A Separate Peace Essay essays

A Separate Peace Essay essays In the novel, A Separate Peace written by John Knowles, the protagonist, Gene Forrester goes through the struggle to achieve and maintain a separate peace. Gene's soul becomes a battleground where jealousy, fear, love, and hatred combat for control of his actions. And amidst the turmoil of his adolescence, it is the victory of the dark forces of human nature that make Gene realize that each person is alone with his enemy, that the only significant wars are not made by external causes, but "by something ignorant in the human heart" (193). The novel's conflict arises out of Gene's refusal to recognize his own feelings of jealousy and insecurity as the "real enemy." Instead, his fears are projected onto his closest companion, Phineas, whom Gene suspects of possessing his own feelings of envy and self-loathing. With Finny as the enemy, Gene is put into a world of competition and hatred, where the only crucial elements worth preserving are his own survival and superiority. This act o f self-deception drives Gene to evil thoughts and behavior, destroying any feelings of affection and friendship that he might have once had for Finny. Upon realizing his mistake and discovering that Phineas does not share Gene's envy and hatred, Gene's isolation and self-loathing deepen and he intentionally cripples the one person who wants to be his friend. Phineas becomes a metaphor for the peace that is lost when Gene is too afraid to identify the enemy within himself. The peace and friendship that Gene lost, the peace that is Finny, becomes for Gene so internalized that he no longer perceives Finny as separate from himself, evidenced by his feeling that Finny's funeral is his own. In the novel, Gene Forrester is portrayed as a Dynamic character. A dynamic character is one who has undergone a change, activity, or progress during the course of a story. Usually a dynamic character is willing to change and develop for a better. ...