Gene Forrester's Insecurities In John Knowles A Separate Peace

Improved Essays
Insecurities have a way of driving people to do the extreme. The deep emotion indicates the lack of self-confidence that can prompt humans to act upon impulse and do unexplainable things. In the novel, A Separate Peace, John Knowles gives the reader insight into how Gene Forrester’s insecurities drive the plot and the resulting actions of it. Gene’s insecurities show up early in the novel. From the beginning, Gene fills his mind with irrational questions, “What was I doing up here anyways? Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this? Was he trying to get some kind of hold over me?” (Knowles 29). Gene allows his insecurities to consume him which brings unreasonable thoughts to his mind and makes him skeptical about his friendship with Finny. This makes Gene constantly compare himself to Finny. He describes himself as “the best student in the school” (Knowles 47) and Finny as …show more content…
Gene, with his mind set on his goal and a French exam coming up, accuses Finny of trying to ruin his grade. Finny genuinely tells Gene that he didn’t know he had to study and that he did not have to come. Gene’s jealousy wouldn’t allow him to miss an opportunity with Finny so he immediately states, “Never mind, forget it… I’m going.” (Knowles 49). Finny made it clear to Gene that he wasn’t trying to sabotage his grades which leads Gene to realize that Finny is truly a better person than he is. Just having this realization, Gene thinks to himself, “I was not of the same quality as he. I couldn’t stand this.” (Knowles 51). They arrive to the tree and meet up with a mutual friend, Leper. Gene and Finny decide to jump together as a symbol for their friendship. They climb up and position themselves to jump. Despite all Gene has just recently realized, his insecurities lead him to act on impulse and purposely joust limb. This causes Finny to fall and shatter his

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Gene often mentions how he is not as good as Finny at a plethora of social and physical activities. Despite resenting Finny for his superior skills at many things, Gene resents himself for not being as skilled in sports or as socially adept as Finny. As the story progresses, Gene internally rants about how he is better than Finny. “I was certainly becoming the best student in school; Phineas was without question the best athlete, so in that way we were even. But while he was a very poor student, I was a pretty good athlete, and when everything was thrown into the scales they would in the end definitely tilt towards me…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The core of a relationship lives in mutual trust, and when it is gone, it is very difficult to get back. This holds true to Gene and Phineas, or Finny, in John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace. Throughout the novel, Gene’s trust in Phineas waivers constantly, for no good reason other than his own cynicism and jealousy. He was jealous of Phineas’ athletic ability and charm over the faculty and students at The Devon School. With their relationship, Knowles demonstrates that people’s individual jealousy, insecurities, and perhaps confusion in one’s identity can lead to someone having bitter cynicism.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Gene explains, “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies. That explained blitzball, that explained the nightly meetings of the Super Suicide Society, that explained that I share all his diversions. The way I believed that you’re-my-best-friend blabber!” (53). Gene has discovered that his best friend is not a friend at all because in his mind, Finny is the enemy.…

    • 1774 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the beginning of the novel, when Gene first started to learn more about Finny his roommate he started to have envy on him. Gene said “I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little” (Knowles, 18). In Gene’s judgement Finny is the most perfect human being at Devon, but scholastically he is not.…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Because of his actions and problematic behavior, this makes Gene the weaker character. In a comparison of the two boys, Knowles implies that Gene is nearly an exact opposite of Finny. Driven by rivalry and bitterness, Gene’s entire mindset is comprised of comparing himself to others and becoming the best at everything. On page 24, one moment changes everything and will cause Gene to spitefully hurt his best friend.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Human beings spend their entire lives searching for their reason for existence. Often times, the inner being that resides in every person contains the truth, making self-realization the key to the indispensable knowledge of existence. The truth; however, often reveals the dark side of human nature that only acceptance can help overcome, leading to improvement. In John Knowles’s A Separate Peace, characters such as Leper struggle with the acceptance of their discovered inner truth. Discovery of the truth shatters Leper’s romanticized view of the world: turning his politeness and naivety into a corrupted, angry juxtaposition of his former self, and transforming his flowery and illusionary perspective into a reflection of the shock of reality…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    However, Like Gene, Finny would not even be able to be a soldier if he enlisted because he is such a pure, noble person. He could not even kill a soldier who was fighting to advance causes that could potentially kill millions of people. A few moments after this, Finny confronts Gene about what really happened up there in the tree. Finny remarks, “It was just some kind of blind impulse you had in the tree there, you didn’t know what you were doing. Was that it?”…

    • 1378 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People experience life changing moments which forces them to change their identity . Gene, Finny, and Leper, the characters of the novel, A Separate Peace fail to realize the life changing events that they all go through. Gene fails to realize his mistakes and tries hard to make those changes throughout the novel. Finny is unable to understand the evil that haunts him and can not overcome it. Leper fails to understand that there are people in society that are out to hurt you if you have different intentions than him…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Gene’s emotions give the reader a clue to how envious of Finny, Gene really is. Gene yearns to become Finny just as Adam and Eve wanted to become God. He wishes that he had all of the attributes that Finny does. Gene, because of his greed…

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gene felt Finny had protected him, and making his fear go away. Finny’s quick thinking actions saved Gene from falling and this creates a special bond between the two of them. Finny helping Gene in the scenarios creates a connection between them to show each other that they will be there for…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Gene is now able to understand the fallacies in Finny’s flawless, but unrealistic, world; therefore he is free to address his true foe. He understands that he was symbolizing his desire to be like his best friend by detesting Finny for possessing all the qualities Gene himself craved. Finny’s death causes Gene’s misperception to die as well: "I did not cry then or ever about Finny... I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case” (Knowles 186). Gene now realizes that he cannot become his best friend because the perceived qualities of Finny that he coveted were not realistic and that no one truly existed with the possession of all of those ideal traits.…

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gene’s feeling of guilt causes him to go completely numb. When he know he causes Finny’s death, he wanted to be dead. “I spent as much time as I could in our room, trying to empty my mind of every thought. To forget where I was, or who I was” (Knowles, 62). Gene feels he almost can’t bear the guilt.…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Text Example 8: "He was no better than I was no matter who won all the contests." (page 56) Reasoning: Gene tries to rid himself of jealousy by telling himself he is as good as Finny. Text Example 9: "If I was the head of the class and won that prize, then we would be even..." (page 52)…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Finny cannot accept the fact that his best friend would purposefully cause him harm (Rowe 3). Both of the boys are resolute in their denial of Gene’s misdeed, which causes tension and distrust…

    • 1222 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Finny is separate from all traits negative in nature.” (Edublogs) Finny is easily likable and is often seen as a leader and a role model. Throughout the conflicts in the book Gene learns that he is actually meant to learn from Finny and become a part of Finny’s personality. Slowly Gene becomes more comfortable with himself as he is killing his enemy. Eventually when Gene ills his enemy he is now at peace with himself, feeling no sympathy for his actions.…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays