Gene Forrester In John Knowles A Separate Peace

What would it feel like if you were rushed to grow up? During World War II, teenagers from around the country were experiencing the answer to that very question. One of those people is Gene Forrester, a prep student at the prestigious Devon School in New Hampshire during World War II. Gene grows tremendously as a person and eventually becomes the perfect leading character for the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, and its underlying themes. At the beginning of the novel, his conformist personality, uncomfortability in his own skin, and inability and unwillingness to express his feelings openly and directly makes him appear like a flawed leading character; however, over the course of the novel, he becomes more understanding of himself …show more content…
At the end of chapter three, Finny is finishing up his nightly monologue before he says to Gene that he is his best friend. On p. 48, Gene ponders, “I should have told him then that he was my best friend also and rounded off what he had said. I started to; I nearly did. But something held me back. Perhaps I was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth.” Gene wants to say that Finny is his best friend as well, but something holds him back, preventing Gene from expressing his feelings. Towards the end of the novel, Brinker starts his own investigation and trial about how Finny’s fall happened. The older Gene reflects back at this moment and says that if he had conveyed his thoughts about the trial, none of the mayhem might not have happened. Later in the trial, Brinker recalls that Leper was also there at the accident and wants to know his whereabouts. Gene has the opportunity to tell Brinker, but he doesn’t, leaving it to Finny to spill the beans. Because of his guilt, Gene doesn’t want to speak and tell Brinker where Leper is hiding. Gene’s lack of a concrete identity is a challenge that Gene has had to overcome on his path to