A Separate Peace
... so-called "jock" at Devon. However, while he was well known and respected for his athletic ability, he would not participate in the legitimate sports programs nor would he acknowledge his rather elevated abilities at all. This is where one of the first of many conflicts in the story enters, why would he show such a disrespect for himself? What could lead him to hold such a gratuitous aspect of modesty? These very questions were constantly, as can be interpreted from the reading, flowing throughout Gene's mind. It existed to such an extent that Gene would eventually execute a rather selfish and questionably deliberate action. This would give way to the beginning of Gene's evolution as well as the diminishing of Finny's state of mind, his evolution. Gene as a youth was in every aspect a complete contrast to his unlikely friend, Finny. Further proving the old phrase "opposites attract." Gene was consistently receiving high grades and accolades for his elevated intellect, however it was not nearly as consistent or well received as Finny's athleticism. While it was never directly stated by Knowles, as far as can be interpreted Gene could not perform well in any type of sport nor could he accept the fact that Finny could. Gene was withholding a great deal of resentment and clear jealousy towards his friend, and in effect would not accept that fact either. He could not understand his emotions to the extent that he was not even aware, or just unable to acknowledge them in the first place. The process of evolution is set in motion and the characters' mental states begin to alter to be completely dissimilar from ere. The most memorable incident from the story, which can also be discerned as the turning point in the story, was the occurrence in the large oak tree. Gene and Finny had brought themselves to grow accustomed to facing fear and pushing it aside. They had on occasion leaped from a large branch upon the tree, falling into a lake below. A sort of rite of passage for Gene, he had begun to displace his fear a little more with every leap from the high perch. Evolving from his old ways into a new and more courageous, even spontaneous individual, completely contrary to his previous and more projected self. While upon the branch, Gene and Finny conversed little. Finny was preparing to jump when Gene abruptly shook the branch with a sudden impelling of his legs. Unable to keep balance, Finny glances at Gene before falling to the earth below, not reaching the soft water of the lake. The water which would have prevented the after effects of the fall, which were in effect a complex mix of irony and tragedy as Finny, the ultimate symbol of courage and athleticism was left shaken and with a broken leg. Thus retarding Finny from any of his previously enjoyed notoriety or pleasure from being "number one" among his colleagues. Immediately following the incident, the adult Gene as narrator reflects upon the scenery in and around the area of the accident. Without any apparent guilt or sense of responsibility, Gene awes at the landscape before himself leaping from the tree, into the water. Fearless and irresponsible, Gene has begun to mold into what I would call a "real" human being. An! individual composed of true character and idealism, while still retaining the ability to be cruel and reckless, whether it is intentional or not. Now that Gene has subconsciously fulfilled his own mental necessity to dispose his friend, which he seems to view in some way as an opposing force, he has inadvertently begun Finny's own stage of evolution. Finny sadly realized as a result of his fall that he would never be able to play sports as he previously did and there remained a chance he may not retain the ability to run ever again. All this in place, in addition to his actual presence at the accident site, Finny quite frankly refused to assemble the overwhelming facts leaving Gene as the sole culprit in a jealous crime. Gene himself was forced to rethink his state of mind at the time, running the incident over and over in his head until he could no longer dispute that he had in fact, intentionally jounced the limb causing the crippling of his friend. The boy next door evolved just enough to employ the ability to dispassionately inflict true injury and eventual mental detriment upon his fellow human being. In this ! case, Phineas his best friend, or so he had previously assumed. Finny, the victim in the situation, was not as accepting or willing to realize the actual pieces composing the incident and all of the factors leading up to it. Even when confronted by a confession, Gene's face to face confession, he would not acknowledge the fact that his best friend would or could intentionally murder his only true abilities and destroy his only hopes for the future. Finny simply denied himself the easy explanation that it "was Gene." He wanted, most likely subconsciously, to have something more representative, something that held within it some higher sense of complexity and/or reasoning. Finny, always being the brave and in some distinct way more than human character, had fallen and broken with a sudden and simple movement of a branch. The "super-human" character represented by Finny both in the eyes of Gene and distantly by Finny himself, had been in a sense fractured by the intentions of a mere mortal, a simpler and less foreboding character; Gene. In this manner, Finny's evolution was not so much a growth in mental or physical aspirations nor was it a gradual process slowly manipulating itself over time. Finny's evolution as a human was something of an inverse operation. Gene gradually moved forward, growing as a person and always evolving, moving upward along some imaginary stairway of character and what it means to be truly human. Finny in contrast, was thrust from what he and those around him saw as the highest form of character and of accomplishment, deep into the broken and s...