Matthew Mehrtens

Mrs. Ferrell

Language Arts II

17 May 2018

A Separate Peace: Literary Analysis

The novella written by John Knowles, A Separate Peace, is a worst-case scenario from

cover to cover. It is the story of how a single almost-negligible feeling of envy can end up

festering and overwhelm one’s heart until it tears apart the “unbreakable” bonds of friendship.

True friendship may be one of the strongest forces in human nature, but A Separate Peace shows

how feelings of pure evil can be just as strong, if not stronger. Abominable feelings have

consequences—many of them irreversible—and left untamed, the feelings can lead to the

destruction of even the most tenacious friendships.

In A Separate Peace, two characters are followed closely: Gene Forrester, intelligent,

rule-following, and extremely competitive, and Gene’s best friend, Phineas (“Finny”),

athletically-gifted, charming, and innocent or naïve. During the rising action of the novella,

Finny’s extraordinary athletic abilities and charming persona cause Gene to feel a mixture of

love and hate. At times, Gene feels excitement for his best friend and his accomplishments, but

he admits that occasionally he feels a “friendly” envy. At the moment, this negative feeling has

no hold on Gene and is effectively harmless. However, as the story progresses and Finny

continues to be successful, the “friendly” envy Gene observed in himself begins to grow

substantially. As a few more weeks pass, this feeling slowly starts transforming into a much

more dangerous feeling, hatred. Gene begins falsely suspecting Finny of being overly-

competitive, sabotaging his education, and forcing unnecessary risk on him. Eventually, Gene’s
envious hatred grows to such a degree that he causes Finny to fall from a high tree limb and

break his leg. Because Gene is an unreliable narrator, it is unclear whether or not the “blind

impulse”, as Gene claims the act was, was conscious or unconscious, but it is very clear that this

action was an effect of hateful emotions. Throughout the entire rising action and climax, we

watch as a feeling of gentle and basically harmless envy grows from a tiny seed in Gene’s heart

to an encapsulating thorny weed that engulfs Gene’s heart entirely. This hateful weed causes

Gene paranoia and anxiety, blinds Gene to the truth, and leads to gross and irrevocable actions. It

is important to note that Gene’s envious feelings were not addressed until it was too late. A

reasonable explanation for why Gene’s emotions grew to such a hateful extreme was because he

chose to bottle them up and keep them to himself. If he had done otherwise and openly discussed

them with Finny, it is likely the whole conflict could have been avoided.

Throughout the novella, Finny expresses a truly innocent perspective on friendship.

Despite the fact that Gene plots against his best friend and causes him detrimental pain,

ultimately ruining his life, Finny never holds a grudge and always ends up forgiving Gene in full.

Even hours before he dies and days after Gene had caused him serious physical harm for the

second time, Finny forgives Gene for ultimately ruining all his dreams and aspirations. In the

story, this behavior is presented as deliberate ignorance, but a better definition of this behavior,

in my opinion, is true forgiveness. True forgiveness is not necessarily a requirement for

friendship, but if someone has a true and honest friendship with another person, they love them

more deeply than they would an ordinary acquaintance. It is that deep love Finny had for Gene

that allowed him to truly forgive Gene for his atrocities. If Finny did not love and care for Gene

as deeply as he did, it is unlikely Finny would have been able to honestly forgive Gene for his

spiteful acts.
 When Finny dies because of an unexpected complication during a simple bone-setting

surgery, it is justifiable to say that Gene indirectly caused Finny’s death. Inevitably, this is going

to leave a lasting impact on Gene. Broken bones may heal, but death is permanent and

immutable. Speaking optimistically, I think it is quite possible that when Gene travels back to his

school fifteen years later, he is able to make amends with himself and perhaps he is able to live

the rest of his life at least being able to cope with his guilt and live peacefully. However, I do not

think Gene will ever be able to truly put this death behind him. When Finny forgave Gene for

breaking his leg, it was under the assumption that legs will heal. In a different circumstance,

death is permanent and therefore I believe that the pain and memories Gene has are permanent as

well. They will always be a scar upon his heart and forever remind him of that fateful year.

It is almost absurd to think that a fleeting thought in Gene’s head eventually leads to the

untimely death of his closest friend, but that is the brutal reality Knowles is trying to teach the

reader. The friendship between Gene and Finny was exceedingly complex, but one thing was

clear: Finny had no guile and was able to love Gene with all his heart; Gene was overrun with

jealousy and hatred and was incapable of loving Finny in the same manner. If not addressed,

hateful feelings can quickly spiral out of control and become inimical to not only the individual

possessing the hatred but also anyone associated.