A Separate Peace2
Breaking The Mold
In John Knowle’s, A Separate Peace, there is a transformation in all the key elements in the book, from the rivers to the tree to the seasons to the characters. The transformation is specifically seen in Leper, Gene, and Phineas. These three young men experience a change not just because of the transitions through adolescence. These changes also come about because of the war, the school, and an injury.
Leper Lepellier is a very odd young man. He is quiet and is finds himself always taken by surprise. He really is not popular and that does not concern him in any way. Leper really has no true friends at the Devon school, but talks to Gene. He entertains himself by collecting snails, looking for beaver damns, and skiing. His personality does not allow him to depend on anyone for help. As time progresses and the other boys start the winter session he decides to enroll in the war. A couple of months later Gene receives a telegram from Leper saying he is in his “Christmas location” This is the first sign that Leper demonstrates that he needs people. He realizes the happiness, fear and anger have to be shared with others. Leper then tells Gene “I escaped”
and he says he did it to please himself. He is starting to realize things that are going on in the world. He no longer lives in his bubble.
Gene Forrester is a quiet, envious, introverted, and lonely young man. His insecurities are especially seen when Finny is around. There is a constant rivalry through Gene’s eyes between them. He always chooses to compete or argue with Phineas. The first example of his competitive personality is seen when Phineas asks him to jump out of the tree. Phineas says, “you were very good, once I shamed you into it. .. I am good for you that way. You have a tendency to back away from things otherwise.” and Gene states “you didn’t shame anybody into anything. I never backed away from anything in my life.” Gene would have never jumped off the tree if it were not for Finny. Gene depends on Finny as his security blanket. As time progresses the rivalry increases and
the tension in Gene’s head is gets worse. When Gene can not take anymore of Finny and his
abilities his jealousy takes control and he jounces the limb.
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.
He becomes aware of Finny’s endurance, as “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 [Gene] had” (203). Following Finny’s death, Gene states how absolutely nothing could break Finny, not even a war. But the evilness of his shadow and unconscious self could, and cause Finny’s death. One’s shadow can be toxic when displayed to the outside world, especially when it is not in check by the individual. Gene has accepted his dark side when he admits he had been the cause of his friend’s death. In the very end of the novel, Gene finally takes responsibility for all of his shadow’s actions against his best friend, as he thinks to himself, “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (204). Gene’s transformation from the beginning of the novel to the end is clearly seen in this quotation, as he no longer denies his shadow’s existence and now claims responsibility of the darkness inside himself. He illustrates himself as being on active duty at all times at school, staying on guard for any of Finny’s tricks that may potentially cause him to fall behind in his studies. His war with Finny, whom he once
It brings up several valid points and presents new ways of thinking that the reader may not recognize until digging deeper into A Separate Piece. Chapter 7: After the Fall gives the reader a more knowledgeable perspective on the novel and its characters, especially Gene and Finny and the relationship that the two have. Without viewing this literary analysis, a student wishing to write a paper on A Separate Peace would have great difficulty suggesting and supporting ideas involving Gene and Finny’s
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.
“…It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.”
was so much a part of the other. To Finny, Gene has always been an
Separate Peace What really happened in the tree? Gene and Finny were very good friends; however, whatever happened in the tree the day the Finny "fell" out, is the actual cause of Gene “…My knees bent and I jounced the limb…” page 52. In fact, Finny did not fall out of the tree, but Gene had actually pushed him out. Gene had very good reasons to push him out “Finny had put him up to it, to finish me fro good on the exam.” Page 49. He pushed him out of jealousy for two things. For athleticism, and for his popularity, and also for his ability to talk his way out of anything.. First, Finny was a very athletic person; however, Gene is just a normal average day person. Gene couldn't stand attempting to compete with Finny because he knew that he would always lose.
... Leper to compare him to a savage beast. Although Finny admits to Gene that he considers him his best friend, Gene still shows envy. Knowles uses the tree as a symbol to express the jealousy and loss of innocence in Phineas’s and Gene’s friendship. In the beginning, Knowles uses the tree to symbolize the darkness of jealousy; Gene and Finny climb the tree, and Gene jounces the limb, which causes Phineas to fall. As Gene’s jealousy increases, the tree becomes a symbol of the loss of his innocence and lies multiple times; Finny loses innocence when he becomes aware of Gene’s sin. Although this novel takes place in the 1940s, jealousy and envy still exists today. Friends envy other friends for what they have: happiness, possessions, and other friendships. Although jealousy seems bad, a friendship without envy becomes a friendship without love and compassion.
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...
Chapter Ten’s journey to Leper’s Christmas location is a trip away from Devon both physically and emotionally. Leper steals the scene by inviting Gene to his home, proceeding to unsettle the reader to the extent that he cannot concentrate on the other characters. Quiet and subdued, Leper spent much of his time outdoors, sketching snails and trees, photographing beaver dams. He was what Brinker so scornfully called a naturalist. This gentle hobby extracted virtually no interest from the reader, besides a knowledge of Leper’s eccentric and lonely personality. Because he predictably behaved this way, reading the few tortured pages of his hallucinations in the army elicits strong emotion and reader interest; Finny and the Devon group of friends were insignificant compared to the horrific images Leper conjured in the reader’s mind. Gene felt the same emotions as the reader: “Don’t tell me who’s got me and who hasn’t got me. Who do you think you’re talking to? Stick to your snails, Lepellier.” Shocked at what his friend has become, Gene mentions his naturalistic manner, hoping to straighten him out. At this point, the reader is as helpless as Gene, wondering why Leper has changed, what the hallucinations mean, and most importantly, what will happen to between them in the pages to come. Leper also directs the reader back to Finny’s accident, pointing a guilty finger at Gene when he says he and everyone he knew were all “savages underneath.” When Gene finally runs out of Vermont and away from Leper’s insanity, the reader now has another view on Finny’s accident.
"A Separate Peace." Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Vol. 3. New York: Marshall Cavendish Corp., 1993.
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.
In the novel it says, “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” (Knowles 59). At this moment Gene realized that Finny was never really jealous of him, and was only trying to be a good friend. Also, when Gene returns to his school he mentions escaping from something. He says, “Looking back now across fifteen years, I could see with great clarity the fear I had lived in, which must mean that in the interval I had succeeded in a very important undertaking: I must have made my escape from it” (Knowles 2). The “it” he is referring to is his jealousy and envy of Finny. At this moment he knew that he had fully and successfully achieved his separate peace.
Gene is the narrator and protagonist of A Separate Peace. He suffers from all PDF the regular teenager ailments; self consciousness, jealousy, an identity crisis, and uncertainty. It is obvious from the start that Gene holds a great deal of admiration for Finny. Finny is a hero, an athlete, and a God in Genes eyes. Gene admires Finny, but naturally, Finny is also the competition. Finny gains what Gene lacks. Finny has the talents for sports, better conversation and actions and could easily be described as the perfect "Devon student". Gene May get better grades, but he goes unnoticed while Finny is able to corral the boys into any activity and talk even Gene himself into breaking the rules. Gene admits to jouncing the limb of the tree on that one summer day of 1942, and he even admits his crime to Finny. It is unknowing whether this crime was subconscious, a blind impulse or consciously malevolent. The source of our facts is Gene himself which makes it even more of a rocky situation. It could be that Gene over stricken with guilt jounced the branch, or that he has imagined these antagonist thoughts which were never really t...
In the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the reader can perceive multiple themes throughout the novel, depending on how much detail they can get out of the story, when reading between the lines. When I read the novel A Separate Peace, I perceived a single, and in my opinion, a very significant theme of the book.