In the book A Separate Peace, Phineas is a character who exudes idealism, as is shown in the rules of his game Blitzball. The rules of Blitzball can essentially be summed up in the third and most important of Finny’s commandments: “You always win at sports” (35). This is an undisputed rule of Blitzball; there is no winner, and the only purpose the game serves is for the players to have fun. This is shown when the ball is thrown at Leper Lepellier and Leper is scared and refuses the ball. Instead of ignoring this and possibly making Leper upset, Finny says “The reciever can refuse a pass if he happens to chose to …….We call that that the Lepellier Refusal” (39). In this passage, Finny is obviously creating rules just for the happiness of one…
Throughout the novel Gene is seen being jealous of Finny. “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn't help envying him that a little,…
In William Faulkner's book The Unvanquished, Bayard Sartoris made a crucial decision in his life to become a man. In "The Odor of Verbena," Bayard had found out that his father was killed by his old business partner, Mr. Redmond. He then had to choose between killing Redmond or not, knowing that each decision would have a consequence. He chose to let Redmond live, allowing him to have the will he wanted. His action was honorable because he took into account what he cared about, not what others did, and picked the decision which was most important to him. He was aware of the risk and alienated all external forces telling him to kill Redmond, and by doing so, he became a free man. Bayard's move showed Faulkner's readers that the best move one…
In this entry, I will be covering chapter one. In chapter one a former student of the school Devon returns and sees that the school is much better condition than when he had last seen it. The narrator walks around the school grounds and describes how it looks now compared to how the school/town looked whenever he was living there during a time of war. When he gets to an enfeebled tree it makes an old memory replay in his head. In the memory, the narrator whose name hasn’t been revealed yet and four of his friends go to this tree. Then the narrator’s best friend Phineas climbed up the frightening tree and jumped into the river below without majorly injuring himself. Phineas considered that his “ contribution to the war effort ”. After…
Fitzgerald continues to present the idea of social class distinctions through Daisy’s reaction to Tom’s exposure of Gatsby’s true past. When Tom is blatantly revealing Gatsbys bootlegging history, Nick describes daisies reaction,…
The characters in The Great Gatsby are round, especially Jordan Baker. Jordan Baker, a major influence on the novel was not only well described and complex, but also unwavering when it came to what she liked the most: golf, she would go to sleep early so that she could properly rest the night before the tournament. “’Ten O’clock,’ she remarked apparently finding the time on the ceiling. ‘Time for this good girl to go to bed’. ‘Jordan is going to play in the tournament to-morrow,’ explained Daisy, ‘over at Westchester’” (Fitzgerald 18) . However, the fact that she was determined in a world full of unfriendliness towards female athletes did not mean that she had interest in living a safe life. “’You’re a rotten driver’, I protested ‘Either you…
Do you agree with the view that the main reason for hostility towards James I in England, in the years before 1618, was the immorality and corruption of the royal Court?…
A best friend is someone who is always there for you, someone you can trust and who trusts you- or is it? At least, this is what most people think of when they think of the term ‘best friend’. But what if the person you have always considered your best friend betrays you, becomes jealous of you, doesn’t trust you, and even could have caused your death? Are they still your best friend? Are these behaviors just small mistakes that every human makes or are they really worth forgiving? Can two people with this relationship still remain friends? In the book A Separate Peace, author John Knowles uses his two main characters, Gene Forrester and Phineas to show that friends can have disagreements, but major characteristic differences like jealousy…
For example, while Finny was in the hospital Gene decided to put on Finny’s clothes (36). He says “I was Phineas, Phineas to the life. I even had his humorous expression in my face” (37). Gene felt a desire to be someone who was as special as Phineas was. He thought poorly of himself, because of what he had done to Finny, and because he was unable to admit it. This idea that he wasn’t Gene the coward, and was instead Finny the amazing student helped him feel better about himself. When he acted like Phineas he felt confident and that he “would never stumble through the confusions of [his] own character again” (37). At times Gene felt what Finny felt or compared Finny’s situation to his own. Finny tells Gene that “You look like it happened to you or something” when he sees Finny after the accident for the first time (39). Even at Phineas’s funeral towards the end of the story, Gene says “I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral”…
While Gene Forrester is a hardworking scholar who focuses on school and school only, Phineas or Finny is a social and athletic guy who is awful when it comes to school work. The two of them envy each others skills. The two are constantly seen complimenting each other and talking about how they wish they could be the other. As the novel goes on the reader watches as the boys who are complete opposites compliment each other very well. In the beginning of the book Ginny thinks to himself “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him a little.” (Page 18) This quote is important to this idea, because it shows that even from the beginning of the story, Gene was already beginning to build a jealousy of Finny.…
While Phineas is at Devon, he attempts to convince himself and others that the ugliness of the war is not happening. He even told Gene “There isn’t any war.”(p.115) Phineas had thought that fat old men had made the war a hoax so that young men will not keep them out of their jobs. If he could convince others of this, then he would feel that the war did not exist. No one really bought into the fact the war is a hoax except Finny himself. He tried hard to keep everybody’s mind off the war so he created games such as blitz ball, the Olympics, tree jumping, and snowball fights. In the sheltered world of Devon, it is easy to ignore the reality of WWII, but as the juniors became closer to draft age, even Phineas began to accept the future. Phineas had to admit that the war was real when his friends start enlisting. The hardest part for Phineas is realizing that he could not take part in the war effort. Phineas had always been a leader and an athlete and now he felt useless and left behind.…
Phineas and Gene are best friends, but also, although Finny never realizes it, worst enemies. Gene’s insecurity is the cause for nearly everything bad that happens throughout the course of the story. Although almost anyone could be jealous of Finny, with his natural athletic ability, popularity, fearlessness, and knack of getting away with anything, Gene’s jealousy was much deeper and much more sinister than a slight twinge of envy. His insecurity made him so jealous of Finny that he desperately wanted to be him, but also hated him at the same time. His jealousy drove him to choose Finny as his enemy and rival and made him dream up bad things about Finny to try and convince himself that he wasn’t as perfect as he seemed to be. Gene believes, “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck…
The mysterious, independent and cynical Jordan Baker, known for lying through her teeth. Jordan has no problem lying especially if it gets her out of trouble. She lies about things she doesn't even need to lie about, for example, when her and Nick went to a house party, “she left a borrowed car out in the rain with the top down, and then lied about it” (Fitzgerald 62). Lying about something as little as leaving a car out in the rain shows in and of itself how dishonest of a person she is. Distinctly because she has all the money in the world to have it fixed, there is no need for her to lie about something like that. Jordan has never been known for being at the bottom, she is always seen as being on top, but is she really the best if she has…
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby, it demonstrates what the “American Dream” was in the 1920’s. That was what the modern person wanted back then; the “American Dream”. Back then and today, the modern person is always changing. People will always want more and will want to improve further and further. In today’s society, the modern person wants popularity, success, and the newest technology.…
This chapter begins with Nick talking to Gatsby after the horrible events of the night before. Gatsby tells Nick how he spent his night waiting for Daisy to see him just for her to ignore him the whole time. He then tells Nick about why he fell in love with Daisy, and why he is still so deeply attached to her. Nick then leaves for work, shouting to Gatsby reassuring words seeing as he is obviously lost and depressed. After Nick leaves we are told about the actions of grief stricken George Wilson. We are told that George believed that the driver of the car that killed his wife was Gatsby and George acts upon this information. He spends the day making his way to Gatsby’s house and upon his arrival kills Gatsby in his pool and then ends his own life.…