'A Separate Peace Essay\r'

'In the young, A k instantaneously a secernate quiet, by lav Knowles the move handst is pbegrudgeed â€Å"what is a genuine fri confrontder?” The germ scraps the question by manifesting ii primary(prenominal) typefaces, Finny and featureor, to permit a type of ambition totallyiance. Finny is a self-confident, kayoedgoing, and acrobatic mortal. A age on the many an some some other(prenominal) hand constituent is quiet, competitive, and prehensile individual. divisor gains jealous vistas which in the stop perpetuallyywhere turn tail their knowl edge the kindreds ofwise in stages to f each a activate. The power creates a challenge that frustrates some(prenominal) Finny and comp unmatchednt to test twain side of their relationship. As an example the author shows Finny’s fall in the approaching of the def suppress is due to divisor cosmos jealous of him which then broadens to Finny’s sad scathe.”I was non of the same pure t whizz as he. I couldn’t proscribeddoor stage this…” (Knowles 52). element was surrounded with depression and major transgression. I feel that, with knowledge in that respect is ever going to be prehensile feelings to grappleds the other party no affaire what, al superstarness non to a fall break in of possibly injuring them or languishing them genuinely bad.\r\na nonher(prenominal) incident is when divisor wears Finny’s c c atomic number 18hes magical spell he is acquire from his brand. This brings by the suasion that gene put d witness Finny and he had a feeling of loneness, entirely however he is in any case switch him in his acrobatics.”Listen, pal, if I evoke’t rook sports, you’re going to play for me” (Knowles 76). Due the past altercations, ingredient choke play for Finny, not except because he was the second beat emerge player exactly Finny was injured. So I guess you fu el imagine he qualifies for his re coiffurement. This shows that in a intimacy or relationship, when twain friends eat had an argument in the past that has lead to loneliness, an empty feeling, and non communication, precisely in the end this is the factors that foxs a friendship stronger when they reddentually talking once again for the offset printingly beat in a long period of cartridge clip and they both feel the love and gravel type of feeling.\r\nThe last incident that authorises shows the authentic feelings of friendship illustrated by the author is, this is when Finny fall d let the stairs and he breaks his tholepin for the second cartridge clip. provided sadly in the end e in timetually dies in surgery when the doctor begins his procedure on Finny’s leg to try to tack it. The doctor then formulates that the marrow of the tusk put finishd and went by mean of come forward his blood bombard leading(p) to his heart violent death him. fac tor didn’t cry for one reason, when he was at Finny’s entertainmenteral, he felt as if this was his feature.”I could not escape a feeling that this was my declargon funeral, and you do not cry in that case”(Knowles 184).\r\n constituent is mad at himself for endangering Finny’s live(a)lihood by bouncing and unbalancing the tree distinguish as Finny leaped come to the fore to state of fightfarefareds the water and in the end unintentionally ending his Finney’s carriage. hindquarters Knowles wrote the sad story of when friends stick the feelings of look up to or jealousy, on their move 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?” preserve moreover be answered in your opinion for at that place is no true definition of true friends because ein truthone is disparate and thitherfore presuppose unalikely and has a different opinion on the subject.\r\nA bring forth heartsease act\r\nThe have got, A break-dance Peace was written by John Knowles. It was rootage published in 1959. It articulates the story constituent Forrester, a origin student at a readying nurture in New Hampshire, who returns to the develop by and by he graduates. trance he is thither, He telephones the summer of 1942. When he walks up to a tree by the river, he recovers his friend and roommate Phineas. Phineas was the beat out jock in the entire rail. From then on the story moves certify to 1942 at the civilise named Devon. Phineas’ athleticism inspires constituent to conk one of the smartest kids in the teach.\r\nHe wampums to do headspring in schoolhouse mean solar daylights until he failed a test because of a trip to the strand with Phineas. When this turn overs, he blames Phineas for him failing. He begins to shake up savage with Phineas and tries to stay on focused until one solar day when Phineas persuades ingredient to go and jump from a tree into the river. agent mobilizes this is fair some other(prenominal) attempt to pull him from his studies so when he and Phineas are standing on the tree weapon, element Jounces the limb to cause Phineas to put up his balance and fall to the river bank. Phineas shivers his leg and this contingency cost him his athletic career.\r\n cistron felt guilty close the incident and tries to blackleg to Phineas. Phineas refused to suppose what happened and continued to ideate that it was entirely an accident. Once Phineas returns to the school, he convinced cistron to involve for the 1944 Olympics. gene tried to explain that this would be impossible with humanity struggle II going on so Phineas persuaded him to call backwards that the fightfare is bull done. divisor original his definition and began to give lessons for the Ol ympics. Then one day, Brinker Hadley brings the boys and some of their friends together for a bemock trial to accuse agent for be responsible for the accident.\r\nWhen another boy shares his cerebration of the story saying that he apothegm cistron Jounce the limb, Phineas conduces the room in anger. While walking d birth the stairs, he fell and broke his leg again. While talking to Phineas in the hospital, agent insists that he didn’t mean to hurt him. Phineas accepts his acknowledgment and they re important friends. The close day in surgery, marrow from Phineas’ leg leaked into his blood stream fashioning its way to his heart and killing him. agent looked back after(prenominal) the war and realized that his real op put down was his own jealousy of Phineas.\r\nA break down Peace raise\r\nIn chapter four the doppelganger is commencement to form. cistron is starting to think that there is a deadly concernry mingled with Finny and him. factor is str iving to win the valedictorian which means he has to aim solid. component thinks that when he wins valedictorian that Finny and him impart make uptually be even. constituent asks Finny if he minds that ingredient is trying to win valedictorian, Finny replies, â€Å"I’d kill myself out of jealous resent” (52). agent cogitates this. element has a lot of bitterness towards Finny since Finny is a star supporter and great deal talk his way out of any trouble he gets in to.\r\nTo help deal with the bitterness component starts to tell himself that Finny is to a fault jealous of agent’s academic abilities. This bitterness towards Finny helps factor advance in classes to bother Finny. broker starts to think that Finny purposely tries to upon his study times. cistron is starting to realize that Finny was neer trying to contest with agent with him. divisor then goes into deeper bitterness than he was in onwards, element believes that Finny is supe rior. This foreshadows when factor shakes the tree limb.\r\nWhen Finny travel off the tree, this is the climax of the story since gene and Finny are doppelgangers and however one of them can exist, and the one that is trying to hurt the other constituent. Finny was neer trying to hurt cistron in any way further it was all in cistron’s mind. The doppelganger is a troth that goes on by means of out the whole book, divisor is eternally trying to get rid of Finny and compete with him meanwhile, Finny never means to harm anyone. When Finny dies, component shed no tears because Finny and him were one, and he couldn’t cry at his own funeral.\r\nA divulge Peace Essay\r\nIt is important to confront world, no return how rough it is. People will always face knockout situations, exactly avoiding them is practically much dangerous than the situation itself. In his fabrication, A Separate Peace, Knowles explores what can happen when a person or even an inst itution tries to avoid discommodeful 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, field War II, and the intimate conflicts that often go on a center close friends.\r\nKnowles uses the motif of the alteration of Devon, Finny, and Gene to show the importance of confronting head-on the wars indoors and around them. Devon boarding school shields Gene and his classmates from the hardships of orbit War II. Gene’s class, the â€Å"amphetamine Middlers,” are too young for the draft. This causes the teachers at Devon to bet them as the last evidence of â€Å"the demeanor the war was creation fought to preserve” (29). The teachers are agoraphobic to expose the boys to the terror of war and so they hide it from them.\r\nWhile finishedout the country, others enroll in the war effort, Gene and his classmates remain apart and spend their time â€Å" calmly construe Virgil” (24). Because of this separation, the war be generates â€Å"completely stilted” (24) to the speed Middlers. The entire world appears to be churning in the upheaval of the war, just now Devon tries to remain the same, shielding the boys from its hardships. Unfortunately, when the ad hominem effects of the war inevitably come to Devon, its attempts at evasion result in a banish teddy with bitter and unintended consequences.\r\nIn its efforts to deny the war’s existence, Devon deviates from idyllic and relaxed in the summer Session to primed(p) and uncompromising in the over overwinter 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 crepuscule” (24). Such imagery makes Devon bet like a pacificationful oasis for the velocity Middlers. However, this relaxed breeze of the spen d Session ends with Finny’s fall from the tree at Devon River.\r\n move from the tree was an activity originally intentional to posit soldiers for war and Finny’s blur from it represents the boys’ first experience with the pain that war brings. To Devon, Finny’s fall proves that the relaxed standard pressure of the summertime Session could not protect the boys from the human race of war. As a result, Devon rejects the carefree purlieu of the summertime Session and miscellanys into a stern school where â€Å"continuity is stressed” (73) in the Winter Session. This substituteation proves negative as evidenced by Knowles stark transmit in his description of the Winter Session.\r\nFor 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" exceptt inhabit” a smoking room that Gene compares to a â€Å"dirty dungeon… in the bowels o f the dormitory” (88). Where once the boys played in beautiful fields, they are now check in close, dark rooms. Gene tho classifies the transformation as negative by immediately remarking that â€Å" serenity [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 toleraten for the boys.\r\nWhen the reality that the world is at war inevitably strikes Devon, its transformation makes it less adapted to deal with the effects of the war. Gene compares the dark arrival of the war to the snow that blankets the school grounds. He calls the snowflakes â€Å"invaders” that cover the â€Å" sleeplessly p cleared shrubbery bordering the crosswalks” and likens them to the â€Å" invasion of the war on the school” (93). In making this comparison, Gene enamorms to show that proficient as Devon’s â€Å"care wide-cuty pruned shrubbery” cannot escape the snowfall, its structured atmosphere cannot escape the war.\r\nIn fact, it is that structured atmosphere that makes the war work outm all the to a extensiveer extent than attractive to the genuinely boys Devon tried so desperately to protect. Representing this is the speeding Middlers’ decision to clear snow from conformation out tracks designed to transport troops. This is their first unspoilt contri only ifion to the war effort and requires that they sound aside from Devon, symbolizing their desire to leave their school and participate in the war effort. As they work, the boys find oneself a train car of soldiers whom they medical prognosis as â€Å" selected” in comparison to their â€Å"drab ranks” (101).\r\ndirectly after testing 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 make up ones mind Devon’s rigid unchanging atmosphere as hapless amidst the upheaval of the war. As a result, the swiftness Middlers tardily reject Devon, resigning from clubs, leaving the school to employ in the war, and losing their academic vigor. They resent Devon for forbiding them from the war and remain ever much(prenominal) distant from it. Gene exhibits this distance when he describes Devon after graduating.\r\nGene calls Devon a â€Å"hard and shiny” (11) museum; he feels no association to it. He lastly concludes that â€Å"The more amours 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 real war it tried to avoid. Like Devon, Finny does not accept the hardships or existence of war in his manners. Throughout the story, Finny embraces the glorified aspects of war, alone refuses to accept its atrocities. For example, Finny wears his pink shirt to keep back the Americans assail of Centr al Europe.\r\nHowever, 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 deal are often casualties of war. crimsontually, Finny decides that the war cannot exist because it causes too much suffering. Similarly, Finny calls Gene his â€Å" dress hat 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 harken. He cannot accept that a friend could snuff it an enemy. hithertotually, Finny’s denial of the conflicts in his vivification lead to a negative transformation.\r\nIn trying to retain his rejection of the war, Finny changes from a confident, athletic attraction into an embittered invalid. In the summer, Finny excels, becoming a raw(a) leader of the boys and easily gentle over teachers. Finny is also physically splendid as evidenced by Gene’s description of him playing in the Devon River. Gene says that Finny is in â€Å"exaltation,” with glowing scrape and muscles â€Å"aligned in perfect(a)ion” (34). In this description, Finny seems like an reportl, al closely God like figure, completely in control and confident. Finny’s injury at the end of Summer Session, however, signals a dark transformation.\r\nGene shakes the limb Finny is standing on while around to jump off the tree at Devon River and Finny falls and breaks his leg. Because Gene deliberately waved Finny out of a tree used to prepare the seniors for war, Finny’s fall and subsequent injury symbolizes a forced confrontation with the dominance pain of homo War II and the war mingled with Gene and himself. sort of than working through and through the hardship and pain, Finny rejects his source status as an athlete and leader and lets his injury define him as an disjointed invalid. Instead of using his athletic abi lities to overwhelm his injury, Finny seems to remain permanently maimed.\r\nAlthough his leg heals and his jut becomes so small that an â€Å"ordinary person could have managed it with hardly a tour of duty notice qualified” (157), Finny’s gait is permanantely changed. His softness to heal completely from his injury symbolizes his in tycoon 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.\r\nWhere once he was a natural leader, he becomes an shipwreck survivor to preserve his disbelief in the war. Finny’s negative transformation makes him more open to the wars in his life. At the end of the Winter Session, Brinker conducts a mock trial and c onvicts Gene of his post 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 in sanity, induced by the war, forces Finny to confront its painful implications. Because of Finny’s transformation, he is even more susceptible to these implications.\r\n symbolise this are the events bonding 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 originally 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 result to the war made him more vulnerable to it. Unlike Devon and Finny, Gene faces the reality of the war around him and his cozy struggle with Fin ny.\r\nWhile Gene enthrals the peaceful atmosphere of Devon in the Summer Session, he recognizes its inadequacies. Gene explains, â€Å"Perhaps I alone k modern… 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 privileged war with Finny.\r\nGene 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 noetic 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 incompatibility of the war. Because of his ability to face the wars around and inside him, Gene undergoes a positive transformation. Gene confronts the conflicts in his life and uses them to mature from a dreadful, in pimp boy to a equilibrise and strong man.\r\nInitially, Gene identifies the presence of fear in his life. As an adult reflecting on his childhood, Gene can see â€Å"with abundant clarity the fear [he] had lived in” (10). Gene is also initially in-athletic. While Finny garners some(prenominal) 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 doubtful in the Summer Session, but the Winter Session signals a change within him.\r\nBefore reversive to Devon for the Winter Session, Gene visits Finny and c onfesses his guilt. After confronting his jealousy and confessing to Finny, Gene returns to Devon and becomes increasingly independent and secure. symbolize 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. Inciden long-leggedy, Gene calls this encounter with the filthy waters a â€Å"baptism.. on the first day of this winter posing” (79). This use of the word baptism, a term associated with initiation or rebirth, seems to ingest that Gene is runner a new life.\r\nJust as he emerges re-create from the gritty disgusting waters of the Nagaumasett, he emerges renewed from his painful, uncomfortable confrontation of his familiar 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 dea l 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" front(a)…. nd smaller too” (121).\r\nHe then realizes that he is truly large 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 receive 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 plentiful 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.\r\nGene is able to do this because he â€Å"already fought [his] war” (204) at Devon. He well-educate d to confront harsh realities, and therefore can overcome them. As an adult, Gene is able to return to Devon contentedness 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 passim 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 aftermaths powerfully convey the importance of unflinchingly confronting wars without and within.\r\nA Separate Peace Essay\r\n ace of the main focuses in the novel A Separate Peace is the friendship of Gene Forrester and Phineas. i would assume that two completely icy people wouldn’t have much(prenominal) a strong relationship. They both have different views of the world. Where one would find persuasiveness the other finds weakness. With having two opposing personalities as the main shares, itâ₠¬â„¢s easy for the endorser to secern with one more than the other. It also gives the reader a chance to prise, as well as tenderness, both Gene and Phineas.\r\nOne of the more or less 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 real believes that bothone is skilful in the world. other 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 ordinary grades. But what Finny lacks in academic achievements, he makes up for in athletics.\r\nRead more: Write nigh a person you admire essay\r\nFinny also has the natural ability to lead others and has a non conform positioning, whereas Gene is assistant and has a more conforming attitude. As well as many other novels, A Separate Peace includes easily relatable characters. While readin g the novel, I discovered that there are certain qualities of both Gene and Finny that I can bring up with. After careful consideration, I realized that I closely identify with Gene rather than Finny. He and I both are skeletal to people with larger than life personalities.\r\nI 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 some(prenominal) times that he can get away with anything.\r\nI also admire that instead of him moping well-nigh his leg, he writhe 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.\r\nA Separate Peace Essay\r\nIn 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. individuality element is complicated enough as the vote counter, Gene Forrester, enters adulthood in a time of war, but a difficult friendship with a fellow s tudent and rival leads to a further confusion of individuation.\r\n proterozoic 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 military commission 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 gamey school social class.\r\nThe 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 occurr ing that Gene is unaware of. There are a number of significant transformations within this story. Phineas is alter from an active athlete into a cripple after his accident and then sets out to transform Gene in his place.\r\nThis 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 array one evening soon after the accident. â€Å"I washed the traces off me and then put on a reduplicate of chocolate brown slacks, a orthodontic braces in which Phineas had been particularly critical of when he wasn’t wearing them, and a unfor openhanded 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.\r\nFrom 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 pla y sports, you’re going to play them for me…” 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 inside(a) 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 semivowel sniff out of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become part of Phineas. ” (77)\r\nIn this way, the boys’ relationship becomes a perfect illustration of co-dependency, with each feeling off of and becoming fulfilled by, the other. This new frame co-dependency begins the ontogenesis 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 b ecomes more draw back and tends to hide his true feelings. He seems to lose himself as the book progresses.\r\nThe innocence and everyday good nature that defined him betimes 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 life sentence in their own secret illusions that World War Two is a upright 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.\r\nThe 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 ransack 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 inter conglomerate with Phineas that it is difficult to imagine one boy active without the other.\r\nThe 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 try through and be accepted only a little at a time, only as much as he could assimilate without a consciousness 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’.\r\nA Separate Peace Essay\r\nOne 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 broken about things, Phineas seemed to have been damp at almost everything.\r\nIn 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 flavorless 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.” grim events like those happened often, a nd the reader can sense a feeling of jealousy suppuration within 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.\r\nGene plays the main character also know 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 groom. 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 aspiration (discovery). The darkness inside himself subconsciously forces him to jounce the limb, making Phineas fall (plot).\r\nAlthough 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 on just fine. Gene, however, begins to envy Finny with things as candid as smooth words and athletic ability. A s time progressed, the darkness inside of Gene grew and eventually it was full on competition. An antagonist is individual who opposes the main character, and strangely 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 beforehand for yourselves alone.”\r\nWhen 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!\r\nA Separate Peace Essay\r\nIn John Knowles’ novel A Separate P eace, 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 connection 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.\r\nWhile static in shock, he goes with Finny to the tree for their jumping ritual. When Finny reaches the edge of the counterbalance, Gene’s knees bend, shak ing 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 put forward 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.\r\nThe boys question the two about the fall. Finny does not say much because he cannot remember clearly, and Gene claims that he doesn’t remem ber 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.\r\nGene receives the news with recounting 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 bitterness that plagues the human heartâ€a aver 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 determination 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.\r\nFinny is outgoing, free-spirited, mischievous, vulnerable, and charismatic. And Leper is gentle, contemplative, quiet, bright, and bold. My first impres sion 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 intelligent amount of order [he] wanted to throw in [his] life, and . . . the kind of long, labored ride 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 lo nger 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).\r\nGene 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 unquestionably a leader. The first time I was able to see this was after their long day of receipts to the war effort when a gathering 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 pickings advantage of his leadership position among the boys and to lead the way into serving in the war. A more obvious way of eyesight his leadership is the way that he is set forth 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 the 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 fiction Hall. His wanting to know the truth that was hugger-mugger 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 prone character. Gene changes very significantly in the story.\r\nHe 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 revolt with himself for having caused Finny’s accident that he can’t b ear 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 sop uped 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 logical . . . [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 the story. His main change is when he steps down from his position in the Golden Fleece Debating rescript and his behavior at the winter festival, but his strong and authoritative personality remains.\r\nâ€Å"It wasn’t the cider which made me surpass myself, it was this kindling we had t orn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this good afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace.” (136,137) This passage stood out to me because in the midst of a ramp 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 amusement park 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 participate in sports in his place, Gene had a realization that what he had been longing for was to be a part of Finny.\r\nThis is very different than the end of the novel where Gene is looking back to that time and real izing 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 courageousness 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. I’ve learned two life lessons from this novel. One is to enjoy life, and not be so mad about what is going to happen next. I should not be completely unbiased to the future, but to live to the fullest and have fun. Another more serious lesson is the importance of forgiveness and love.\r\nIf 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 saviour 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, oddly 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 apprisal 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 subject what. But other than this one quote, there was nothing I really disliked about it.\r\n'