Change For the Better
Life changes in an instant. One day you’re just playing with your friends and the next your whole life is ending. The events that happen in a person’s life changes how they are as a person; it can either make them a better person or destroy them. In the novel The Separate Peace Finny grows as a person as the story progresses on, he faces tough situations that reveal he’s inner self.
In the beginning of the novel, Finny is an outstanding athlete, friendly, and he is able to talk his way out of any tough situation he gets himself into. He is a type of person who will do anything he wants when he wants; he’s carefree. “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything” (Knowles 18). Finny is adventurous, he comes up with things knowing the risk of him getting in trouble is high. “Finny’s life was ruled by inspiration and anarchy, so he prized a set of rules”(Knowles 26). He almost lived by his own rules, he did what he wanted, what made him happy. He is also quite innocent making him naïve. “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies” (Knowles 45). He doesn’t do anything intentionally; he actually thinks so highly of his friends, that they could never do any harm to him. “No I just wanted to see if I could do it. Now I know. But I don’t want to do it in public”(Knowles 35). In the quote stated, his athletic skills really show and so does his innocence. He didn’t need the whole school to know that he beat a swimming record; him knowing was the best satisfaction he could have.
In the midway of the novel, Finny’s life takes a turn and goes downhill from there. Sports are a big part of his life, without it, half of him is basically gone. “Sports are finished for him, after an accident li...
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...ly achieved; when one is able to forgive someone who was set out to ruin their life.
All in all, tough situations that a person goes through either make them or break them. In the novel The Separate Peace innocence vanished from Finny. The situations he went through made him understand life better. That life isn’t always full of happiness; there are bumps in the road. He had a harder time accepting that because his life was amazing in the beginning and he didn’t expect it to take a turn that he nearly lost himself. Along with the things he went through he grew as a person; the lost of his innocence made him see things clearer; that there was bad sides to some situations. Finny saw that when Gene confesses that it was his fault that he fell off the tree, but he is mature about it because he was able to forgive Gene. That’s one thing he never lost though, kindness.
Throughout A Separate Peace, Knowles carefully, yet successfully develops the inevitable loss of innocence theme. He is able to prove the Latin inscription “Here Boys Come to Be Made Men” (165), by describing the necessity of transition to adulthood. If Finny never accepted the tragedy that occurred to him and the new perspective of the world, he wouldn’t have been able to live beyond his illusion. If Leper didn’t let go of his imaginary world of nature, he would not have been able to become the individual he is at the end of the novel. And if Gene did not try to fight his enemy he would not have resolved the issue of self-identity. Knowles effectively develops the theme, thus portraying it as a necessary part of life.
In the novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the narrator, Gene Forrester struggles to earn and preserve a separate peace. The story takes place in a remote boarding school named Devon, in New Hampshire. While Gene and Finny are in school, World War II is taking place. The author clearly explains an important story about the jealousy between Gene and his best friend, Phineas. Gene suspects that Finny is trying to sabotage his grades, and Gene allows his jealousy to control his actions. Therefore, Gene misinterprets their relationship by thinking that they shared enmity towards each other, and this caused Gene to enter a world of jealousy and hatred, which ultimately leads to Finny’s death. By examining this jealousy, John Knowles
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...
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
As an example, he once thinks of a creative idea to say that the pink shirt his mother gave him he is wearing as an emblem towards the war. Only a leader, like Finny, would come up with such a creative idea to relate it to the war as an emblem. In addition to, Finny one day does not want to play badminton because he feels it as a sport is absurd, so he invents a sport with a medicine ball that evolves around all his talents named blitzball. Finny, as a leader, creates sports and activities in the matter seconds, so all will have fun. In conclusion, Finny develops a plan for him to train Gene for the Olympics and says “Leave your fantasy life out of this. We’re grooming you for the Olympics, pal, in 1944” (117). Finny is able to create an idea to lead Gene in training for the Olympics to get away and do something not involving the war. He uses his creative abilities to the fullest when acting as a
There are a few examples in the first part of this novel of how Finny takes advantage of life. The first example is how he enjoys himself so much at the beach. Gene describes how Finny has such a great time at the beach as seen in the opening quote. He says he runs all over the place and jumps into waves, laughing at the seagulls, when most others would be lying on the beach being lazy.
must be his only enemy who needed to be taken down. Gene is also envious of Finny’s humble personality, his ch...
The American Library Association defines a challenge to a book as, “an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based on the objections of a person or group” (“About Banned). A Separate Peace by John Knowles was one of the many challenged books of its time; it was ranked sixty-seventh on the American Literature Association’s list of most challenged classic novels The book continues to be challenged all over the country and in 2013 it is ranked thirty-fifth on the summer of banned books list .(ALA). A Separate Peace chronicles the life of a boy named Gene Forrester, a student of the prestigious Devon School in New Hampshire. In Gene’s first year at Devon. He becomes close friends with his daredevil of a roommate Finny. Secretly Gene somewhat
Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects him on a personal level throughout the novel.
A Separate Peace tells the story of a 16 year-old boy named Gene who is on a journey of self-exploration and growth. By returning to his home roots where dramatic life changing events have shaped who he has become, he reflects on how fearful he was in those days. Taking place during World War II, Gene's adolescent years at Devon boy’s boarding school were spent mainly with his best friend and roommate Phineas (nicknamed Finny). Through his friendship with Finny, he discovers their undeniable personality difference’s that inevitably pushes them over the edge. Although Gene is quiet, intellectual and reserved and Finny is outgoing, athletic and daring, these two opposites tend to compliment each other for the most part.
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 realistic fiction novel, A Seperate Peace by John Knowles, the setting revels characteristicsof Finny. The locations that Finny have grown up around and hangs out at reflect him. In the novel the setting revels that that Finny is educated, athletic, and careless.
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
... 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.