How does gene forrester change in a separate peace

Yes, that's right — identity. Gene starts to become Phineas. Oddly enough, this sort of makes sense. One way to think about it is the guilt — Gene is so disgusted with himself for having caused Finny's accident that he can't bear to be Gene anymore. So he becomes someone else: Phineas. Another explanation is that Gene is acting on his admiration and jealousy by trying to become his hero.

Another is that Gene is a sixteen-year-old boy struggling to define himself in a difficult time. Rather than craft his own identity, he's simply borrowed someone else's. This leads us to another interesting aspect of Gene's character: the old Gene.

The one telling the story. What's his deal? Has he established his own identity, or is he still harping on Phineas's? Has he made his peace with what happened during the summer of ? At the very end of the novel he learns that Finny has learned that Gene pushed him out of the tree.

He knows of this after Leper tells of the incident at the trial. At the trial, Brinker sets it up during the night. All the boys come, and they discuss the incident. Get Access. Read More. A Separate Peace Analysis Words 6 Pages bildungsroman, A Separate Peace, author John Knowles depicts the common rivalry between young adolescents, and how they struggle to accept their identity and the relationship between their unconscious self.

From Innocence to Experience Words 5 Pages Experience Transformations occur all throughout life, from developing pimples as an adolescent, to a midlife crisis that changes everything. Instead of accepting the fact that Finny was simply a better human and leaning his focus onto self-improvement, he concluded that Finny must be jealous too.

Gene wanted to excel at something related to how Finny had exceeded. As the novel goes through, Gene develops a love-hate relationship with Finny, whom he alternately adores and envies. Then the fear of being inferior to Finny begins to flourish. Comparing to Finny, Gene cannot be as good as him at sports, at his courage and freedom to break rules, and also at his leadership.

Thus, Gene tries to beat Finny with grades, and he even suspicions of Finny trying to sabotage his grades and betrays him. Essays Essays FlashCards. Browse Essays. Sign in. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Show More. Brinker is more focused on politics and government issues rather than sports. Brinker is is six feet tall. When the main character Finny dies in A Separate Peace, the author John Knowles does not put the burden of the blame on one single character but shows each character's thoughts of the accident.

Finny and his best friend Gene go to an all boys school in New Hampshire. Finny is an extroverted star athlete who is friends with everyone, while Gene is more of an introvert who focuses on his academic career. One summer afternoon while Gene and Finny are walking along a river, Finny persuades Gene to climb with him to the top of a tree he spots and jump into the water below. Finny tragically stumbles on a limb on the top of the tree and fall off, shattering his leg.

The main character, Gene, is a very smart, but envious and imitative kid that returns back to his school later in life to find peace within himself and past conflicts.

Within the pages of A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the main character Gene goes through a multitude of changes; in his life and in his being.