A Separate Peace Ignorance Vs Ignorance

Improved Essays
From John Knowles’s A Separate Peace, the reader learns that while ignorance is bliss, it is short lived and can be devastating. While Finny wants to remain innocent, he has too much knowledge to convince himself that he is still ignorant. In his hopeless attempts to fight life itself, he fails to adapt before it is too late. In his feeble battle, Finny begins with denial. This refusal leads to anger, and finally acceptance. While Finny ultimately allows himself to believe what Gene did, it is too late. His careless actions brought about by his emotions cause him to re-break his leg, and he dies during the surgery. Finny’s struggle against the truth allows the reader to see the power of ignorance, the devastation of repudiation, and the coldness

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    The homoerotic tension in A Separate Peace that exists between Gene and Finny creates the central problem in the novel. Gene is unable to come to terms with how he feels about Finny and this leads to an extremely unhealthy relationship that leads to disastrous consequences for Finny. Gene idolizes Finny throughout the novel, because of the tension that exists between them, and this leads to Finny, in Gene’s mind, as becoming an unobtainable, perfect person. Gene, unable to deal with the fact that Finny could be too good for him, reacts very negatively to this idea. Gene glorifies Finny into a perfect person which Gene thinks he can never be good enough for, this leads to an unhealthy obsession of Finny’s personality that evolves into a dangerous…

    • 136 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After Gene agrees to come to the meeting, instead of studying, and Finny suggest that both of them should do a double jump, Gene says, ”Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb” (59-60). Because of this, Finny could no longer participate in sports and was lucky to be able to walk again, until the truth about the accident surfaced later leading him to break the leg again and then die of a heart failure. This shows the extreme consequences of Gene’s actions and though it is not likely that many people will go through the same situation for something they did it still reaffirms that one’s actions have consequences, that most of the time are impossible to…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The Separate Peace” Essay and Analysis During the fall break I read the book called “The Separate Peace”, and in this essay I want to focus on the theme friendship. This thee is really important to me, because you need friendship in life cause when you are down they can pick you right back up. Then when you’re thinking to highly of yourself they can make you stop getting so cocky, and they are like a brother or sister to us. This book focuses on a friendship between two sixteen-year-old boys, and there friendship has a combination of admiration, respect, jealousy, and resentment.…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gene didn't want Finny to lose his athletic abilities for good, but once that does happen, Gene is able to become a better person. This is where the true nature of Gene and Finny as foils makes a difference in the story. Finny suffers a traumatic event that spirals him into depression and denial about the war. Gene wrestles with his conscience and how to be a better friend after witnessing and experiencing his own vengeful feelings exposed toward someone who was supposed to be his best friend. Had Finny not broken his leg and declined in his strength of character, though, Gene would not have been able to rise up out of his jealous nature to become a better person.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A good athlete, charming, and light-hearted, the boy symbolizes the ideal American boy. Seeing that good nature in Finny lead Gene to contemplate the reality that he was indeed jealous of who Finny was. As a strong minded character, Finny spends the rest of the book after the accident trying to deny that Gene could hurt him this way, not wanting to believe that his own best friend had ultimately destroyed his life. Stubborn to the fact that nothing between them would be the same, Finny simply chooses not to bring up the fall until provoked by Brinker. Finny’s only weakness was ignorance of the malice of…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    (191). This quote also shows Finny accepting reality because he finally understands what made Gene jounce the limb of the tree: his dark nature. By grasping the fact that Gene has a dark side to him, it helped him understand why Gene did what he did. But, learning this…

    • 1378 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior 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

    “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
  • 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

    Oxymoron Analysis

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This “Separate Peace” that Finny says in the book that Finny is the essence of, is gone now. ○ This discussion has made me rethink the book in ways that I could not have by “just reading it”. When I read, I tend to argue with myself in my head, and then I might settle on one opinion that I feel that I have enough evidence to share and prove it. But this discussion has given me more to think about; Is Gene the “good guy” or the “bad guy”?…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Finny truly sees the effects of the war when Leper returns to campus after a disconcerting stint in the military (Bryfonski 59). Denial is also seen in Gene’s fear of self-confrontation. Gene refuses to accept Leper Lepellier’s “wisdom of woe,” which refers to Leper’s mental breakdown during his time in military training, despite the fact that the two boys are experiencing an identity crisis (Bryfonski 52). Finny wholeheartedly rejects the indication that Gene purposefully jounced the limb. When Gene attempts to confess his responsibility for the incident, Finny refuses to recognize Gene as the guilty party (Rowe 3).…

    • 1222 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Kierstin Flint Mrs. Atnip English 2 Period 2 2 November 2015 Friendship A Relationship in One During a lifetime friendships are the most important bond that people can form. These friendships are alive throughout all generations and we use the skills we learn to continue making new relationships. Throughout the novel, A Separate Peace, the author, John Knowles, displays the good things about close friendships but also the hardships that often occur. Gene and Finny, two boys that attend Devon school, grow emotionally and physically despite their opposite personalities.…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior 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
  • Improved Essays

    During the year nineteen twenty-two, George Orwell served for the Indian Imperial Police in Burma where he witnessed British colonial life and was revolted at what the poor and weak had to endure (“George Orwell Timeline”). Orwell clearly knew about the misuse of power, since he was there first-hand to experience it in action. He was against the atrocious corruption within the government of Burma. Winston Smith - Orwell’s main character in Nineteen Eighty-Four - loathed a corrupted government as much as Orwell. Winston wanted nothing more than to revolt against the government he was trapped in.…

    • 1019 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays