Preview

A Separate Piece - Alter Egos

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
799 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Separate Piece - Alter Egos
A Separate Peace: Alter Egos Gene and Finny are alter egos. Gene was quiet, smart, and envied Finny, while Finny excelled at sports, was outgoing, and did not envy Gene. Gene admits his envy that Finny could get away with everything, while he couldn’t. “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little.” (Knowles 18). “…His immortal soul and corrupt body, good and evil struggling within his person for possession of his soul.” (191). The Naguasmett and Devon River are alter egos. The Naguasmett was dirty and Gene only swam in it in the winter session while the Devon River is clean and Gene swam in it in the summer session. "I had never been in before; it seemed appropriate that my baptism there had taken place on the first day of this winter session, and that I had been thrown into it, in the middle of a fight." (Knowles 78). “Perhaps the commonest form of the Alter Ego archetype is that in which an individual is believed to have a counterpart, or double.” (189). The winter and the summer sessions are alter egos. The winter session is cold with death, war, and stress in it, while the summer session is full of friendliness and youth. “In the same way the war, beginning almost humorously with announcements about maids and days spent at apple-picking, commenced its invasion of the school. The early snow was commandeered as its advance guard.” (Knowles 84). “In another form, the individual soul is thought to consist of several parts, separate but linked…” (189). World War II is an archetype because it has two sides. One side of the war is that it was a trick played on the nation by old men. In the same way the war, beginning almost humorously with announcements about maids and days spent at apple-picking, commenced its invasion of the school. The early snow was commandeered as its

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Gene and Finny’s codependency is ended after Finny’s sudden death. Gene starts to re-examine himself, his thoughts and his emotions. Finally Gene puts things into perspective (Slethaug). Gene’s life from the start of his friendship with Finny has revolved around Finny. Everything he did, felt, thought about regarded Finny. His goal of becoming best in the class, and his envy were the result of Finny. Finny was the column, the foundation that supported and shaped his life. The foundation crumbles away with Finny’s death and Gene’s life comes crashing down. He can no longer depend on Finny to dictate his emotions, his thoughts and to serve as an idol he must surpass. With Finny gone, Gene now sees the foolishness and illusion he had been living in and the reality of life. He realizes that many of the enemies he had seen were the product of his own fear. He knows that Finny was a genuine and true friend who meant the best for him. Gene realizes that fear of everything had led to his seeing enemies in friends and that it was harmful. He sees that his fear had led him to feel threatened by a fearless Finny and his jealousy. His fear had made him feel that everyone was out to get him. Most importantly this fear had led him to seriously cripple Phineas and in the end led to Finny’s death. His guilt at having had a direct role in Finny’s death leads to him seeing the illogicality of fearing the world, the unknown, the imaginary enemy. He has escaped from his fear of the world, and matured into an adult in the process. Only now when he no longer fears anything or anyone, can Gene focus on himself and forge an identity. Only now when he does not see in everyone some quality that he lacks can he truly sees his own strengths and vulnerabilities and take them lightly. Gene can focus on forging his own identity when he other people’s identities no longer interest him. Phineas teaches Gene that in this world…

    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gene considers that he is "not of the same quality as he [Finny]'. He feels he cannot live up to the…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Finny is an excellent athlete, charming, and funny. He can get away with just about anything, the rules just don’t seem to apply to him. When looking at the Myers-Briggs test I would classify him as an EFNP. These types of people are said to be warm and enthusiastic people, and good at almost anything they put their mind to. Finny has a certain hold over people, especially Gene. Gene begins to realize this when he thinks "What was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this? Was he getting some kind of hold over me? (9)” Finny doesn’t mean to be manipulative or have a hold over people he is genuine in his desire to make things more fun for others.…

    • 664 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "A Separate Piece" Essay

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Next, Finny and Gene have a huge rivalry going on that they don’t know about at first, and causes their friendship to change. One of the first clues that they have a rivalry is found when Gene makes Finny fall off of the tree. He did this because deep down he knew that Finny was better than him and he was jealous of Gene. Before that, Gene had compared himself to Finny, and didn’t like what he found. “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little” (22). Also, Finny envies Gene for his smartness, showing that he is jealous of Gene. This shows that the rivalry between Finny and Gene is alive and active, even though later on Gene discover that it is actually more one sided.…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Finny's Eulogy

    • 675 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Another thing unique to Phineas was his purity. It was once said that, “The truly innocent are those who not only are guiltless themselves, but who think others are.” Finny was not only sure of his own decency but of everyone else’s. He had the ability to see the good in everyone and everything. I admired Finny’s pureness to the point of envy because I realized I was not of the same quality as he. He was…

    • 675 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gene constantly compares his faults and triumphs to those of Finny. “If I was head of the class on Graduation Day and made a speech and won the Ne Plus Ultra Scholastic Achievement Citation, then we would both have come out on top, we would be even, that was all. We would be even…” (pg. 52). The previous quote shows how Gene sees Finny more as his competition than his friend. Gene believes that all of Finny’s actions are taken to better himself in their competition. Thus, Gene feels that Finny is taking measures to ensure Gene’s failure academically. “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies. That explained blitzball,that explained the nightly meetings of the Super Suicide Society, that explained his insistence that I share all his diversions.” (pg. 53). This supports my previous statement that Gene is paranoid of Finny’s motives. Gene could never believe that his friend simply wants to spend time with him, instead he receives it as an act of…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    <br>In the early pages of the novel, Finny confesses that Gene is his best friend. This is considered a courageous act as the students at Devon rarely show any emotion. And rather than coming back with similar affection, Gene holds back and says nothing. Gene simply cannot handle the fact that Finny is so compassionate, so athletic, so ingenuitive, so perfect. As he put it, "Phineas could get away with anything." (p. 18) In order to protect himself from accepting Finny's compassion and risking emotional suffering, Gene creates a silent rivalry with Finny, and convinced himself that Finny is deliberately attempting to ruin his schoolwork. Gene decides he and Finny are jealous of each other, and reduces their friendship to cold trickery and hostility. Gene becomes disgusted with himself after weeks of the silent rivalry. He finally discovers the truth, that Finny only wants the best for Gene, and had no hidden evil intentions. This creates a…

    • 1585 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of the story, Gene was jealous of his best friend. He of envious of how attractive, athletic and how Phineas can get away with anything. “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little.”(Page 9 online) That feeling of jealousy soon became stronger and stronger and thinking of Phineas getting caught pleased him. “This time he wasn't going to get away with it. I could feel myself becoming unexpectedly excited at that.” (Pg. 10 online) This envious sensation even led to thinking Phineas was trying to ruin his grades, by distracting him, and that Phineas was jealous of Gene too. However, after confronting Phineas, Gene realizes Phineas never meant to hurt him, and that feeling made Gene want to be like Phineas. That’s exactly what happened. At first, Gene simply put on Finny’s infamous pink shirt to feel at peace, “I never forgot, and that evening I put on his cordovan shoes, his pants, and I looked for and finally found his pink shirt, neatly laundered in a drawer.” (Pg. 29 online) Later on, Gene actually became Phineas, from thinking like Phineas to feeling like Finny’s funeral was his own. “I did not cry then or ever about Finny. I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family's strait-laced burial ground outside of Boston. I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case. “ (Pg. 104 online) It shows the revolution of Gene’s feelings towards…

    • 964 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    "Summer" by David Updike

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages

    David Updike’s story “Summer” describes one summer holiday of a boy named Homer. He is faced with the external conflict on an unrequited love. Homer, the protagonist, is spending the summer at his best friend, Fred’s home near the lake. The summer, for the most, followed the usual flow of ‘athletic and boyhood fulfillment” (para 11) for Homer and Fred. There were the tennis matches and hiking, the alcohol and hanging out late at night and the reckless driving of both the car and the motorboat out on the lake. However, what made this summer special to Homer was that he had fallen in love with Fred’s sister, Sandra, the antagonist. Sadly, though, she did not seem to really notice him despite all the times they spent together, and so he suffered the heartache of regret and longing as he faced his conflict of an “unrequited” love.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gene changes as a person due to many things like friendship. Friendship is a important theme in this book and the ways friendship is affected is common due to Finny and Gene’s thoughts, actions, and feelings. Friends are always there for you when you need them most, even if you go through rough times they will love you support you through anything no matter what, even if no one else is there for…

    • 1071 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Primarily, Gene begins in his own bubble. He stays in his own comfort zone by only caring about staying on top of his school work and following the rules. The only person that could break his boundaries is Phineas, who he grows to envy. Eventually, Gene starts to break out of his bubble when they create a club where they jump off a tall tree. Gene hates the club because its holding him back from his studies. This leads Gene to become paranoid of Phineas and he starts to accuse him of keeping him from succeeding in school. He believes…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many memories that may come to mind when the word adolescence is spoken. Some people recall times of enjoyable, innocent adventures, but for others the phrase “teenage years” holds horrific memories. For a section of the populace their “teen experiences” may be the most appalling time period, as they begin to undergo many changes. This concept of dark adolescence is present, not only in the real world, but in the literary world as well. For example, in the novel A Separate Peace where a friendship turned in the wrong direction and a deadly war, mark the moments of growing up. While some readers believe that Phineas (Finny) and Gene’s separate peace shows the innocence of youthful occurrences; a closer inquiry demonstrates that through mental illness and death , adolescence is a time of terror, thus showing a theme of the realization of reality.…

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 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

    Each author writes her essay at a different time of year. This has a significant impact on the thoughts and attitudes on each of them. Dillard writes her essay in recollection of a past summer. Summer is a time when life abounds. The offspring of many animals first venture out into the world in summer, signifying the beginning of new life. Because summer is a warm and bright season, energy is at its peak, and spirits high. In sharp contrast, Woolf wrote her essay in the fall, a time of change from vibrance and life of summer to the dormancy of winter. The autumn is a dark time in which the energy of all living things is depleted. As autumn approaches, many people experience a form of depression called Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder (SAD). The dark time of autumn reflects the dark nature of Woolf's essay and her life.…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    His constant beliefs that Finny is trying to ruin his grades, is dragging him down and trying to outdo him cause him to twist their friendship into a competition that is deadly for both of them. Finny’s good hearted intentions cause Gene to resent him even more. When Finny broke the school record in swimming, he decided to keep between himself and Gene. According to Gene, Finny is “too good to be true” and “[p]erhaps for that reason his accomplishment took root in [Gene’s] mind and grew rapidly in the darkness [he] was forced to hide in” (44). His vengeful side grew deeper as he saw how pure Finny was and after her realizes “Now [Gene] knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between [them]. [Gene] was not the same quality as [Finny],” (59) which push him over the edge and his vindictiveness and cause the destruction of…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays