Separate Peace Identity Analysis

In Separate Peace the characters battle with their identity. Gene is one of the many characters that struggles to be himself, instead he tries to be other people. Given that Gene has a hard time with his identity, he tries to be someone he is not: Gene tries to be Finny. Finny can be described as athletic, outgoing, and a risk taker, all things that Gene does not possess. Although Gene is far from Finny’s qualities he tries to duplicate them. Gene said “I decided to put on his clothes (Knowles 29).” When Gene puts on Finny’s clothes it starts his obsession of being Finny. He continued to match everything Finny does and would do, for example Finny told Gene that he wanted to one day become an olympic athlete until he broke his leg. Gene …show more content…
Before Gene meet Finny, he would never had done these things, but since he is a teen struggling with his identity he was draw to Finny because, According to the article “An Overview of Separate Peace” “Phineas' imaginary worlds creates a peace separate from the world at war.” That separate place gave Gene a reason to no confront his identity problem and instead copy others that seem like they have a strong, put together …show more content…
In the beginning of the novel Brinker and Leper seemed like they had everything figured out. In reality they did not, they were just like Gene and Finny not ready to make decisions or confront their problems. Brinker said “Ready to sign up?” he shouted before he was through the door. “You ready to enlist (Knowles 55)” Brinker started out wanting to be ther first person to enlist. When the time came to pick where to go he got hestitate and did not want to fight, Gene said “And then Brinker,” I added, “is all set for the Coast Guard, which is good too (Knowles 108).” Mr. Hadley’s scowl deepened, although his experienced face partially masked it. In the story Coast Guard is looked at as a pathetic part of the military, and they do not go to battle. Hence why Brinker choose to go into the Coast Guard to not actually have to fight. Leper on the other hand, he did not want to go to war because he did not believe war was the right choice in any arguement he was considered a naturalist, Gene said “No real war could draw Leper voluntarily away from his snails and beaver dams (Knowles 65).” Until, one day Leper just decided to enlist. Leper struggled with his identity after he came back from being dishonorable discharged. Leper said to Gene “You’re thinking I’m not normal, aren’t you? I can see what you’re thinking—I see a lot I never saw before”—his