A Separate Peace: Finny - How Things Change Essay example -- essays re

A Separate Peace: Finny - How Things Change In the novel "A Separate Peace," by John Knowles, a boy named Gene visits his high school 15 years after graduating in order to find an inner peace. While attending the private boys school during the second World War, Gene's best friend Phineas died and Gene knows he was partially responsible. Phineas, or Finny as he was sometimes called, was the most popular boy in school. He was a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. Gene, on the other hand, was a lonely, self-sufficient intellectual. Somehow the two became good friends, or so Finny thought. Gene, unfortunately, was bitten by the green-eyed monster of jealousy. Gene just couldn't come to grips with the idea that a person of Finny's stature would want to be his friend. Gene's envy grew to a point where he was willing to severely injure Finny for being too perfect. Unfortunately for Finny, Gene succeeded. Finny's seeming perfection, his strong beliefs, and his ability to forgive trace his development throughout the novel. Finny's seeming perfection was the basis for Gene's resentment towards him. Gene thought that everything Finny did was perfect, which just upset Gene all the more. Finny was so perfect that he didn't care what others thought, like when Finny wore a pink shirt as an emblem after the bombing of central Europe. " '...Pink! It makes you look like a fairy!' 'Does it?' He used this preoccupied tone when he was thinking of something more interesting than what you had said." One time Finny and Gene were at the swimming pool when Finny noticed that a boy named A. Hopkins Parker had the record for the 100 yards free style. When Finny realized that A. Hopkins Parker had graduated before they came, he remarked, "I have a feeling I can swim faster than A. Hopkins Parker." He was right. Gene was ecstatic that Finny could do such a thing without any training or anything. All Gene could say was, "You're too good to be true." In certain ways he was. Throughout the book Gene knows that Finny has some strong beliefs. The first three he noticed were: "Never say you are five feet nine when you are really five feet eight and a half"; "Always say some prayers at night because it might turn out that there is a god"; an... ...y?" "I believe you. It's okay because I understand and I believe you. You've already shown me and I believe you." Finny forgave Gene and all was well, at least for a little while. Finny's development can be seen throughout the novel by tracing his seeming perfection, his strong beliefs, and his ability to forgive. Finny changed from being the best athlete in the school to being the only one who couldn't go to the war. Finny was a very good person. Finny was a very firm believer in what he thought was right. Finny was a very forgiving person, believing in the forgiveness of friends. Unfortunately, Finny died due to the negligence of the school doctor. When Finny's leg was being set some bone marrow escaped into his blood stream stopping his heart. When Gene heard this news he didn't cry. Gene felt that, along with Phineas, he himself had died, and you don't cry at your own funeral. Gene went back to his school to come to grips with the fact that he was partially responsible for Finny's death. Finny was not perfect; D's on his tests and bad grades show that. But to Gene, Finny was perfect and always would be.