A Separate Peace: Gene vs Phineas

A Separate Peace In John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, Gene is portrayed as an average boy in high school. The novel takes place during World War II, when Gene is in summer school and the following school year. The story has very few characters, most of them being Gene’s peers. Some of these characters include Leper, Brinker, Chet, Quackenbush, and Phineas. Phineas, or Finny for short, is Gene’s best friend. He is …

…on each other until they are finally forced by Brinker and his trial to come to the realization about the incident. After this, Finny is furious with Gene, and soon after Finny dies during surgery. Only after Finny’s death does Gene realize his true love of Finny, but his resentment and dependency kept him from seeing this until it was too late. Works Cited Knowles, John. A Separate Peace. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1960.