Comparing Heart of Darkness and A Separate Peace

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Heart of Darkness and A Separate Peace

There are many similarities between the books The Heart of Darkness and A Separate Peace. Most are between the two main characters' friends and how they deal with their situations and problems. The similarities between the two characters are their leadership skills, their expertise, and how their friends affect them.

Mr. Kurtz and Finny both have incredible leadership skills. Finny is able to persuade Gene to do practically anything he wants him to do which in the end is his downfall since he convinces Gene to climb the tree with him and do a double jump. He also shows his leadership skills when he gathers a lot of the students and teaches them a new game that is fitted perfectly to his physical abilities. Mr. Kurtz showed these skills when he had the courage to go into the cillages of cannibals and convince them to give him their ivory or to tell them where they knew there was some. He also saved Marlow and his crew's lives when he commanded the natives to stop firing at their steamboat. "Kurtz got the tribe to follow him, did he?" I suggested. He fidgeted a little. "They adored him," he said." At the drop of his finger, he could have had the natives attack Marlow and his crew and kill them.

While Mr. Kurtz and Finny are both alive, they are extremely good at what they do. Before his accident, Finney is the most athletic student at his school. After the accident, he tries to help Fene to become more athletic. His dream is for Finny to make the Olympics instead of him. Mr. Kurtz worked for a company that found ivory and then sold it to the public. "The he began again, assuring me Mr. Kurtz was the best agent he had, an exceptional man." Mr. Kurtz also brought back the most ivory then any other employee; "Sends in as much ivory as all the others put together."

Both Mr. Kurtz and Finny had friends that had something to do with their deaths. In Finny's case, his friend Gene accidently jarred him off the tree branch that caused him to break his leg. When Finny got a brace on his leg, he tripped and broke it again, but when the doctor tried to mend it, bone marrow escaped and instantly killed him when it reached his heart.

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