Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

Growth can only come from hardships and struggle. John Knowles, author of A Separate Peace, uses conflict to shape Gene Forrester into an adult. In the beginning of the novel, Gene illustrates an envious and spiteful character. But as the story progresses, he transforms into a confident, and restored person. Eventually, Gene’s innocence is lost through a self-inflicted battle, which conveys him to adulthood. In particular, Gene’s tendency to achieve high grades gives him a sense of conformity. Finny urges Gene to stop “‘…living by the rules…’” (63). But Finny’s whims threatens Gene’s sense of orthodoxy. Frightened, Gene decides he needs to follow Finny’s notions in order to avoid jeopardizing their friendship. Self-regarding and immaturely, this leads Gene to resent Finny for “…the deadly rivalry…” between them (46). Rashly, Gene assumes Finny keeps trying to cause him to fail his studies by encouraging him to jump off the tree limb or cut school to go to the beach. This seems to be true to Gene because anyone encouraging him to disobey the rules must wish him

Later on, Gene finds out that “…there was and never could have been any rivalry between [them]” (52). Stubbornly, this anguishes Gene because his bitterness towards Finny does not make sense anymore. Finny’s ways were carefree, and not devoted to terminating Gene. Gene resents Finny for the “…extra vigor…” and “…heightened confidence…” he possesses (192). Impulsively, Gene causes Finny to fall out of the tree, which in return, helps him relieve some anger within. Since Finny is shown to be a threat to Gene, falling of the tree revives his sense of conformity. The release of anger allowed Gene to jump into the river with “…every trace of [his] fear of this forgotten” (52). Gene no longer sees Finny as a threat to him, and this frees him. Which allows him to jump freely off the limb like never