Preview

Gene Forrester In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
528 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Gene Forrester In A Separate Peace By John Knowles
Gene Forrester is the main character in the deeply moving novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles. The book starts out with Gene as an adult looking back at his time spent as a teenager at Devon. Gene is a really smart, un-athletic kid who is best friends with a kid named Finny who seems to get away with everything. Gene is the smart kid, and Finny is the athletic kid that everyone loves including the teachers. Throughout the novel Gene looks back to the tree where he shook Finny off and he broke his leg. If Finny were to narrate this story it would be from a sense anger and confusion, not a sense of guilt and shame like Gene.
2. As Gene and Finny’s friendship changes throughout the story, one can clearly see the theme of friendship

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    In high school, students often face challenges that force them to grow up. From their first break up to peer pressure, they slowly begin losing their innocence. Similarity, in A Separate Peace two boys are exposed to hatred and violence in a military academy. During World War II, Gene and Phineas begin with a normal friendship, but throughout time they both face new conflicts. Through jealousy and paranoia, they change from friends to rivals. When challenges come face to face with Gene he attempts to get rid of them in the worst ways possible, which eventually leads him to a loss of innocence. In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene lives in his own world, but through his friendship with Phineas, he learns he has to face reality.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    A common challenge that everyone faces, is when they are confronted with the reality of their situation, it can often trigger one of two reactions; one is to either dig in and understand the situation and the other is to resist, and ignore it. A Separate Peace written by John Knowles, shows in depth the constant mindset of a 16-year-old boy, Gene, at a boarding school called "Devon" in New England. Throughout Gene's experience at Devon, he meets his best buddy Finny; Who puts reality away and goes into his own world. With Gene finding envy to be included in Finny's world, Gene finds himself stuck in the middle of Finny's world where the truth may just kill you. Without Finny being able to accept the truth, and face reality none of the events…

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A quote from Shakespeare says, “Suspicion always haunts the guilty.” Shakespeare’s quote perfectly exemplifies the position Gene Forrester finds himself in chapter seven of the book A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. Gene is accused both in public and private, by Brinker Hadley, of arranging the accident that Finny had just so he could room alone. Although Brinker only meant this as a joke, he was surprised at Gene’s unusual defensive response. Gene starts to realize, after he laughs at the joke uneasily, that his bottled up guilt is changing him and making him look suspicious.…

    • 219 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Because their stories are so similar, that makes their friendship closer. There are many similarities between both of them, but the most common similarity is their death. At the end of A Separate Peace, Gene ends up killing Finny. At the end of Of Mice and Men,George kills Lennie. In the last sentence of the book, Carlson says something really heartless stating, ‘”Now what the hell ya suppose is eating them two guys’” (Steinbeck 105). Gene learned to value Finny’s friendship toward the middle of the book and George always got annoyed of things Lennie said and did. Both of their friendships suffered from some jealousy, but whether they said it or not, Gene valued Finny’s friendship just as much as George valued Lennie’s. Most books have many themes, but it is unique to share the same in both. Gene and Finny and George and Lennie share the same American dream. These stories are both based off of these men’s future plans, whether it is in school or work. In this case, it is both. While Gene and Finny…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel A Separate Peace by the author John Knowles, loss of innocence is portrayed in the book. Characters Gene and Finny, display this theme of innocence throughout the novel. Mostly Gene takes a turn in life and the whole point of view on the world that they see, is changed. John Knowles places events throughout the book so that Gene and his school buddies are able to have emotional and physical changes in their life. Gene has gone through a loss of innocence through these events. Through A Separate Peace, the most symbolic thing is the tree and the river, because it is where Gene Forrester and the boys lose their innocence. The name Gene Forrester along with the Naguamsett also tell the people about Gene’s life. Finally, when Gene realizes it is time for him to enlist.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Finny and Gene’s relationship in A Separate Peace rotates from being close friends to not friends, and disliking each other. In the story, Finny says, “We go together, a double jump” (59). This shows that Finny is pushing Gene to be more like him. This also shows that Finny could be trying to make Gene a better person, but ends up pushing him away instead. As one example, Finny argues, “I didn’t know you had to study,” (58). This shows that Gene doesn’t share everything with Finny, and maybe Finny is distracting Gene from other work. This also shows that this might have been the first tiny step of jealousy that led to their friendship ending. The story began with them as friends, but it ended with them as enemies, in a sense of speaking…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gene killed Finny, broke his friend's leg, and thought his friend to be his enemy. Eveyone dies but to die at the hand of a friend is more horrible than anything. To be filled with hatred and paranoia to break a best friend's leg is pure evil. True friends are not enemies but jealousy can make anyone an enemy. Separate Peace is a book that is filled with friendship and life lessons but it is also filled with evilness that will take over a person so that one can't even recognize…

    • 514 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every teenager struggles with figuring out who they are. Sometimes, it takes someone else to help them fully understand themselves. In the story A Separate Peace, Gene Forrester is a senior at a boarding school called Devon. Just like most other teens, Gene doesn’t know himself completely and has yet to discover who he really is. But Gene forms an incredibly close relationship with his best friend Phineas, and together they make new discoveries about themselves. Their close, sometimes complicated relationship teaches Gene a lot about himself. He also learns from Phineas; basing a bit of his personality off of him. Gene grows as a person during this time, and finds Phineas is still a part of him long after high school. Phineas’s way of living teaches Gene about himself and helps him discover who he truly is.…

    • 857 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    was normal for him to feel this way. Now all of the feelings come back…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gene and Finny are the two main characters of the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles. They are two very different people but manage to still be friends despite. During the course of the book, it becomes evident Gene’s envy for Finny. However given the nature of Gene and Finny’s personalities it is almost impossible for Gene to not envy Finny.…

    • 664 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gene Forrester is a high school boy who goes through a war with jealousy. Jealousy, according to Wikipedia, is mental uneasiness from suspicion or fear of rivalry, unfaithfulness. Through the the novel "A Separate peace" by John Knowles, Gene meets Phineas who is going to be one of his best friends. This boy will not only start a war that gene will be fighting with himself, he will also stop it and free him of it. Gene starts a love hate relationship with Finny ( short for Phineas) with the hat gearing more toward jealousy. Finny Is good at sports and always gets away with things. Finny was always around gene and his smile never faded, he was good at making Gene feel like a brother to him, if not a great friend.…

    • 1533 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out” (Walter Winchell). This quote is portrayed in the book of A Separate Peace through the characters of Gene and Phineas. Friendship is a common theme in the book of A Separate Peace. It causes conflict between characters and it also causes characters to change as a person throughout the book. Gene is the narrator of the book and he causes many conflicts with his best friend, Phineas or commonly called Finny, and also changes as a person throughout these conflicts. Over the course of the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene Forrester changes as a person due to certain thoughts, actions, and feelings; he influences relationships with people in a negative way, and teaches the importance of not being jealous towards others.…

    • 1071 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    <br>The similarities in a friendship are the elements that keep them alive and well. Gene and Finny both seem to know how to keep a secret. This is shown when Finny breaks the swimming record at Devon school and tells Gene not to get excited and keep it between the two of them. Gene, of course, agrees with Finny eventually and does not reveal his clandestine accomplishment. In a few instances throughout the story, Gene and Finny both tell one-another that they are surely best friends despite all of their adversity.…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gene Forrester was a key character from John Knowles’s A Separate Peace. He was a dynamic character who changed throughout the novel in various methods. Gene was a boy who was jealous of his best friend Phineas but ended up becoming Phineas. He went from a representation of war, to a symbol to peace, and from dependent of Phineas to an independent young man.…

    • 964 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays