A Separate Peace Character Analysis

To most people a dream is just a part of the imagination, of course it would be ideal for it to come true, but the average person can see the difference from a dream to reality. The average person knows not to trust people blindly, knows to do what is best for them, they understand that occasionally one must put their dreams aside for it will not work with the world around them, they understand how to adjust their dream to reality. Of course this is just the average person. The characters Finny and Neil are both dreamers and idealists and were therefore destined to die for they could not live in a world where dreams are only dreams and reality includes hate, jealousy and practicalists. Finny was unable to live a life where his best friend hated him. Neil was in able of living a life in military school. Both could only live the dream.

Finny and Neil are both optimists and through their attitudes towards everyday life one can clearly see their misconceptions of reality.
Finny undoubtedly knew that Gene deliberately pushed him off the tree but convinced himself that "I must have just lost my balance. It must have been that" (58). Finny needed to believe in Gene. He felt that Gene was his best friend and if he couldn't believe in Gene, then the structure of his life would fall apart. It was more important for Finny to believe in Gene rather than to know the truth. What Neil wanted more than anything was to be an actor, but he knew his father would not approve, so instead of trying to come to an agreement with his father, he lied to Mr. Keeting about having permission. Neil could not deal with obstacles, so he avoided them. He could not make compromises or sacrifices so he hid from the truth and lied. It was more important for Neil to secure his dream as opposed to finding away to make it work in reality. He could not accept the potential of losing his