Character Analysis Of Finny In John Knowles 'A Separate Peace'

218 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: What role does adversity play in shaping an individual identity

The changement of Finny The character of Finny undergoes a transformation in a Separate Peace from innocence to adulthood. This is illustarted by his struggles with an injury, his friendship, and his own identity. Finny first started chaning when he fell out of the tree and shattered his leg. “ I heard all of the rumors, it was one of his legs, which had been shattered” (Knowles 61). Finny was a star athlete, now that one of his legs is shattered he cant play sports. This made him very depressed and sad. Finnys friendship with Gene began to change after the accident on the tree. “ I deliberately jounced the limb so you would fall off” (Knowles 70). After Gene told Finny he made him fall, Finny started seeing him as his enemy. Finny was so

Show More
Related

  • Change In Theodore Taylor's The Cay

    908 Words  | 2 Pages

    People’s character changes over time from certain events in their life.In The Cay, by Theodore Taylor, Phillip is the main character, and faces many challenges throughout the novel. Phillip’s character reveals that through trial and tribulation, a once childish person can become caring, brave and independent.

    Read More

  • Finny as Symbolic of Jesus in "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, Gene and Finny have boarding school experiences during World War II. Finny helps Gene mature throughout the story. Finny is an archetypal Jesus because of he preaches his ideas to his peers, his death is similar to Jesus’s, and his charismatic personality.

    Read More

  • A Separate Peace: Character Analysis

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Knowles wrote a fantastic novel entitled A Separate Peace. Some important character in the novel were Gene, Finny, Leper, and Brinker. Gene and Finny were best friends; Leper was the outcast; Brinker was the “hub of the class” This was a novel about friendship, betrayal, war, peace, and jealousy. Although Gene and Finny were similar in many ways, they also had numerous differences.

    Read More

  • Shadows in Fifth Business

    631 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ever since the snowball accident Dunny has been preoccupied by worrying  over Mary Dempster, and now her son Paul.  At the age of sixteen the small town of Deptford becomes too much for Dunny to handle so he decides to drop out of secondary school and  join the Army.  Dunny needed a change in his life, something to get his mind off Mrs. Dempster and the guilt he felt for her.  Leading up to his departure to the War he never really saw much of Mary, mainly because Mr. Dempster told him to stay away, but also because every time him saw her he couldn't hold back feelings of guilt and remorse.  This troubled Dunny, much more then he would ever let on.  On the other hand, Boy was doing as well as ever, possibly due to the fact that he knew that much of the responsibility of Mary and Paul was securely on the shoulders of Dunny.   Dunny knew this as well but it was too late to do much about it except leave.

    Read More

  • Free Essays - Gene and Finny of A Separate Peace

    525 Words  | 2 Pages

    In A Separate Peace, the main characters are foils of one another. The plot is pushed along by the changing dynamics of their friendship. Their relationship begins to drift apart when their personalities clash. The changing dynamics of Gene and Finny's relationship and the revelations in Gene's personality are what move the plot along.

    Read More

  • Gene and Finny in A Separate Piece

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the beginning to the middle of the book Gene lives through Finny. ‘"Come on,' drawled Finny from below, ‘stop standing there showing off.'…‘Jump!'"(Knowles 9). Finny thought of an extremely adventurous idea. He decided that he wanted to jump out of a tree into the river below. Finny also wanted the other boys that were with him to jump out of the tree. After Finny jumped he attempted to persuade Gene to follow his lead and jump out of the tree. Gene, a very conservative individual, did not even dream of ever jumping out of the tree but Finny got his way. Gene climbed the tree and jumped into the river because Finny manipulated him to. ‘"Studying! You know, books. Work. Examinations'" (Knowles 49). Finny has come to tell Gene that one of the boys named Leper has finally decided to jump out of the tree into the river. Gene finally explodes and starts screaming at Finny. Gene tells Finny that he needs to study for the French final and that he cannot be wasting his time with a silly game. At this moment in time, Finny finally realized that Gene actually has to study in order to get good grades. Finny always thought that school for Gene came just as easily as sports did for him. When Finny realizes this he tells Gene that he has to study. ‘"Don't move from that desk. It's straight A's for you'"(Knowles 50). All of a sudden Gene became perplexed. He could not understand that Finny was actually telling him to stay home and study.

    Read More

  • A Separate Peace by John Knowles

    1440 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...inny out of the tree. Paralyzed, he challenged a younger boy to “reconstruct the crime,” but the boy said simply that Gene must have pushed Finny off the branch. Gene ridiculed the boy’s conclusion, directing attention away from him but eliciting the boy’s hatred. He then declared that he must go study his French, leaving without having smoked.

    Read More

  • A Seperate Peace

    677 Words  | 2 Pages

    Internal and external conflicts play a large part in A Separate Peace. Finny and Gene both have insecurities that led to the demise of both characters in the end, one survives scarred for life and the other dies. Had they not had the internal and external conflicts, neither would have been harmed, however, the conflicts added an element of mystery to the novel, leading on the reader as the two unpuzzle their conflicts.

    Read More

  • Alcoholism in The Swimmer, by John Cheever

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through symbolism the author shows us how Neddy goes from social drinking to destitution. Each stop at a neighbor’s pool gets progressively harder, but he keeps on. Neddy ignores these signs and becomes beaten and finally alone. This truly is a sad journey of a man who destroys himself through alcohol. As the story ends, Neddy realizes that he is alone. Will he change? Get help for his alcoholism? The author leaves us hanging, but at this point we know he is alone, everyone has abandoned him. Neddy has followed the stereotypical footsteps of an alcoholic.

    Read More

  • Gene And Finny In John Knowles A Separate Peace

    1317 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: A Separate Peace By John Knowles

    1187 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel, A Separate Peace, the characters Finny and Gene are pretty much complete opposites, yet they are great friends. In general, Finny has the upper hand, because of his ability to socialize and work well with other people. Gene even says, “He possessed an extra vigor, a heightened confidence in himself, a serene capacity for affection which saved him. 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 I had.” (John Knowles, page 194-195) Gene clearly states that Finny is “unlike other young man, and that nothing could cause a disturbance in

    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

  • Separate Peace Theme

    800 Words  | 2 Pages

    A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, features just as many themes as it does characters. These themes range from how warfare affects daily life to envy and jealousy. However, friendship is the theme that occurs the most throughout the book. Whether while Gene helps Finny get through the ordeal of his broken leg or when Gene broke said leg, friendship remains consistent. In contrast, Gene and Finny’s friendship has not remained consistent, often fluctuating immensely as the plot progresses. Friendship is arguably one of the most important themes in A Separate Peace and is present in Gene and Finny’s friendship through their trust, competition, and support for each other.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: Summer At Devon

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Gene's Coming of Age in A Separate Peace

    751 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... 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.

    Read More

More about Character Analysis Of Finny In John Knowles 'A Separate Peace'

Open Document