How Is Gene Mature In A Separate Peace

    The novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, is the coming of age story of Gene Forrester. This novel is a flashback to the year 1943, when Gene is attending Devon School during his senior year and the summer before it. "Gene's youth and inexperience make him ill-equipped to deal with situations that require maturity" (Overview: A Separate Peace 2). However, Gene is a follower of Finny and therefore gains experiences that provoke his development into adulthood. Some of these experiences include: breaking Finny's leg, training for the 1944 Olympics, and killing Finny. Through these three experiences Gene is forced to grow out of his childish-self and become a man.

In conclusion, A Separate Peace is a novel with numerous themes and interpretations. With every theory, there is an explanation and a deeper meaning. The greatest part about books is being able to find all the possible themes and supporting them with aspects of the story. This novel can be interpreted as a coming of age story, a psychological story, or simply a story about good and evil. It’s all dependent on the evaluation of the

A Separate Peace is the heartbreaking story of two young boys at a boarding school, where they go through a roller coaster of emotions and trauma. The title A Separate Peace shows the social rejection felt by the primary character and his different defense mechanisms to try and bring him peace. The main character, Gene undergoes a tremendous amount of stress throughout the story, and uses multiple defense mechanism to cope with guilt. Denial. Repression. Intellectualization. All different walls Gene uses to protect himself from the mental hazards he faced.

Gene must react to the change happening around him and make difficult decisions in order to prolong and benefit the story. A Separate Peace begins as a flashback and is viewed from Gene's perspective as he recalls a part of his life that happened fifteen years before and is set in the 1940’s, in the time World War II. Gene, the narrator, main character and protagonist gives the reader an insight to his personal struggles that are caused by both the war happening around him, and within him; Gene’s inner struggles allow the growth of his character. As an introvert, intellectual, insecure, and yet envious friend, Gene is nearly his Finny’s complete opposite. Gene’s insecurities about himself constantly compel him

As he was processing everything he begins to realize that Finny was not the enemy, but he himself was his own enemy. As stated in the article, “Gene realizes that his real enemy is himself and his impulse towards mindless destruction-and he believes he overcame this enemy only after causing Phineas’ death” (Alton). This was one part of him achieving peace. He had to realize his own faults to come to terms with what had happened. Another way that shows Gene has found peace is that he understands that all people have others that they see as enemies, but may after all not be. To show this Gene states, “All of them, all except Phineas, constructed at infinite cost to themselves these Maginot Lines against this enemy they thought they saw across the frontier, this enemy who never attacked that way-if he ever attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy” (Knowles 204). This shows his maturity, and that he understands it was a childish mistake. He knows that everyone goes through having their own enemy, and he has come to peace with having his. It took Gene a very long time, but he did find his closure and

Finny is a staunch intimate friend, unlike Gene, who always aspires to get finny into torment. Gene had poisonous lethal cogitations such that Finny was after him to ruin him academically. These are all notions that had no essence . Gene just assured himself that Finny was begrudging him for being an A student. Having always had a scuffle within himself, gene yearned to be Finny. Finny never got into adversity and that what engendered Gene’s dissatisfaction and uneasiness. One night, Gene jounced the limb of the tree and Finny fell fracturing his leg. This was considered a turning point in Gene’s life when he knew that Finny would hardly amble, meaning that he could no longer play sports like he did before. Gene , then, perceives the

A Separate Peace,written by John Knowles,explains Gene's story of transitioning into adulthood. In the beginning of the novel, Gene is still considered an innocent child who hasn't faced the adversities that come with this world. As time passes by Gene begins to mature and develop like any other human being while experiencing the difficulties many people are challenged with already. An initial reading of A Separate Peace suggests that Gene Forrester’s lack of worldly experience leads to Finny’s death; therefore, Gene has lost his innocence and gained experience.

At the start Gene only envys Finny. In page 25 he saying “ I couldn’t help envying him that, which was perfectly normal.”. And Gene is correct, it is perfectly normal to envy people, even your best friend. But even something as innocent as envy can turn into something more sinister, hate. There are sing of Gene hating Finny, as seen in page 53 “You did hate him for that swimming record, but so what?”. Another sign of Gene hating Finny is when he becomes paranoid and angry when he believes Finny was trying to sabotage his grades. But none of that compares to when he purposely jounces the limb causing Finny to fall off. However, this theory is not set in stone. Later on in the story Gene begins to feel guilty for what he did and sincerely apologizes. But this is only my view on it.

The events in the novel also give way to the author’s perspective on war(s) in general, not just the one happening at the time. By having Gene’s internal battle correlate with the war the boys were training to fight in, Knowles conveys the idea that everybody will be at war with themselves at a time in their life. Another example of a war against one’s self is the character Leper Lepellier’s war with his sanity. He fights so hard to keep it, but the struggle inside his head is harder to win than any superficial war: “The idea of his face on a woman’s body. That’s what made me psycho. Ideas like that. I don’t know. I guess they must be right. I guess I am psycho. I guess I must be. I must be”(141). Leper has gone to fight in the war, done his duty for his country, and subsequently now has to fight the conflict happening in his mind. He second guesses his sanity, which only makes the battle harder. The fictional character of Leper is an example of one of many people who have fought in a war, only to return home to find a completely different war waiting for them. Another instance in which Knowles shows his thoughts on war is when Gene first begins to hate Finny. He is convinced Finny is trying to stop him from succeeding in school, a thought created by his envy for Finny: “I sensed it like a sense of relief when nausea passes away; I felt better. We were even after all, even in enmity. The dead rivalry was on both sides after all”(46). Gene’s conflict with Finny is another

He internally destroys himself. The disastrous aspect of this event is that it permanently sabotages Gene’s and Finny’s relationship. Now, their friendship is based on falsehood told by both. Gene lies to Finny about the whole incident. He emphasizes that nothing important happened, and that Finny simply lost his balance. Additionally, Gene does not admit to Finny that he is at fault since he is terrified to face the consequences of his actions: “But, I didn’t tell him” (Knowles 67). Not only does this affect Gene, but it also influences Finny. First off, it physically debilitates Finny as the fall shatters his leg. The accident imposes him to quit sports forever. Then, it crushes the faith he holds towards Gene. John Knowles’ tone, implies that Finny deep down knows the truth about who jounced the limb: “Yes, I know. I remember it all” (Knowles 65). However, he still lies to himself by not considering that Gene really did wreck his life. There are a few scenes in A Separate Peace that stand out; yet, this specific event is the only one that permanently affects both Gene and Finny.

It shows betrayal because after all the times Finny had been a loyal friend to Gene, Gene’s emotions came out and he took his anger out on Finny, which ended in a mistake that would last Finny a lifetime. Gene thinks, “Then my knees bent, and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instance, and then he tumbled sideways broke through the little branches below and hit the bank below with a sickening thud” (52). Gene betrays Finny after all the times Finny had been a loyal friend to Gene. So, in many friendships there is betrayal, which is shown in A Separate

Only people who escape the dreariness of life are the 16 year old boys who have one last year of childhood and freedom before they will be drafted into the war and they all are very serious to take advantage of their free time but there is always the stress hanging over their heads that they will soon be drafted. Luckily the the main characters of the book never make it to the front line.

The trust Finny had with Gene was amazing and unbreakable. That’s a true friend. Even though Gene was the cause of Finny falling off the tree, he regretted it immediately and tried to tell Finny the truth, but Finny didn’t listen. They were the perfect match for each other, where Finny was deficient in grades Gene would help him, and where Gene lacked in athletics Finny would advise him. They balanced each other out in numerous ways. The friendship between the two of them was stronger than most friendships to this day. Gene misses Finny and wishes he could have him back desperately. In Finny’s honor, Gene totes around his memory and personality for the rest of his

Gene's inability to confront people about his feelings leads to bigger conflicts down the road and teaches readers that expression of feeling can eradicate future conflicts. Gene’s deceit and inner conflict starts when Finny and Gene are on the beach together. When Finny tells Gene that he is his best friend, Gene does not answer and reflects, "I should have told him then that he was my best friend also and rounded off what he had said" (Knowles 48). When he says that he should have "rounded off what he had said," it implies regret that he did not. Maybe this does not directly lead to the accident or Finny's death, but this could have been a starting point for Gene. If he could have learned to speak up earlier on, then the idea

In nearly every major interaction involving Gene, he consistently exhibits behavior which would certainly sabotage his relationship with Finny and other peers. He harbors harsh and strong emotions, which eventually do make themselves clear to the person they belong to. For example, Gene begins a conspiracy against Finny, thinking, “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies” (53). Even after Finny eventually resolves the complications between himself and Gene, he still falls victim to Gene’s latent emotions a short moment after the reconciliation. In a