A Separate Peace Essay

In the novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles the question is presented â€Å"what is a true friend?† The author challenges the question by manifesting two main characters, Finny and Gene, to have a type of rivalry relationship. Finny is a self-confident, outgoing, and athletic person. Awhile on the other hand Gene is quiet, competitive, and intelligent person. Gene gains jealous thoughts which in the end lead their friendship too gradually to fall apart. The author creates a challenge that frustrates both Finny and Gene to test both side of their relationship. As an example the author shows Finny’s fall in the climax of the book is due to Gene being jealous of him which then leads to Finny’s tragic injury.†I was not of the same quality as he. I couldn’t stand this†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Knowles 52). Gene was surrounded with depression and major guilt. I feel that, with friendship there is always going to be envious feelings towards the other party no matt er what, but not to a point of possibly injuring them or hurting them really bad. Another incident is when Gene wears Finny’s clothes while he is recovering from his injury. This brings out the thought that Gene missed Finny and he had a feeling of loneness, but however he is also replacing him in his athletics.†Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play for me† (Knowles 76). Due the past altercations, Gene will play for Finny, not only because he was the second best player but Finny was injured. So I guess you can say he qualifies for his replacement. This shows that in a friendship or relationship, when two friends have had an argument in the past that has lead to loneliness, an empty feeling, and non communication, but in the end this is the factors that makes a friendship stronger when they finally talk again for the first time in a long period of time and they both feel the love and welcoming type of feeling. The last incident that occurs shows the true feelings of friendship illustrated by the author is, this is when Finny falls down the stairs and  he breaks his leg for the second time. But sadly in the end e eventually dies in surgery when the doctor begins his procedure on Finny’s leg to try to fix it. The doctor then explains that the marrow of the bone escaped and went throughout his bloodstream leading to his heart killing him. Gene didn’t cry for one reason, when he was at Finny’s funeral, he felt as if this was his own.†I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case†(Knowles 184). Gene is mad at himself for endangering Finny’s life by bouncing and unbalancing the tree branch as Finny leaped out towards the water and in the end unintentionally ending his Finney’s life. John Knowles wrote the sad story of when friends obtain the feelings of envy or jealousy, on their journey to discover the true meaning of what they thought was a true friend. Their jealous cravings lead them to their tragedy and this is the major factor that brought their friendship to a end. The question â€Å"What is a true friend?† can only be answered in your opinion for there is no true definition of true friends because everyone is different and therefore think differently and has a different opinion on the subject. A Separate Peace Essay The book, A Separate Peace was written by John Knowles. It was first published in 1959. It tells the story Gene Forrester, a former student at a prep school in New Hampshire, who returns to the school after he graduates. While he is there, He remembers the summer of 1942. When he walks up to a tree by the river, he remembers his friend and roommate Phineas. Phineas was the best athlete in the entire school. From then on the story moves back to 1942 at the school named Devon. Phineas’ athleticism inspires Gene to become one of the smartest kids in the school. He starts to do well in school until he failed a test because of a trip to the beach with Phineas. When this happens, he blames Phineas for him failing. He begins to get angry with Phineas and tries to stay focused until one day when Phineas persuades Gene to go and jump from a tree into the river. Gene thinks this is just another attempt to pull him from his studies so when he and Phineas are standing on the tree limb, Gene Jounces the limb to cause Phineas to lose his balance and fall to the river bank. Phineas shatters his leg and this accident cost him his athletic career. Gene felt guilty about the incident and tries to confess to Phineas. Phineas refused to believe what happened and continued to think that it was just an accident. Once Phineas returns to the school, he convinced Gene to train for the 1944 Olympics. Gene tried to explain that this would be impossible with World War II going on so Phineas persuaded him to believe that the war is fake. Gene accepted his explanation and began to train for the Olympics. Then one day, Brinker Hadley brings the boys and some of their friends together for a mock trial to accuse Gene for being responsible for the accident. When another boy shares his view of the story saying that he saw Gene Jounce the limb, Phineas leaves the room in anger. While walking down the stairs, he fell and broke his leg again. While talking to Phineas in the hospital, Gene insists that he didn’t mean to hurt him. Phineas accepts his apology and they remain friends. The next day in surgery, marrow from Phineas’ leg leaked into his blood stream making its way to his heart and killing him. Gene looked back after the war and realized that his real enemy was his own jealousy of Phineas. A Separate Peace Essay In chapter four the doppelganger is starting to form. Gene is starting to believe that there is a deadly rivalry between Finny and him. Gene is striving to win the valedictorian which means he has to study hard. Gene thinks that when he wins valedictorian that Finny and him will finally be even. Gene asks Finny if he minds that Gene is trying to win valedictorian, Finny replies, â€Å"I’d kill myself out of jealous envy† (52). Gene believes this. Gene has a lot of bitterness towards Finny since Finny is a star athlete and can talk his way out of any trouble he gets in to. To help deal with the bitterness Gene starts to tell himself that Finny is also jealous of Gene’s academic abilities. This bitterness towards Finny helps Gene advance in classes to bother Finny. Gene starts to think that Finny purposely tries to ruin his study times. Gene is starting to realize that Finny was never trying to compete with Gene with him. Gene then goes into deeper bitterness than he was in before, Gene believes that Finny is superior. This foreshadows when Gene shakes the tree limb. When Finny falls off the tree, this is the climax of the story since Gene and Finny are doppelgangers and only one of them can exist, and the one that is trying to hurt the other Gene. Finny was never trying to hurt Gene in any way but it was all in Gene’s mind. The doppelganger is a conflict that goes on through out the whole book, Gene is always trying to get rid of Finny and compete with him meanwhile, Finny never means to harm anyone. When Finny dies, Gene shed no tears because Finny and him were one, and he couldn’t cry at his own funeral. A Separate Peace Essay It is important to confront reality, no matter how harsh it is. People will always face difficult situations, but avoiding them is often more dangerous than the situation itself. In his novel, A Separate Peace, Knowles explores what can happen when a person or even an institution tries to avoid painful circumstances. In the story, Gene, the protagonist, and his friends are students at the Devon boarding school; and the troubling issues they face are wars, the external, World War II, and the intimate conflicts that often arise between close friends. Knowles uses the motif of the transformation of Devon, Finny, and Gene to show the importance of confronting head-on the wars within and around them. Devon boarding school shields Gene and his classmates from the hardships of World War II. Gene’s class, the â€Å"Upper Middlers,† are too young for the draft. This causes the teachers at Devon to see them as the last evidence of â€Å"the life the war was being fought to preserve† (29). The teachers are afraid to expose the boys to the terror of war and so they hide it from them. While throughout the country, others participate in the war effort, Gene and his classmates remain apart and spend their time â€Å"calmly reading Virgil† (24). Because of this separation, the war becomes â€Å"completely unreal† (24) to the Upper Middlers. The entire world appears to be churning in the upheaval of the war, but Devon tries to remain the same, shielding the boys from its hardships. Unfortunately, when the effects of the war inevitably come to Devon, its attempts at avoidance result in a negative transformation with bitter and unintended consequences. In its efforts to deny the war’s existence, Devon changes from idyllic and relaxed in the Summer Session to rigid and uncompromising in the Winter Session. In the summer at Devon, the boys play games on the â€Å"healthy green turf brushed with dew† to the calming sounds of â€Å"cricket noises and the bird cries of dusk† (24). Such imagery makes Devon seem like a peaceful oasis for the Upper Middlers. However, this relaxed atmosphere of the Summer Session ends with Finny’s fall from the tree at Devon River. Jumping from the tree was an activity originally designed to prepare soldiers for war and Finny’s injury from it represents the boys’ first experience with the pain that war brings. To Devon, Finny’s fall proves that the relaxed atmosphere of the Summer Session could not protect the boys from the reality of war. As a result, Devon rejects the carefree environment of the Summer Session and changes into a strict school where â€Å"continuity is stressed† (73) in the Winter Session. This transformation proves negative as evidenced by Knowles stark change in his description of the Winter Session. For example, while in the Summer Session the boys freely roamed the â€Å"healthy green turf† of Devon’s fields, they crowd into the dark â€Å"Butt Room† a smoking room that Gene compares to a â€Å"dirty dungeon†¦ in the bowels of the dormitory† (88). Where once the boys played in beautiful fields, they are now confined in close, dark rooms. Gene further classifies the transformation as negative by immediately remarking that â€Å"peace [has] deserted Devon† (72) when he returns for the Winter Session. In attempting to avoid the effects of the war, Devon sacrifices its status as a haven for the boys. When the reality that the world is at war inevitably strikes Devon, its transformation makes it less able to deal with the effects of the war. Gene compares the inexorable arrival of the war to the snow that blankets the school grounds. He calls the snowflakes â€Å"invaders† that cover the â€Å"carefully pruned shrubbery bordering the crosswalks† and likens them to the â€Å"invasion of the war on the school† (93). In making this comparison, Gene seems to show that just as Devon’s â€Å"carefully pruned shrubbery† cannot escape the snowfall, its structured atmosphere cannot escape the war. In fact, it is that structured atmosphere that makes the war seem all the more attractive to the very boys Devon tried so desperately to protect. Representing this is the Upper Middlers’ decision to clear snow from train tracks designed to transport troops. This is their first serious contribution to the war effort and requires that they travel away from Devon, symbolizing their desire to leave their school and participate in the war effort. As they work, the boys see a train car of soldiers whom they view as â€Å"elite† in comparison to their â€Å"drab ranks† (101). Directly after seeing the troops, all they boys can discuss is the â€Å"futility of Devon and how [they] would never have war stories to tell [their] grandchildren† (102). The boys see Devon’s strict unchanging atmosphere as inadequate amidst the upheaval of the war. As a result, the Upper Middlers slowly reject Devon, resigning from clubs, leaving the school to enlist in the war, and losing their academic vigor. They resent Devon for keeping them from the war and remain forever distant from it. Gene exhibits this distance when he describes Devon after graduating. Gene calls Devon a â€Å"hard and shiny† (11) museum; he feels no connection to it. He finally concludes that â€Å"The more things stay the same, the more they change after all† (14). In trying to remain untouched by the war, Devon changed to a school that pushed its students to the very war it tried to avoid. Like Devon, Finny does not accept the hardships or existence of war in his life. Throughout the story, Finny embraces the glorified aspects of war, but refuses to accept its atrocities. For example, Finny wears his pink shirt to celebrate the Americans bombing of Central Europe. However, when he realizes that the bombing killed women and children, he tells Gene that he doesn’t think the bombing took place. He does not want to believe that innocent people are often casualties of war. Eventually, Finny decides that the war cannot exist because it causes too much suffering. Similarly, Finny calls Gene his â€Å"best pal† (48) and openly displays his affection for him. However, when Gene confesses to deliberately jouncing him from the limb out of jealousy, Finny refuses to listen. He cannot accept that a friend could become an enemy. Eventually, Finny’s denial of the conflicts in his life lead to a negative transformation. In trying to retain his rejection of the war, Finny changes from a confident, athletic leader into an embittered invalid. In the summer, Finny excels, becoming a natural leader of the boys and easily winning over teachers. Finny is also physically impressive as evidenced by Gene’s description of him playing in the Devon River. Gene says that Finny is in â€Å"exaltation,† with glowing skin and muscles â€Å"aligned in perfection† (34). In this description, Finny seems like an ideal, almost God like figure, completely in control and confident. Finny’s injury at the end of Summer Session, however, signals a dark transformation. Gene shakes the limb Finny is standing on while about to jump off the tree at Devon River and Finny falls and breaks his leg. Because Gene deliberately jounced Finny out of a tree used to prepare the seniors for war, Finny’s fall and subsequent injury symbolizes a forced confrontation with the potential pain of World War II and the war between Gene and himself. Rather than working through the hardship and pain, Finny rejects his former status as an athlete and leader and lets his injury define him as an isolated invalid. Instead of using his athletic abilities to overcome his injury, Finny seems to remain permanently maimed. Although his leg heals and his cast becomes so small that an â€Å"ordinary person could have managed it with hardly a limp noticeable† (157), Finny’s gait is permanantely changed. His inability to heal completely from his injury symbolizes his inability to confront and move on from the conflicts that caused it. Similarly, Finny loses his place as a leader among the Upper Middlers. When Finny returns to Devon for the Winter Session, he finds that the war dominates the Upper Middlers’ conversations. Finny does not believe the war exists and so he isolates himself and stops spending as much time with his peers. Where once he was a natural leader, he becomes an outcast to preserve his disbelief in the war. Finny’s negative transformation makes him more vulnerable to the wars in his life. At the end of the Winter Session, Brinker conducts a mock trial and convicts Gene of his role in Finny’s injury. Finny is again forced to face the reality of Gene’s jealousy. Furthermore, during the trial, Finny speaks to Leper for the first time after his return from the army. Leper’s insanity, induced by the war, forces Finny to confront its painful implications. Because of Finny’s transformation, he is even more susceptible to these implications. Symbolizing this are the events following the mock trial. After Brinker convicts Gene, Finny falls while trying to run away. He re-breaks his leg, reopening the wound of the summer and revisiting the pain of the wars in his life. Where before the injury only crippled Finny, this time, Finny eventually dies from it. Just as his invalid state made him more vulnerable to re-injuring his leg, Finny’s transformation in response to the war made him more vulnerable to it. Unlike Devon and Finny, Gene faces the reality of the war around him and his inner struggle with Finny. While Gene enjoys the peaceful atmosphere of Devon in the Summer Session, he recognizes its inadequacies. Gene explains, â€Å"Perhaps I alone knew†¦ Devon had slipped through their [the professors’] fingers during the warm over looked months† (73). Gene realizes that the Summer Session, and the realities it avoided, would be the undoing of Devon. Furthermore, while the other Upper Middlers deny the existence of the war, Gene understands it at a deep level. Gene explicitly says, â€Å"The war was and is reality for me† (32). He embraces the war instead of masking it. Similarly, Gene recognizes the inner war with Finny. Gene knows that he deliberately jounced the limb of the tree so that Finny would fall. He repeatedly tries to confess this to Finny, openly and inwardly confronting his jealousy. Finally, when Leper goes to war and is discharged for mental instability, Gene is the only student who visits him in his home and sees him in his worst state. Gene is able to witness the shock and horror of the war. Because of his ability to face the wars around and within him, Gene undergoes a positive transformation. Gene confronts the conflicts in his life and uses them to mature from a fearful, insecure boy to a balanced and strong man. Initially, Gene identifies the presence of fear in his life. As an adult reflecting on his childhood, Gene can see â€Å"with great clarity the fear [he] had lived in† (10). Gene is also initially in-athletic. While Finny garners many athletic awards, Gene does not often participate in sports and focuses on his studies. This makes Gene feel inferior to Finny and so he often succumbs to Finny’s desires, often at the expense of his own academic success. Gene feels inadequate and insecure in the Summer Session, but the Winter Session signals a change within him. Before returning to Devon for the Winter Session, Gene visits Finny and confesses his guilt. After confronting his jealousy and confessing to Finny, Gene returns to Devon and becomes increasingly independent and secure. Symbolizing this is Gene’s experience in the Naguamsett River. On his first day back to Devon, Gene falls into the â€Å"ugly, saline,† (79) waters of the Nagaumasett. Incidentally, Gene calls this encounter with the filthy waters a â€Å"baptism.. on the first day of this winter session† (79). This use of the word baptism, a term associated with initiation or rebirth, seems to convey that Gene is beginning a new life. Just as he emerges renewed from the gritty disgusting waters of the Nagaumasett, he emerges renewed from his painful, uncomfortable confrontation of his inner war with Finny. Directly following Gene’s â€Å"baptism,† Finny returns to Devon as an invalid and he and Gene’s roles reverse. Now, It is Finny who needs Gene, both physically and emotionally, to help him deal with his injury and his functioning at Devon. Gene’s sudden athletic prowess represents this role reversal. Since Finny cannot participate in sports, he trains Gene. As he excels in his training, Gene notices that Finny seems â€Å"older†¦. nd smaller too† (121). He then realizes that he is actually bigger and Finny is only smaller by comparison. Gene has used the conflict in his life to leave behind his insecurities and become a strong, independent man. Gene’s transformation proves positive as it enables him to grow from the conflicts in his life. The results of the mock trial do no break Gene like the do Finny. He has already confronted his jealousy and guilt, and is secure enough to withstand the pain. Likewise, when Gene finally graduates from Devon and enlists in the army, he endures the war without losing his sanity like Leper. Gene is able to do this because he â€Å"already fought [his] war† (204) at Devon. He learned to confront harsh realities, and therefore can overcome them. As an adult, Gene is able to return to Devon content and secure, having made his â€Å"escape from† (10) the fear that plagued his childhood. His ability to confront his wars enable him to mature through them. Devon, Finny, and Gene all transform throughout the story. However, Devon and Finny changed to avoid the war, but Gene changed to grow from it. These transformations and stark difference in their outcomes powerfully convey the importance of unflinchingly confronting wars without and within. A Separate Peace Essay One of the main focuses in the novel A Separate Peace is the friendship of Gene Forrester and Phineas. One would assume that two completely opposite people wouldn’t have such a strong relationship. They both have different views of the world. Where one would find strength the other finds weakness. With having two opposing personalities as the main characters, it’s easy for the reader to identify with one more than the other. It also gives the reader a chance to admire, as well as pity, both Gene and Phineas. One of the most important differences between Gene and Finny is their views of the world. Gene has a more cynical world view. On the other hand, Finny’s view of the world is very pure and naive. Finny truly believes that everyone is good in the world. Another thing that sets Gene apart from Finny is their strengths and weaknesses. Gene is one of the top students of his class, while Finny just gets by with below average grades. But what Finny lacks in academic achievements, he makes up for in athletics. Read more:  Write about a person you admire essay Finny also has the natural ability to lead others and has a non conforming attitude, whereas Gene is follower and has a more conforming attitude. As well as many other novels, A Separate Peace includes easily relatable characters. While reading the novel, I discovered that there are certain qualities of both Gene and Finny that I can identify with. After careful consideration, I realized that I most identify with Gene rather than Finny. He and I both are drawn to people with larger than life personalities. I can also relate to his insecure feelings that come with having friendships with those types of personalities. His strength in academics is another trait of his that I can identify with. Even though I identify more with Gene, I also pity him. I pity that his jealousy pushed him to do something so harmful to his supposed best friend. I also pity that fact that he doesn’t have enough self confidence to tell Finny the truth. That being said, the person I admire would be Finny. He has this natural ability for being a leader, and it’s said several times that he can get away with anything. I also admire that instead of him moping about his leg, he twisted his own reality just to be happy. In conclusion, the main relationship in A Separate Peace involves two people with opposing personalities. They both view the world differently. Gene has more of a pessimistic view of the world, while Phineas’s view of the world is very innocent. Where Phineas finds strength, Gene finds weakness. While I indentify more with the character Gene, I also pity him for the outcome of his poor decisions. Instead, I admire Phineas. I admire his self confidence and attitude towards life. A Separate Peace Essay In the book, A Separate Peace, the author, John Knowles, writes to us a novel about war, but happens to focus more on the war within the human heart. This novel tells a story of two boys’ co-dependency during World War Two, and explores the difficulties with understanding the self during adolescence. Identity is complicated enough as the narrator, Gene Forrester, enters adulthood in a time of war, but a difficult friendship with a fellow student and rival leads to a further confusion of identity. Early in the book, the boys’ relationship is charged by Gene’s jealousy and hate of Phineas’ leadership. However, after Phineas falls from the tree, Gene ejects his darker feelings from himself and turns their relationship in a new direction where co-dependency, instead of envy, drives it. The central relationship between Gene and Finny, involves a troublesome search to authorize identity outside of co-dependency. Gene Forrester is a boy with many conflicts that he must face throughout his high school year. The most significant of these troubles is, without a doubt, Gene’s struggle with his own identity. At first Gene is displeased with his personality, or lack thereof. He envies his best friend, Phineas’ (Finny’s), wit, charm, and leadership. Throughout the book, Gene repeatedly finds himself acting like his friend, a transformation occurring that Gene is unaware of. There are a number of significant transformations within this story. Phineas is transformed from an active athlete into a cripple after his accident and then sets out to transform Gene in his place. This change is the beginning process by which Gene’s identity begins to blur into Finny’s, a transformation symbolized by Gene’s putting on Finny’s clothes one evening soon after the accident. â€Å"I washed the traces off me and then put on a pair of chocolate brown slacks, a pair in which Phineas had been particularly critical of when he wasn’t wearing them, and a blue flannel shirt† (78). This is the first time in the book that we notice just how much Gene is codependent on Phineas, even when he is gone. From this point on, Gene and Phineas come to depend on each other for psychological support. Gene playing sports because Phineas cannot, â€Å"Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  this allows Finny to train Gene to be the athlete that Finny himself cannot be. This training seems to be a path for Phineas simply to live vicariously through Gene. But Gene actively welcomes his attempt, for just as Finny acquires inner strength through Gene, Gene also finds happiness in losing the person he dislikes, himself, into the person he truly likes, Phineas. †¦and I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become part of Phineas. † (77) In this way, the boys’ relationship becomes a perfect illustration of co-dependency, with each feeling off of and becoming fulfilled by, the other. This newfound co-dependency begins the evolution of the boys’ individual identities. Finny knows himself throughout the book, and is comfortable in his own skin, at least at first. After his fall, he becomes more withdrawn and tends to hide his true feelings. He seems to lose himself as the book progresses. The innocence and general good nature that defined him early on is lost in later chapters, as he continually deludes himself as to Gene’s true intentions. Gene, on the other hand, hides his true identity from Phineas and the others through most of the novel. Yet Gene truly reveals himself at several key points such as pushing Finny from the tree. The boys are living in their own secret illusions that World War Two is a mere conspiracy created by old men and continuing to believe that Gene, Finny through him, will go to the Olympics and that the world can’t change their dreams. The boys are refusing to develop their own goals and responsibilities without each other. Not even Finny’s death, though it separates them physically, can truly disentangle Gene’s identity from Phineas’. Gene feels as though Finny’s funeral is his own. In a way, the funeral is indeed Gene’s own. So much of Gene is intermixed with Phineas that it is difficult to imagine one boy existing without the other. The entire novel becomes Gene’s recollection of building his own identity, culminating in his return to Devon years later, where he is finally able to come to terms with what he’s done. During the time I was with him, Phineas created an atmosphere in which I continued now to live, a way of sizing up the world with erratic and entirely personal reservations, letting it’s rocklike facts sift through and be accepted only a little at a time, only as much as he could assimilate without a sense of chaos and loss† (194). It is perhaps only his understanding that Phineas alone has no enemy that allows the older Gene to reestablish a separate identity. One that is inferior to Phineas’. A Separate Peace Essay One of the most asked questions for A Separate Peace is: who exactly is the protagonist and antagonist? Most would agree that Gene is the protagonist, however is it Gene or Phineas that is the enemy? I believe that the real ‘bad guy’ in this book is Gene. He envied Phineas from the very beginning but didn’t admit it until a little later on. Whether it was getting away from trouble, having a natural athletic ability, or simply being modest and humble about things, Phineas seemed to have been better at almost everything. In this novel, many events occur between Gene and Finny that foreshadow the inner conflict Gene faces. For example, Gene and Finny are rebellious and often end up in trouble with the teachers. However, because of Finny’s smooth words, he is able to get the both of them away from punishment almost every single time. After getting out of trouble multiple times, Gene admits that he couldn’t help but envy Finny â€Å"just a little bit.† Small events like those happened often, and the reader can sense a feeling of jealousy growing inside of Gene. As Finny continued to be absolutely great at everything, Gene began to envy him more. Due to Gene’s inner conflict, their friendship dramatically changes. Gene plays the main character also known as the protagonist. He’s the narrator and brings the readers back fifteen years before as he tells his story of his life at Devon School. His actions and discoveries are what create the plot. For example, because Gene becomes a bitter and jealous person, he ends up creating a theory that Phineas is his rivalry (discovery). The darkness inside himself subconsciously forces him to jounce the limb, making Phineas fall (plot). Although Gene is the protagonist, I believe he is also the antagonist. In the book, Gene and Phineas have a good friendship; there were no arguments and they got along just fine. Gene, however, begins to envy Finny with things as simple as smooth words and athletic ability. As time progressed, the darkness inside of Gene grew and eventually it was full on competition. An antagonist is someone who opposes the main character, and oddly enough Gene opposes himself. He creates this fake assumption that Phineas is trying to be the better person. Unfortunately he got his theory mixed up with reality causing his friendship with Finny to fall down hill. â€Å"I found a single sustaining thought; you and Phineas were even. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone.† When it all comes down, Phineas is both the protagonist and antagonist. He is the main character yet he is his own enemy. His inner conflicts and insecure thoughts caused him to ruin his best friend along with their friendship. This book can teach the readers a great lesson about friendship and consequences when you start losing yourself to jealousy and envy; it certainly taught me something! A Separate Peace Essay In John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace, it begins with the protagonist, Gene Forrester coming back to his alma mater the Devon School in New Hampshire. Wandering through the campus, Gene makes his way to a tall tree by the river; the reason for his return. From here he takes the reader back to the year 1942 during World War II when he was in high school. During the summer session of 1942, he becomes close friends with his daredevil roommate Finny. Finny is able to convince Gene into making a dangerous jump out of a tree into a river, and the two start a secret society based on this ritual. Gene slowly begins to envy Finny’s athletic capabilities and his innocence, and thinks that Finny envies him in return. Gene finally realizes that there was never any rivalry between them when, one day, Finny expresses a genuine desire to see Gene succeed. While still in shock, he goes with Finny to the tree for their jumping ritual. When Finny reaches the edge of the branch, Gene’s knees bend, shaking the branch and causing Finny to fall to the bank and shatter his leg. He goes to see Finny and begins to admit what happened, but the doctor interrupts him, and Finny is sent home before Gene gets another chance to confess. On his way back to school from vacation, he stops by Finny’s house and tries to tell him the truth about what happened. Finny refuses to listen to him, and Gene rescinds his confession and continues on to school. World War II is in full swing and the boys at Devon are all eager to enlist in the military. Brinker Hadley, a prominent class politician, tells Gene that they enlist together, and Gene agrees. But later that night, he finds Finny has returned to school. Both Gene and Brinker decide not to enlist. Brinker organizes a meeting with their classmates and has Gene and Finny come without notice. The boys question the two about the fall. Finny does not say much because he cannot remember clearly, and Gene claims that he doesn’t remember the details of it. The boys now bring in Leper, who was sighted earlier in the day skulking about the bushes, and Leper begins to implicate Gene. Finny declares that he does not care about the facts and rushes out of the room. Hurrying on the stairs, he falls and breaks his leg again. Gene sneaks over to the school’s infirmary that night to see Finny, who angrily sends him away. The next morning, he goes to see Finny again, takes full blame for the tragedy and apologizes. Finny accepts these statements and the two are reconciled. Later, during an operation on Finny’s leg, something goes wrong, killing him. Gene receives the news with  relative calmness; he feels that he has become a part of Finny and will always be with him. At the end of the novel Gene reflects on the constant enmity that plagues the human heart—a curse from which he believes that only Finny was immune. I believe that John Knowles titled his novel A Separate Peace because Gene gains a separate peace with himself. Even though he hurt Finny and had lots of conflict with him and troubling finding himself, at the end he is able to feel at peace. It was a different peace than he was expecting. The novel focused on the inner wars we wage with ourselves. Even in the midst of a world war, Gene battles his inner demons and defeats his worst enemy inside himself and thus creates a different, a separate peace for himself. The four main characters in A Separate Peace are the protagonist, Gene Forrester, the antagonist, Brinker Hadley, and two of their classmates Finny and Elwin â€Å"Leper† Lepellier. If I were to describe Gene in five words, I would say that he is insecure, envious, loyal, competitive, and honest. I would describe Brinker as authoritative, demanding, intelligent, responsible, and mature. Finny is outgoing, free-spirited, mischievous, vulnerable, and charismatic. And Leper is gentle, contemplative, quiet, bright, and bold. My first impression of the protagonist, Gene was that he very much a follower and not a leader. Right from the start he â€Å"let Finny talk [him] into stupid things† (17) and felt that â€Å"he was getting some kind of hold over [him]† (17). But he still jumped from the tree anyway. Another time I was able to see this was when Finny suggested that they go to the beach and Gene had thought of all the risks such as â€Å"expulsion, destroyed . . . studying [he] was going to do for an important test the next morning, blasted the reasonable amount of order [he] wanted to maintain in [his] life, and . . . the kind of long, labored bicycle ride [he] hated† (46). But his response was still â€Å"’ [a]all right’† (46). These actions of continuing to follow what others do, specifically Phineas is on Phineas’ first day back after his fall. Finny tells Gene for the first time that he was working towards the 1944 Olympics, but with his broken leg, he can no longer achieve that goal, which gives him the idea to train Gene for them instead. â€Å"And not believing him, not forgetting that troops were being shuttled toward battlefields all over the world, [he] went along, as [he] always did† (117). Gene does not only show this willingness to go along with just Finny, but Brinker as well. My first impression of  the antagonist, Brinker Hadley was that he is very authoritative and that he is definitely a leader. The first time I was able to see this was after their long day of service to the war effort when a group of boys including Brinker and Gene were in the butt room, and Brinker had told everyone that â€Å"[he was] giving it up† (100) and that he would enlist the next day. I saw it as him taking advantage of his leadership position among the boys and to lead the way into serving in the war. A more obvious way of seeing his leadership is the way that he is described as â€Å"the hub of the class† (87). Hub is a synonym for the center of something, or the heart and core. If someone is described as the hub of the class, then it means that they are the person that keeps the class together. The final way I was able to see Brinker’s leadership was towards t he end of the book. Even though he had transformed to a more rebellious way, there was still a sign of his authority when he had arranged the trial in the Assembly Hall. His wanting to know the truth that was hidden from him drove him to hold the meeting in order to find it. Gene is definitely a dynamic and round character unlike Brinker who is a static and flat character. Gene changes very significantly in the story. He struggled a lot with finding himself and his identity, so much that he believes that he is a part of Phineas. Oddly enough, this sort of makes sense. One way to think about it is the guilt – Gene was so disgusted with himself for having caused Finny’s accident that he can’t bear to be himself, so he becomes someone else: Phineas. Another explanation is that because the struggle to define him is so difficult, he’s simply borrowed someone else’s identity instead of creating one for himself. But once Finny is gone, Gene has to rely on himself to make decisions and make up his own rules. At the end of the novel as Gene is reflecting fifteen years later, he says that â€Å"[his war ended before [he] ever put on a uniform . . . [because he] killed [his] enemy there† (204). I believe that the enemy he defeated was the part of Phineas that was in him, and by doing that he was able to gain peace. Brinker really does not transform much throughout th e story. His main change is when he steps down from his position in the Golden Fleece Debating Society and his behavior at the winter festival, but his strong and authoritative personality remains. â€Å"It wasn’t the cider which made me surpass myself, it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this  afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace.† (136,137) This passage stood out to me because in the midst of a raging war, these schoolboys were able to find their own peace with each other by having fun and seeing that the little things in life like a winter carnival could create such an escape for them. It was their idea of freedom that gave them such peace within themselves, and it was as if the war was not even going on. There were many themes in this novel, but the one that stood out the most to me was the difference between creating your own identity and dependence on someone else to â€Å"borrow† theirs. When Phineas told Gene that he would be participating in sports in his place, Gene had a realization that what he had been longing for was to be a part of Finny. This is very different than the end of the novel where Gene is looking back to that time and realizing that the part of Phineas that was in him had died when Phineas died. And because of that death, he had to rely on himself in order to craft his own identity and to finally gain peace. I think that one of the biggest decisions Gene had to make was to tell Finny the truth on his way back to school after the summer session. Even though Finny did not listen to him, the courage that it took Gene to do that was immense. I think that it was wise because it showed that he cared enough about Finny to tell him the truth. I also think that it helped him get rid of some of the guilt by just having Finny know what actually happened, whether he believed it or not. If I were in Gene’s position I probably would do the same thing just because I know from previous experience that if you lie, it can really hurt you in the end, and it is a pain to have it harboring over you all the time. Iâ€⠄¢ve learned two life lessons from this novel. One is to enjoy life, and not be so worried about what is going to happen next. I should not be completely apathetic to the future, but to live to the fullest and have fun. Another more serious lesson is the importance of forgiveness and love. If someone has wronged me, I should not keep a grudge against them or make them feel terrible about it, but instead I should do what Christ calls us to do which is to love one another as yourself, and to forgive. A Separate Peace has really reminded me how important these lessons, especially the latter are as I continue to mature. There really was not anything that I disliked about this book except for one quote. Gene is telling the reader one of Finny’s most important rules, and one of them was â€Å"[a]lways say your prayers  at night because it might turn out that there is a God† (35). I did not like this quote just because of what I believe in and what I know as truth. I believe that there is a God and that I should always pray no matter what. But other than this one quote, there was nothing I really disliked about it.