Gene believes that Finny and he hate each other, until he realizes Finny's pureness, which Gene can not stand. At first, Gene believes that Finny wants to exceed him, and that the two are rivals. Everyone at Devon likes Finny. The teachers adore him, the students look up to him, the athletes aspire to be like him. Finny has no enemies. Gene, however, sees through Finny's "cover" and thinks they hate each other. He hates Finny for beating A. Hopkins swimming record, and for making him jump from the tree, and for being better than Gene. When Finny takes Gene to the beach, Finny tells Gene that they are "best pals." Gene does not respond to Finny's sincere gesture because he thinks Finny wants to sabotage him. Gene realizes that he and Finny are "even after all, even i

Knowles demonstrates the "truth" about life by using Finny, Gene, Leper, and the setting as biblical symbols. Leper, Gene, and Finny demonstrate how people must "evolve or perish". Finny symbolizes the "sacrificial lamb." A Christ figure, Phineas represents the goodness in man. He throws himself down the stairs sacrificing himself for Gene, as Jesus did for man. Gene represents mankind and man's capacity to hate. He shows how man can destroy, as in war, and that man must remove hate in order to achieve a "separate peace." Finny sacrifices himself so Gene doesn't end up like Leper, the outcast of society. Leper, a "naturalist," represents the fragile, innocent people who hide from the horrors of life until one day they "meet it, the horrors face to face, just as (they) had always feared, and so give up the struggle completely" (196). Leper comes to one realization; people must evolve or perish. Gene, unlike Finny and Leper, can evolve. When Gene "sees dawn for the first time" at the beach with Finny, he sees himself. Gene, like dawn "was not as (he) had expected, but as a strange gray thing" (41). Surprised at what he finds, Gene's witnessing of the sunrise that morning represents his progression; at first "gray", and confused, then with "midnight green," for his envy of Phineas, then "gray-white" when he sees himself, and finally "pure white" after he has confronts himself and becomes "Phineas-filled". After watching the sunrise, Gene goes into the water. He treads water and "simply ducks, and the waves concentrated power hurtled harmlessly overhead... I did not stop to think that one wave is inevitably followed by another even larger and more powerful" (101), but cannot tread water forever. Water also plays a role in Gene's baptism in the Nagaumsett. He appropriately falls into the "turbid" river after a fight with Quakenbush. Finny falls into the pure, clean Devon, demonstrating the Good vs. Evil theme, which shows the "war within a war." Devon represents the Garden of Eden, which is contaminated by Gene, mankind, to show again how man destroys what he can't understand. Gene listens to the "snake" and betrays Phineas in the tree, as Eve and Judas both did.

n enmity. The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all" (46). Gene has no proof of Finny's hatred, but Gene needs to find a way to be even with Finny. Once he decides they are even, he must now surpass Finny, so he jounces the limb. Gene's hatred takes over, only now he realizes that the hatred only comes from one side. Finny is pure. He never hates Gene; he loves Gene like he loves everyone else. Gene creates a monster, jealous and hateful, like himself. Gene can'

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1803
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)