Phineas vs. Gene

A detailed Summary of Phineas vs. Gene

An analysis of the rivalry of Phineas and Gene.

From the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles.

Phineas' world was a very beautiful thing to him. A world where war was a work of art, painted so perfectly in his mind. He was full of views and ideas that were perfect in subject, but realistically unachievable. Gene was a Smart, intelligent boy. Every thing was completely real to him. School was very important. When he played sports, someone always lost, nobody always won in his mind. Gene, in his realism was somewhat drawn to Finny though, almost like he envied his idealistic theories.

In the early pages of A Separate Peace, Finny confesses that Gene is his best friend. It is considered a courageous act for the students at Devon to expose emotion. And rather than Gene venturing back with similar affection, he holds back and says nothing. Gene can't handle the fact that Finny is so compassionate, so perfect. In order to protect himself from accepting Finny's compassion and risking emotional pain, Gene creates a silent rivalry with Finny, convincing himself

Gene becomes disgusted with himself after weeks of the silent rivalry. He finally discovers the truth, that Finny only wants the best for Gene, and had no unfavorable intentions. This creates a huge conflict for Gene; not being able to deal with Finny's purity and his own darkness. On this very day Finny wants to jump off of the tree branch into the Devon river at the same time as Gene, a "double jump", he says, as a way of bonding. It was this decision, caused by Finny's affection for Gene and outgoing ways that resulted in drastic change for the rest of his life. Once up on the limb, without warning, Gene's misunderstanding of his own identity and confusion towards Finny's behavior explodes. He jounces the limb, sending Finny flailing to the bank below. At this point Gene feels extreme freedom from the web of rivalry that he has been living in. He even feels somewhat good inside. Gene also learns that he is capable of greater evil than he has ever imagined.

"I've gotten awfully mad sometimes and almost forgotten what I was doing. Something just seized you. It w

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Approximate Word count = 723
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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