The legend of the Fountain of Youth says that anyone who should drink from or bathe in the waters of the fountain will have their youth restored. The legend has endured for thousands of years; one of the first accounts of its existence is in the writings of a Greek historian named Herodotus from 5 BCE. People have always lusted after youth and innocence, and often they lust in vain. In contrast, author Joe Hill claimed in one of his novels, “Innocence ain’t all it’s cracked up to be, you know. Innocent little kids rip the wings off flies, because they don’t know any better. That’s innocence.” In the case of Phineas, one of the main characters in John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, Hill is correct. The innocence and youthfulness which Phineas …show more content…
Phineas, still possessing the same traits and frame of mind he had at the beginning of the novel, never expects this of Gene and never even knew of the deadly rivalry Gene thought was between them. In spite of this, Gene’s hatred comes to a violent head. Gene describes the point at which he boils over, “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” (Knowles 52). This was the moment in which Gene lost his innocence and entered a world of turmoil. Gene’s jealousy finally inspired him to push Finny out of a tree, and Finny never saw it coming; he was unable to foresee any sort of betrayal. Moreover, when Finny fell out of the tree, he fell into the clean, waters of the Devon River, which proves that Finny has not been tainted by jealousy or hatred. His innocence allowed him to be betrayed, but in the words of Joseph Joubert, “Innocence is always unsuspicious.” Finny was unsuspicious that his best friend would hurt him which is exactly what caused him to get
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
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
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
The novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles describes the life highschool life of Gene Forrester through the flashbacks he experienced 15 years after his graduation. Throughout the novel Knowles takes us on a journey that revolves around Gene and his friend Finny as they go through their years in a private high school. While reading the novel one can see that Gene takes his hero journey during his highschool time as he makes the choices that will dictate not only his hero journey but his entire life.
A Separate Peace is a coming-of-age novel about two boys at boarding school and their friendship during World War II. There are three significant scenes of violence that occur in the novel; however, the core of the plot is based upon one. The first and most poignant is the incident where Gene, the narrator, jiggles the tree branch while he and Phineas, his best friend, are preparing to jump, causing Phineas to fall and break his leg. The next scene of violence is when Quackenbush calls Gene a lame and Gene pushes him into the water. Lastly, Gene pushes Leper out of his chair while visiting him after he is accused of causing Phineas’ injury. All of these occurrences contribute to the overall meaning of the work.
Throughout the novel, A Separate Peace, the author John Knowles conveys many messages of symbolism. The symbolism can be found in an array of ways, ranging from internal war, to the theme of human aggression, and a variety of religious principles. The main characters, Gene and Phineas, and their story could be paralleled to the biblical story of Adam and Eve. The similarities can be seen in the way in which in both of the stories, everyone is living in perfect harmony and peace until something comes along to disrupt it. Also in how the main characters do something out of jealousy, greed, and selfishness; and in addition, how Finny's fall out of a tree relates to the “Fall of Mankind.”
In the story Gene and Phineas return to the branch again, but this time Gene makes Phineas lose his balance and fall. It is shown that Gene does this out of jealousy and hate. Gene declares “I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone [...] hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud” (Knowles 60). Gene does this profound action because he is jealous of Phineas and also infuriated by the fact Phineas is not jealous of Gene in the slightest bit. Gene thinks, “He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he” (Knowles 59). This is part of how Gene’s first fearful place was created. Gene realizes the dark and envious side of
After Phineas, also known as Finny, falls from the tree, he slowy begins to change. He begins to lose his innocence, It can be seen in the beginning of the novel that Finny acts very innocent. For example, Finny's game of Blitzball shows his spontaneous style of play, and his innocent child like personality. However after Finny's tragic fall from the tree, he begins to seem less innocent and childish. He begins to reveal secrets to Gene, such as when he tells Gene about trying to enlist in the war. “I've been writing to the Army and the Navy and the Marines and the Canadians and everybody else all winter..”(Knowles 190). War is not an event for innocent little boys. When readers find out that Finny had been trying to enlist in the war all winter it shows that after the fall Finny becomes less and less innocent. He no longer begins to play his childish games, and no longer tries to preform his crazy stunts. Though he is hurt, he does not seem to want to watch or help participate in any of these activies. On the day Finny fell from that tree, he did not just plument down into the river beneath him, but also fell from innocence.
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.
Summer was already ending and Gene gives one last description by saying, “From behind us the last long rays of light played across the campus, accenting every slight undulation of the land, emphasizing the separateness of each bush” (59). The simpleness of summer is about to abruptly end. Yet, summer and childhood must come to an end as some point. For Gene, it all ends when Phineas falls as described on page 60, “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.” All playfulness is lost when Finny’s body connects with the dirt beneath him; what follows is the cold onslaught of the winter session or adulthood. Gene, in order to make this transition must cope with the intense, disatisfying feelings of guilt for he was the one who set his friend off balance. Finny, the core of carefree behavior and summer, was put out, emphasizing the end of the session. As the winter session starts up the teachers were unhappy that Phineas was
John Knowles writes a compelling realistic fiction about the lives of two teenage boys throughout the start of World War II in his novel A Separate Peace. Peter Yates the director of the movie plays the story out in a well organized theatrical manner. There are similarities and differences in these two works of art. However; there are also similarities.
Gene begins to realize Finny is not above him, and rather thinks to himself, “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. . . .
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.
Analysis: This quote is based on the theme of envy. It is clear that Gene feels that Phineas can get away with anything. The reader can tell that Gene hate him because of this.
a best friend like Finny is an accolade and he should see it as an achievement. However, this transparent excuse of Gene's maturity at this point, portrays a very young, foolish, and selfish young man. "It was hypnotism. I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn't help envying that a little, which was perfectly normal."(Knowles p. 25) Here we see Gene as a simply confused young man who doesn't know the real value of friendship, and can't refuse a feeling of envy towards his so called "best friend.