The Two Sides of War: The Character Contrast Between Finny and Brinker
The Second World War lay heavy on the shoulders of many young men during the war. John Knowles’s characters, Phineas and Brinker, in the novel A Separate Peace, are no exception despite being the leaders of the group of boys at the Devon School. That being said, Phineas and Brinker’s similarities lie there, the two are used as foils in terms of leadership style to highlight the different approaches to dealing with the oncoming realities of war.
Phineas and Brinker establish their power in opposite methods to demonstrate the different ways of facing the war. While Brinker is authoritative in his first lines of the novel, from the moment Phineas is introduced to the reader, …show more content…
After hearing both Finny and Brinker’s interpretation of the cause of warfare in World War II, Gene contemplates: “I had heard this generation-complaint from Brinker before, so often that I finally identified this as the source of his disillusionment during the winter, this generalized, faintly self-pitying resentment against millions of people he did not know… In a way this was Finny’s view, except that naturally he saw it comically, as huge and intensely practical joke, played by fat and foolish old men bungling away behind the scenes” (201). The different ways that Brinker and Finny interpret the war illustrate their opposing viewpoints throughout the book. Brinker, as per usual, chooses to see the world negatively, blame it on others in an unforgiving light. Finny once again draws attention away from reality, choosing the lighter route, suggesting “comically” that the war is a lie that fat old men have made up to distract people from what is really going on. Finny finds comfort in his own illusions of the world because they are not as harsh as what really goes on and because of his charisma is able to envelope other people in his alternate realities. Brinker, being the opposite, cannot see past what is directly in front of him, and focuses on the negatives, striving only to be what he is required to and nothing
The Second World War lay heavy on the shoulders of many young men during the war. John Knowles’s characters, Phineas and Brinker, in the novel A Separate Peace, are no exception despite being the leaders of the group of boys at the Devon School. That being said, Phineas and Brinker’s similarities lie there, the two are used as foils in terms of leadership style to highlight the different approaches to dealing with the oncoming realities of war.
Phineas and Brinker establish their power in opposite methods to demonstrate the different ways of facing the war. While Brinker is authoritative in his first lines of the novel, from the moment Phineas is introduced to the reader, …show more content…
After hearing both Finny and Brinker’s interpretation of the cause of warfare in World War II, Gene contemplates: “I had heard this generation-complaint from Brinker before, so often that I finally identified this as the source of his disillusionment during the winter, this generalized, faintly self-pitying resentment against millions of people he did not know… In a way this was Finny’s view, except that naturally he saw it comically, as huge and intensely practical joke, played by fat and foolish old men bungling away behind the scenes” (201). The different ways that Brinker and Finny interpret the war illustrate their opposing viewpoints throughout the book. Brinker, as per usual, chooses to see the world negatively, blame it on others in an unforgiving light. Finny once again draws attention away from reality, choosing the lighter route, suggesting “comically” that the war is a lie that fat old men have made up to distract people from what is really going on. Finny finds comfort in his own illusions of the world because they are not as harsh as what really goes on and because of his charisma is able to envelope other people in his alternate realities. Brinker, being the opposite, cannot see past what is directly in front of him, and focuses on the negatives, striving only to be what he is required to and nothing