John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace takes place at a boys’ boarding school during World War II. It is about two friends, Gene and Phineas. The changes that were made for the movie adaptation of John Knowles’ A Separate Peace focuses more on the two friends’ friendship at Devon. The movie is less captivating than the book. The novel is more detailed giving a better insight of the character’s thoughts and the movie does not include some events which take place in the novel.…
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…
In A Separate Peace and Dead Poets Society, some of the characters in the book seem like others in the movie. Gene, one of these characters, in the Separate Peace, relates to Tom in Dead Poets Society, and Phineas or Finny, in the Separate Peace, relates to Neil, in Dead Poets Society. Gene thinks he is at fault with anything he is involved in where something bad happens, and Tom thinks he is worth less and bad at everything. Gene and Tom both look down at themselves. Gene and Tom’s parents are uncaring. Gene talks but mainly only to Finny. Tom only talks to Neil, when he talks to others he is embarrassed and usually quiet. They are both quiet except to their roommate Finny or Neil. Gene was upset when finny fell off the tree and shattered…
1) The main character of the book, A Separate Peace, is Gene Forrester. He is in the senior class at Devon. He is widely known as the smart student who is always on time to class and always does his school work. Gene is a good choice as the main character of this book, but if the author would have chosen Finny as the main character, the book would have been different. Finny leaves Devon for an amount of time because he breaks his leg. Therefore, if he was the main character, the book would not have been placed at Devon the whole time, it would have been placed at Finny's house for a short amount of time. The reader would have also been able to see what Finny was thinking when he first broke his leg and when he did it a second time. The two characters are similar, in the fact that, they both would not be where they are today without their friendship. They are also both very competitive with each other. Gene and Finny are different, in the fact that, Gene is shy while Finny is very outgoing. Finny is focused on athletics while Gene is focused on academics.…
John Knowles A Separate Peace is thought to be a memoir of the author himself, set during the heart of World War Two, and the aftermath of those years. The protagonist, Gene Forrester, a seemingly happy boy, hides fear and paranoia within. His best friend and the antagonist of the story, Finny, is his greatest competition. Throughout their years at school together, they become inseparable. But, as their friendship grows deeper, Gene’s paranoia grows with it. Finny is the schools top athlete and is loved and known by everyone. As the story progresses, Gene becomes something of his side-kick. Although this may be happening, Gene only thinks Finny is trying to get closer to him in order to ruin his athletic and academic career at the school. During the summer of their first year together, they form the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. Initiation into this club involved jumping from a tree limb into a small river. The two boys are the first to do this of everyone at the school. During the summer session, the boys decide to make the jump together. Upon climbing onto the limb Finny tells Gene to jump first. As Finny is about to jump, he loses his balance, but Gene catches him and practically saves his life. During the next summer session, they decide to jump together again. This time, Finny walks out to the end first. He too begins to lose his balance, but this time because Gene purposefully “jounced the limb.” One can see he did this purposefully due to three key reasons. Firstly, their competition between each other and Genes obvious envy towards Finny. Secondly, the way eyewitnesses and Gene himself describe the situation. And lastly, Genes confession to Finny the year after.…
"He was everywhere, he enjoyed himself hugely, he laughed out loud at passing sea gulls"(39). This line is describing Phineas, or Finny, and how he lives life to it's fullest and seizes the day. Finny is an example of living the "carpe diem" (seize the day) philosophy from the movie "Dead Poets Society."…
In the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene Forrester and Phineas, also known as Finny, are best friends who have a very deep friendship. However, as the story progresses, Gene began to develop feelings of jealousy for Finny when he saw how perfect Finny’s character is. Finny has always been able to talk his way out of trouble and is naturally a good athlete who is earnest, confident, & pure. On the other hand, Gene cannot be pure like Finny and feels insecure. Seeing how good Finny is, caused Gene to become jealous, “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything, I couldn’t help envying him…” (ch2.20) Soon, Gene thinks that a rivalry is happening between them. Because Gene envies Finny’s character, he thinks that Finny is also jealous of him for his good academic performance, “I felt better. Yes, I sensed it like the sweat of relief …We were even after all… The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all.”(ch4.34). By thinking there is a competition between them, Gene feels at ease, because none of them is better than the other. One night, Finny announced that Leper will jump off the tree, in order to become a full member of their secret society. Gene didn’t want to go because he feared his grade would slip if he didn’t study and also thinks that Leper wouldn’t dare to jump off the tree. After hearing from Gene that he wanted to study, Finny was surprise because he thought that Gene was naturally intelligent, who doesn’t need to review for a test. With sincerity, Finny lets Gene study, but Gene changed his mind and would come along with Finny. On the way to the tree,Gene realizes that a competition never happened and it was just Gene that was envious of Finny. Because Gene saw Finny's goodness and innocence, Gene realizes a rivalry with Finny will never occur. Gene began…
In John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, he plagues the friendship of Gene and Finny with competition. Through the glimpses of Gene’s memory, Knowles shows the intertwining of competiveness and friendship because of jealously and envy. In several episodes of Gene’s memory, like Finny and Gene’s arguments, the winter carnival, and the trial, Knowles expresses the difficulty of separating friendship from competitiveness. Throughout John Knowles’ novel, the friendship between Finny and Gene is jeopardized by their constant want to be better than the other, through competition.…
A Separate Peace is a book about Gene Forrester’s relationship with Phineas, whom he calls Finny, and his experiences at the Devon School. Gene goes through many difficult times while attending Devon. Although he does not see it at the time, Finny helps Gene eventually find peace even with the war and difficulties at Devon. In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, Gene finds peace through both his experiences at Devon and his friendship with Finny.…
Paranoia, betrayal, competition; two boys by the names Gene and Phineas fight for the number one spot in their friendship. Yet there a slight plot twist, this is all an illusion in Gene’s mind. There is not really any competition, nor any paranoia in their friendship; only in Gene’s perspective. In the intriguing novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene’s ulterior motives disrupt the healthy friendship both he and Phineas contain. This type of mind shows a difference between Gene’s and Phineas’s character. Even throughout this story, principles of contrast are shed to reveal one’s true characteristics.…
Friendship is a special bond between two people; a bond that depends on one important element, trust. The book A Separate Peace focuses on the relationship between two adolescent boys in prep school. Phineas and Gene had two completely different personalities. Phineas, athletic and adventurous, had a wild imagination, and never followed tradition. Gene, smart in academics, conservative, and hard working, would have preferred to follow the rules. It hardly seems that the two could become friends, being so different from each other; having little in common, what time could they possibly spend together? When Phineas persuaded Gene into biking to the beach with him, Gene thought of several reasons not to go, still he went with Phineas. Much of…
The novel A Separate Peace is a story about two best friends, Gene and Phineas (Finny), who both attend the Devon school in New Hampshire in 1942. Gene Forrester is an intellectual, confined, straight-laced seventeen year old, while Finny is an athletic free-spirit who isn't afraid to say what he thinks and is admired by everyone. The story is a flashback in which Gene recalls his fears and insecurities during the midst of the Second World War at the Devon school. Out of jealousy and the fear that Finny is trying to sabotage his studies, Gene shakes a tree branch that they were both standing on, and Finny falls out of the tree and shatters his leg. It is at that point where their relationship changes into more of a codependency which leads to them developing their own individual identities by living within their own illusion that World War II is a mere conspiracy. Finny dies suddenly during the operation on his broken leg , but Gene doesn't cry. He deals with the tragic news with a sort of tranquility because he believes that he is a part of Finny. Gene reflects on the constant enmity which takes over the present youth, and he believes only Finny was immune to this plague.…
Friendship can change people’s lives for better and for worse. In John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, the main characters, Gene and Phineas, have a complicated relationship which changes both of their lives. Gene is better off having been friends with Finny because Finny’s death causes him to accept responsibility and reality.…
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.…
The book A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, is about kids at Devon, a private high school, during World War II. As the war progresses throughout the book, it takes over life at Devon more and more. Near the beginning of the book, the war is not really involved in Finny and Gene’s lives at Devon, except as a joke and excuse for breaking rules. Later on, though, the war develops into Finny and Gene’s lives at Devon.…