A Separate Peace Gene Character Analysis

He apologizes profusely and explains to Finny that his actions didn't arise from hatred but a somewhat form of jealousy and envy. Finny feels his friend meant his apology and decided to forgive him, causing reconciliation between the two friends. Gene's ability to apologize and be sincere and genuine about it shows that the only character flaws that Gene had were jealousy (Bloom, Harold). This instance when Gene finally takes responsibility for his actions seems to show a different side of Gene, making the fact that he might be a psychopath very

Guilt can be defined as feeling responsibility or remorse of one's offence or wrong. Gene Forrester is a prime example thaguilt is a theme prevalent in A Separate ace. The novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles is about Gene Forrester, a lonely intellectual, and his struggle against his own guilt of breaking his friens leg and running his future. His t is shown when he feels obligated to become what Phineas could now not be and when he postpones his own desires for the desires of Fin Obviously, Gene’s actions towards Finny as left him with much guilt.

Gene continues to struggle to cope with his actions, he is at war with his conscience. The novel being told in first person is crucial to the reader's knowledge of Gene’s feelings and thoughts. Without insight into Gene’s thoughts, the novel would be able to portray the theme surrounding internal warfare. Gene has many regretful thoughts concerning Finny’s fall throughout the remainder of the novel. One example can be found in chapter seven.

Much like the many sides of a person, Gene and Finny work together and make each other better, improving while competing. Reliant on each other, Gene and Finny have create a co-dependency with one another that they base their personalities on. A prime example of Gene and Finny’s co-dependency presents itself when Gene tries on Finny’s clothes describing, “but when I looked in the mirror… I was Phineas, Phineas to the life” (54). Eccentric and audacious, Finny’s pink shirt is his trade mark symbol of purity, and in this scene Gene tries on Finny’s “costume”. Much like these characters the good and bad of a person are not only one-dimensional, bad can be good and good can do bad.

Finny’s behavior is unlike Gene’s quiet, intellectual ways. As Gene later states, “He could shine at many other things, with people for instance, the others in our dormitory, the faculty; in fact, if you stopped to think about it, Finny could shine with everyone, he attracted everyone he met” (32). This shows how Gene slowly becomes conscious of his resentment and envy towards his best friend. During the summer of 1942, Finny invites Gene to come with him to a beach that is hours away from Devon. After the trip, Gene fails a math test due to his lack of studying, and he believes that Finny had deliberately planned their venture to the beach with the intention of causing him to languish in his studies.

Being totally aberrant characters, Gene and Finny acquired an atypical friendship. Their  friendship is based on lying. Finny, a confident, rebellious, kind, and unique person, has no intentions in ruining Gene’s life. Gene, a jealous pal who desires to be Finny, tries to be on Finny/s side by jumping off the tree, as well as clinging to him all the time. The friendship between Finny and Gene is a one- side dominated friendship.

The Envious Friend Jealously drives people to unthinkable and incomprehensible actions that is understood least of all by those responsible for it. John Knowles wrote a novel called A Separate Peace that takes place in New Hampshire. Gene, the narrator of A Separate Peace, is a conformist, genius, but envious southern boy that plays an important part in this novel. A Separate Peace depicts how Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him, his relationship with Finny, and his achievement of peace.

Friendship~ in A Separate Peace by John knowles One cannot be friends with someone who they see as a competition or a threat to their success. The story A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a coming of age realistic fiction novel. It is set in 1842 during World War II at an all boys academy; Devon School. The boys there are trained to join the army. Once they reach the age of 18, they are recruited into the army and have to fight for the country.

Gene was trying to confess so he could not feel guilty anymore, but Gene still decided to let himself off the hook when Finny couldn’t accept it. Gene felt good knowing that he tried. The second and most important way Gene found his peace was through Finny’s death. When Finny died Gene said, “I did not cry then or ever about Finny …. I could not escape feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case” (Knowles 116).

Gene is jealous of Finny’s enthusiasm and ability to do things that Gene is scared of. Gene feels as if Finny does these things in spite of him, but in reality Finny is just an outgoing person. This misunderstanding and introjection that Gene creates leads to him breaking Finny’s leg, and their friendship. A Separate Peace by John Knowles displays the harsh reality that envy can create.

In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene returns to his school when he is an adult and narrates the story of his life at Devon school. When he returns to school he remembers the tree that is the reason Finny’s leg gets broken, and the hard marble stairs. Gene is a charismatic and talented in sports, while Gene is book smart. Beccause Gene is not better at sports than Finny he feels the need to compete with him at everything.

In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene initiates and defeats his own personal war with Finny, while Leper involuntarily alters his once observant persona for the worse in the midst of the war, demonstrating that those who create their own battles are more likely to succeed rather than others who blindly fall into conflicts without direction. From the start, Gene’s jealousy towards Finny manifests itself repeatedly through Gene’s routine lifestyle, instigating a personal war between the boys due to Gene’s envious actions, foreshadowing his success. This is due to Finny’s lack of knowledge about the situation. Gene’s adoration for Finny’s ability to “get away with anything”, leaves Gene “envying him” since he thought it “was perfectly normal” to adore a best friend, marking

In A Separate Peace, the reader can see that Finny’s death was part of a chain reaction caused by Gene. His death shows that a person not knowing their identity and who they are could affect other people and not just themselves. Although Gene didn’t directly kill Phineas, we can see how Gene being so overly obsessed with trying to be someone he’s not affected several people. He lost his identity and it cost someone else’s life rather than his own.

He arrived at his house and when he told him it was him that moved the branch, Finny didn’t believe him and told him to leave. Finally, Finny came back to Devon and they both knew the damage that had been done because of Gene’s envy. They never regained their friendship and were both broken from what happened. Over all, envy is a horribly conquering sensation that can take over a person’s right state of mind in a matter of a very short period of time. Gene was definitely a character that many people can relate to in real life and can compare situations to.

John Knowles makes suggestions and clues as to Gene’s underlying and resentful feelings of Finny. For example, Gene becomes “unexpectedly excited” at the prospect of Finny getting into trouble with Mr. Patch-Withers for wearing a ties as belt. Gene’s resentment can also be identified when the older version of Gene reminisces on his time at Devon when he says, “We were the best of friends at the moment” (18). After his time at Devon, Gene realizes that his relationship with Finny does not seem like a normal friendship. In a literary criticism of A Separate Peace titled “Interconnected Symbols”, by James Ellis, the author proclaims, “Gene finds himself jealous of Finny’s ability to flout Devon rules in his quest to enjoy an ‘unregulated friendliness’ with the adult world” (Ellis 35).