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Recommended: Drama analysis
Gene’s Enemies
Adam and Eve had a perfect Garden of Eden, until Eve ate the apple and contaminated the garden. In being tricked by the snake, Eve betrayed God’s word. Mankind has often betrayed others because of the darkness in their heart. In A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses Phineas as a sacrificial lamb to portray Gene’s savage side and demonstrate that peace can never be achieved at a worldwide level until man accepts the darkness in his own heart.
Gene believes that Finny and he hate each other, until he realizes Finny’s pureness, which Gene can not stand. At first, Gene believes that Finny wants to exceed him, and that the two are rivals. Everyone at Devon likes Finny. The teachers adore him, the students look up to him, the athletes aspire to be like him. Finny has no enemies. Gene, however, sees through Finny’s “cover” and thinks they hate each other. He hates Finny for beating A. Hopkins swimming record, and for making him jump from the tree, and for being better than Gene. When Finny takes Gene to the beach, Finny tells Gene that they are “best pals.” Gene does not respond to Finny’s sincere gesture because he thinks Finny wants to sabotage him. Gene realizes that he and Finny are “even after all, even in enmity. The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all” (46). Gene has no proof of Finny’s hatred, but Gene needs to find a way to be even with Finny. Once he decides they are even, he must now surpass Finny, so he jounces the limb. Gene’s hatred takes over, only now he realizes that the hatred only comes from one side. Finny is pure. He never hates Gene; he loves Gene like he loves everyone else. Ge...
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... past, it would go away. Instead the “stale air” rushes out at him when he reopens the door and causes him to deal with his feelings all at once, drenching him. Gene has gone through another rite of passage, on top of his graduation, baptism, jumping from the tree, and Finny’s funeral. By letting out the “stale air” and understanding his inner self, Gene reaches his “separate peace.” As a result, Gene becomes a sadder, but wiser, man.
Gene’s experiences throughout the novel, along with Phineas’ death, contribute to his survival and progression as a person. Gene realizes the only enemy he ever had was himself, and becomes pure and Phineas-filled after he confronts and conquers himself. Knowles compares a New England prep school to the Garden of Eden to show man’s flawed nature and that man always ruins what he can not understand.
Throughout the novel Gene loses his innocence and matures under the influence of Finny. Gene gradually lets go of his childish jealousy over Finny, who he believes is superior to him and feels hatred towards. He however comes to realize what Finny’s friendship holds for him and recognizes his need to be a part of Finny. Gene first gains confidence in himself and starts maturing when he refuses to lie about his rich heritage...
Before Gene and Finny went to perform a double jump off the tree, Gene again starts contemplating ways that Finny is jealous of him. Gene states, “The thought was, You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record, but so what? He hated you for getting an A in every course but one last term. You would have had an A in that one except for him. Except for him” (Knowles 53) . Gene knew that he had an immense amount of jealousy towards Finny, so instead of trying to remove it, he comes up with a plethora of ideas to try and justify it. Gene thinks of these ideas right before he jounces the tree limb. Gene narrates, “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb(Knowles, 60). Gene’s differing feelings are expressed in a small gesture which demolishes Finny’s life. Seeing Finny fail briefly relieved Gene’s anger and jealousy. Gene says, “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 of this forgotten” (Knowles, 60). This is the first time that Gene jumps off the tree with complete confidence. The failure of his lethal rival allows Gene to behave as Finny, and ultimately become
The first time his inner enemy is shown in the novel, is when Gene believes that Finny is out to make him fail; “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies” (53). Phineas persuades Gene to go surfing at the beach, play blitzball, and attend the summer session meetings to loosen him up and have fun, not to make him fail. Gene cannot realize that Finny is doing this for Gene’s benefit, because his inner enemy distorts friendship from evil and fear. Gene’s inner enemy causes a key turning point in this novel, Finny’s fall. Gene’s enemy takes over his mind and jounces the branch to hurt the “enemy,” Phineas. Though Finny is the one physically falling, Gene is metaphorically falling into a hole filled with all his sins, because his inner enemy, too, pushed him. This causes Gene to feel like a worthless ant for the rest of the novel. Many of the students at Devon have an inner enemy that makes them feel like an ant. Quackenbush is mean to anyone he thinks is inferior to him. Brinker resents his enemies. On the other hand, Leper faces his enemy, but then gives up. These students believe that their real enemy is literally the Germans, but truly it is themselves putting up walls and making them feel like miniscule ants. All except Phineas. Phineas is the only one towhich the quote doesn’t apply because he never, “constructed at infinite cost to
Gene was only a mediocre athlete and is always jealous of Finny. They form a Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session which includes jumping from a tree into a river as its initiation. Eventually, Finny falls from the tree fracturing his leg. This leads to Finny’s death and Gene struggle to find himself. The relationship between these two boys proves my thesis statement; a friend and an enemy can be one in the same.
In the story, Finny created a counterpart between his athleticism and Gene’s academic abilities. Since sports came easy to Finny, he assumed that Gene was naturally intelligent and smart. Finny eventually figured out that this was not true and that his assumptions were incorrect; “‘Oh for God sake! You don’t know what I’m talking about. No, of course not. Not you…’ ‘I didn’t know you needed to study,’ he said simply, ‘I didn’t think you ever did. I thought it just came to you.’ It seemed that he had made some kind of parallel between my studies and his sports. He probably thought anything you were good at came without effort” (Knowles 57-58). Finny was unable to comprehend that some skills do not come naturally to people. Devoted friendships are a result of having an appreciation for each other. Finny and Gene did not have this nor did they truly know each other very well. A lack of understanding between the two of them provoked various disputes throughout the novel. If Gene and Finny were truly friends, misunderstandings would not have occurred since they would have acknowledged their
Gene believes that people are deliberately out to get him and concentrates only on grasping the evil within his friends. Therefore, Gene decides to defeat his enemies before he gets defeated himself. During the summer session at Devon, Gene encounters a dark suspicion that his friend Finny is drawing him away from his studies in order to make him fail. This makes sense to Gene since he religiously follows the rules to win approval from the staff at Devon, and anyone who persuades him to disobey these rules wishes failure upon him. Therefore, Finny
Adam was the first man that God created and was created to be the image of God himself. God planted the beautiful Garden of Eden in which there was no sin and the trees were filled with delicious fruits, everything a person would need to eat. In the middle of the garden was the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” One day, a serpent came into the garden and convinced Eve to eat an apple from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. The fruit did not make Adam and Eve any better than they already were. Instead, the jealousy, the desire to eat what was forbidden—and then the physical eating of the fruit that was forbidden—allowed sin to enter humanity. God punished Adam and Eve, and all their descendants, by making their lives hard. Likewise, in the novel, peace and innocence left the Devon school and Gene and Finny's friendship, and after the winter session, discipline and hard work began. Eve eating the apple can be paralleled to Gene jostling the limb of the tree while Phineas was standing on the edge of it for in that second, both of their lives ch...
Hitler's Invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 I think that Hitler had always planned to attack Russia, even as he agreed to the signing of a non aggression pact with Russia, his plans to invade were beginning to come together as the pact split up Poland, enabling Germany to have a border with Russia. The pact was signed by Ribentrop from Germany and Molotov from Russia This was vital as German tactics relied on fast, effective and surprise attacks known as blitzkrieg; with Poland standing between Germany and Russia, in the time that it would take the German army to advance Poland and reached Russia, the Russian army would be aware and ready for battle; the element of surprise would be gone and Germany would be at a disadvantage. Also using blitzkrieg tactics would enable them to destroy the Russian air force while it was on the ground Hitler had stated in his book 'Mein Kampf' that he very much-disliked communism, he thought of the Russian people as inferior, this however would be one of the contributing reasons for the downfall of Germany, Hitler would underestimate the Russian people thinking they were inferior. He also stated that he would give the German people 'Lebensraum' (living space) and that living space would be in the east, this almost definitely meant Russia.
Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects him on a personal level throughout the novel.
The past often contains many things that we desire, be it something as simple as a peaceful life to something strong such as a relationship with someone who has been lost. We all attempt to return to these feelings or times in many ways, from simple memories or tastes to ways as ridiculous and outlandish as Gatsby’s parties. Whether this feelings are ever truly experienced again or not varies from attempt to attempt, in the case of “The Great Gatsby” it was for only a brief moment before it was ripped from Gatsby with Tom’s
his swampy home and make his life a living hell. In an attempt to win
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 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.
Gene is a well-educated, athletic individual. He takes his school work seriously and keeps to himself, meaning he doesn’t favor standing out or being in the spotlight. He is a follower, especially when it comes to his best friend, Phineas. Throughout the book, he often compares himself to Phineas and talks about how perfect Finny is.
In order to condemn Gatsby, Fitzgerald guides the reader to discern the idea that the characters of the story are unable to find happiness from reinvention and money because the only way to find true happiness is to look to their past. By including the failure of money and reinvention in the life of Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald is able to effectively paint a clear picture that happiness does indeed come from the past. Although the past no longer exists, it is capable of providing lessons to further peoples present and future lives.