Phineas In John Knowles A Separate Peace
“If Phineas had been sitting here in this pool of guilt, how would he have felt, what would he have done? He would have told me the truth.”(Knowles 66). Gene made a horrible mistake, but his first response is to do what Finny would do. They are best friends, Gene and Finny, because they balance each other out. Gene is quite refrained and a follower, but Finny is more outgoing and a leader. The problem with Gene being so refrained is he never talks about his feelings, instead he bottles them up until they burst. One of the times Gene let his feelings burst is when he was so paranoid that Finny was trying to sabotage him he actually made Finny fall off a tree and shatter his leg, quite possibly ruining his life. After Finny is taken to the emergency
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Gene puts on Finny’s clothes so he doesn’t have to deal with his own feelings, but he gets much than escape from impersonating Finny: “I was Phineas, Phineas to the life. I even had his humorous expression in my face, his sharp, optimistic awareness...That night I slept easily, and it was only on waking up that this illusion was gone, and I was confronted with myself, and what I had done to Finny.” (Knowles 62). Finny had to have been one of the most upbeat people at Devon always turning things around making jokes and Gene went along with the fun, but Gene never knew how good it felt to be Finny until he took on his persona. During the time Gene impersonated Finny he felt the ease of which Finny had carried himself and how nice it felt to be that carefree; although, when the illusion was past Gene was able to empathize with Finny how horrible the fall from that height in confidence to not barely being able to walk without a crutch. Once Gene felt that drop in confidence he realized the full intent of what he did to Finny and how that could only be worse than he knew because the one person Finny trusted was the one who caused his fall. After putting on Finny’s clothes Gene realizes what the full extent of what he did to Finny had
Gene puts on Finny’s clothes so he doesn’t have to deal with his own feelings, but he gets much than escape from impersonating Finny: “I was Phineas, Phineas to the life. I even had his humorous expression in my face, his sharp, optimistic awareness...That night I slept easily, and it was only on waking up that this illusion was gone, and I was confronted with myself, and what I had done to Finny.” (Knowles 62). Finny had to have been one of the most upbeat people at Devon always turning things around making jokes and Gene went along with the fun, but Gene never knew how good it felt to be Finny until he took on his persona. During the time Gene impersonated Finny he felt the ease of which Finny had carried himself and how nice it felt to be that carefree; although, when the illusion was past Gene was able to empathize with Finny how horrible the fall from that height in confidence to not barely being able to walk without a crutch. Once Gene felt that drop in confidence he realized the full intent of what he did to Finny and how that could only be worse than he knew because the one person Finny trusted was the one who caused his fall. After putting on Finny’s clothes Gene realizes what the full extent of what he did to Finny had