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A Separate Peace: Chapter Summaries

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A Separate Peace: Chapter Summaries
A Separate Peace
“Do you remember what made you fall?” His eyes continued their roaming across my face. “I don’t know, I must have just lost my balance. It must have been that. I did have this idea, this feeling that when you were standing there beside me, y— I don’t know, I had a kind of feeling. But you can’t say anything for sure from just feelings. And this feeling doesn’t make any sense. It was a crazy idea, I must have been delirious. So I just have to forget it. I just fell,” he turned away to grope for something among the pillows, “that’s all.” Then he glanced back at me, “I’m sorry about that feeling I had.” I couldn’t say anything to this sincere, drugged apology for having suspected the truth. He was never going to accuse me. A Separate Peace page 58 Gene wants to know if Finny realizes that it was him that made him fall; Finny cannot believe that Gene would want to hurt him. This shows how trusting a friend he is; with his blind love, he doesn’t want him or anyone else to believe the truth. This keeps Gene safe from the punishment that he should have received.
You are both coldly driven ahead for yourselves alone. You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record, but so what? He hated you for getting an A in every course but one last term. You would have in A in that one except for him. Except for him. A Separate Peace page 45 We were even after all, even in enmity. The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all. A Separate Peace page 46 Gene thinks that Phineas is his biggest rival, not just someone you happens to excel in sports. This is the turning point in Gene’s feelings towards Finny. These feelings well up in Gene and start to turn into dislike for Finny. Phineas only thinks of Gene as a good friend, not as a rival.
“I was thinking
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