had expressed for him was more than they had loved their own husbands. The King being foolish gave his two daughters the land and was so filled with joy by the words that Goneril and Regan had told him. His youngest daughter was asked the same

    Read More

  • Exploring Suicide

    3192 Words  | 7 Pages

    Attempts at suicide, and suicidal thoughts of feelings are usually symptom indicating that a person isn?t coping, often as a result of some event or series of events that they personally find overwhelmingly traumatic or distressing. In many cases, the events in question will pass, their impact can be mitigated, or their overwhelming nature will gradually fade if the person is able to make constructive choices about dealing with the crisis when person is able to make constructive choices about dealing with the crisis when it is at its worst. Suicide is intentional self-inflicted acts that end in death.

    Read More

  • 2001: A Space Odyssey

    233 Words  | 1 Pages

    2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke, is a novel that raises more questions than answers. For this reason, it is a very well known piece of science fiction literature. The novel explores the themes of sentience, intelligence, and humanity’s destiny in the universe as it follows David Bowman and his crew on a mission to Saturn’s moons to investigate the existence of a second monolith after the first, Tycho Magnetic Anomaly 1, is discovered on the moon.

    Read More

  • King Lear Forgiveness Essay

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    The setting of King Lear is one spoiled with materialism, and is portrayed clearly within the first scene. King Lear is demanding his daughters proclaim their affections towards, in order to divvy up the land of his kingdom upon his retirement. Upon this forcefulness, Regan and Goneril are willing to falsely profess their love towards Lear, with clearly negative intentions. Their deceit is established early in the play. Cordelia, Lear’s third daughter, refuses to comply immediately. She will not participate because she understands the vanity, although her feelings towards her father are the most genuine; she believes that there are no words to accurately express her love. Lear’s inflamed insecurities cause him to dismiss Cordelia, refusing her an inheritance. Her initial refusal is minimal as a means to convey the depth of concern she has for her father, as she witnesses her sisters fake their admiration for material wealth and power.

    Read More

  • William Shakespeare's King Lear

    1855 Words  | 4 Pages

    King Lear is one of Shakespeare's more complex plays and within it many different themes are addressed and explored. King Lear is the somewhat unfortunate vehicle that Shakespeare uses to explore many of these themes creating a complex character including the roles of a father, king, friend and adversary.

    Read More

  • Teen Suicide Essay

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    die, but slowly ends up having these suicidal thoughts by negative events happening in their life

    Read More

  • Suicide: The Story Behind It

    879 Words  | 2 Pages

    Suicide has become one of the many means that problematic individuals take into consideration to exempt from an unpleasant or oppressive situation. Suicide can be generally defined as the act of causing one’s death usually out of despair. People who are likely to commit suicide are those who suffer from severe mental illnesses and are involved with alcohol and drugs. Other than that, individuals who are experiencing unemployment and divorce can also be possible victims to commit such act. Based on the study done in the year 1997, an average of fifteen-percent who are clinically depressed ended up committing suicide. Furthermore, suicide was the eighth leading cause of death in the US (“Suicide”). It is prevalent for depressed individuals to consider suicide when major issues in life do not work out well. The big question is, what makes a person thinks that ending his or her life can help oneself to escape from the reality when life has so much more to offer?

    Read More

More about Gene's Coming of Age in A Separate Peace

Open Document