Throughout the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the characters Gene, Finny, and Leper struggle against the effects of World War II on their final year of youth. Finny and Gene share the freedom of jumping out of a tree together daily, which eventually comes to an end when Gene shakes the branch and causes Finny to fall and shatter his leg. After this incident, Finny is restrained by his cast and Gene is restrained by guilt. Leper is restrained by the war, and he frees himself by fleeing. Gene, Finny, and Leper are all affected by restraint and seek freedom. Gene and Finny find a sense of youthful freedom in their ventures in the tree. They met every night and allowed the jump to be a release from their everyday lives. Gene thinks that “[he] hated it,” but he always “went without a thought of protest” (34). This shows that Gene is slightly restrained because of his fear, but he is able to overcome it
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When Finny says, “hand me my crutches, will you?” it shows Finny’s lack of independence, which is one trait that defined Finny before the accident (105). Since he cannot function on his own, Finny is restrained from other activities that he was known for, such as jumping out of the tree and his extraordinary abilities in sports. More importantly, his injury restricted him from enlisting in the army like the other boys at the Devon School. While in the infirmary after his second fall, Finny admits to Gene that he has “been writing to the Army and the Navy and the Marines and the Canadians and everybody else all winter,” but nobody would accept him because his broken leg makes him unfit for the military's standards (190). This restrains Finny because he cannot partake in the war like the other boys his age. Finny’s leg causes him to be unable to keep up with the other boys whom he had once been more capable
When Finny says, “hand me my crutches, will you?” it shows Finny’s lack of independence, which is one trait that defined Finny before the accident (105). Since he cannot function on his own, Finny is restrained from other activities that he was known for, such as jumping out of the tree and his extraordinary abilities in sports. More importantly, his injury restricted him from enlisting in the army like the other boys at the Devon School. While in the infirmary after his second fall, Finny admits to Gene that he has “been writing to the Army and the Navy and the Marines and the Canadians and everybody else all winter,” but nobody would accept him because his broken leg makes him unfit for the military's standards (190). This restrains Finny because he cannot partake in the war like the other boys his age. Finny’s leg causes him to be unable to keep up with the other boys whom he had once been more capable