Green Gene Essay Research Paper A Separate

Green Gene Essay, Research Paper

A Separate Peace by John Knowles recounts the friendship between two friends, Gene and Finny, during the year before they turn 18 and join World War II. It begins fifteen years in the future with Gene returning to his Alma Mata and remembering the drama and growth of his last year at Devon. Gene was rather naive and shy, concerned more with his academics. Gene was also very doubting and insecure about his own abilities. Phineas, or Finny was confident, the athlete and ringleader. Liked by all, he always had a crazy plan brewing in his mind. Daring and brave, his entire objective was to enjoy life. Finny persuades Gene to be bolder and more spontaneous, yet when Finny was not around Gene lost that sense of poise and self-assurance. Consequently, this created opposition within Gene.s mind. Gene both admired and envied Finny. Gene detested Finny.s constant and sanguine attitude toward life because it epitomized a serenity that he could never achieve because of his own insecurity.

Phineas had this mindset that permitted him to see life from a different point of view.

.The Devon faculty had never experienced a student who combined a calm ignorance of the rules and a winning urge to be good, who seemed to love the school truly and deeply, and never more then when he was breaking the regulations, a model student who was most comfortable in the truant.s corner (Knowles, 16)..

He had a charisma and a persona that mesmerized the student body as well as the staff. No one ever knew what he was going to do next or the reason he would give and that was exactly the way Finny liked it. The incident when he wore the pink shirt and explained his motive demonstrates not only that Finny was unpredictable but also shows his influence among the school community. He viewed the shirt as his emblem, his way of celebrating the fact that the Allies had just bombed Central Europe. Gene summarizes Finny.s amount of sway best when he states, .No one else could have done so with out some risk of having it torn from his back (Knowles, 18)..

Even when faced with stark realities, Phineas concocted some fantastic story to feed his disbelief in unsettling events. The most blatantly dismal thread occurring in the book was the War, in which Finny believes that it is a sham made up by some old, fat men to keep the young from enjoying themselves.

.Well what happened was that they didn.t like that (the drinking and behavior of the .Roaring Twenties.), the preachers and the old ladies and all the stuffed shirts. So then they tried Prohibition and everybody just got drunker, so then they really got desperate and arranged the Depression. That kept the people who were young in the thirties in their places, but that trick couldn.t work forever and so for us, in the Forties, they cooked up this war fake (Knowles, 106)..

Another disheartening event that Finny brushes off was when Gene jounced the limb on purpose and then tried to confess to him that he had jerked the limb, Finny disregarded the confession and explained it as a fleeting moment of insanity.

Gene was very apprehensive about his own abilities and thus, buried himself within his books and his academics. He was cautious about games and sports, such as the incident with Blitzball. Finny created this game and in the founding moment threw Gene the ball. For the rest of the game Gene tried to give the ball away and become less of the center of the game. .Still mine. Nobody else has had the ball but me, for God sakes! (Knowles, 31).. During the beginning of the school year when Finny was still in Boston, Gene still avoided the spotlight and gravitated towards the shadows when he signed up to be crew manager instead of attempting to play a sport. Gene, when not in the company of Finny, was very withdrawn and reserved.

It was this difference in his actions and personality that proved fatal. It was the relationship with Finny that provided the problem. He was both appreciative and envious of Phineas. He respected Finny and wanted to be like him. During Finny.s sojourn in Boston, Gene wore his clothes around school and tried to become Finny. He even believed that it was his purpose to be a part of Finny. ..and I lost a part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas (Knowles, 77)..

Gene even rationalized his feeling of envy by creating another competition within his own mind. He genuinely believed that Phineas was trying to sabotage his chance at becoming valedictorian by dragging him to the beach on the night of a big Chemistry exam and by forcing him to attend the midnight meetings of the Super Suicide Society. Even when Finny sarcastically responds with .I.d kill myself out of jealous envy (44). to Gene.s question of whether or not he would mind if he came out head of the class, Gene took it as Finny being serious.

.Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies. That explained Blitzball and the Super Suicide Society meeting every night. .But them I found a single sustaining thought. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. You did hate him for breaking the school swimming record, but so what. He hated you for getting an A in every subject last term. The realization broke as clearly and as bleakly as dawn