A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace is one of the more interesting books i have read. Phineas and Gene are best friends who, in a way, live through each other. The way Phineas tries to convince Gene that he will make it to the Olympics in 1944 even though there wont be the Olympics because of the war, because Phineas cant do sports anymore. Gene lets it happen because he thinks he needs to live through Finny because of how he lives his life.

"He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he. I couldn't stand this . . . Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, and his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud. It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear of this forgotten." When Gene says "It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make." it kind of changed my view of Phineas a little. Throughout the most of the story Gene goes on about how spectacular Finny is and how perfect he is, and now because he made the limb shake he is imperfect. Also i think Gene always thought that Finny was constantly trying to compete with him at everything. But in this quote he says "I was not the same quality as he, I couldn't stand this." i think he realized that Finny never wanted to compete with him or anybody.

Chapter 10, kind of took things to a different objective. Leper was never really in the picture until now. He had really just been in the background. His craziness makes him come out. He says he "escapes" and asks Gene to go to his "Christmas Location", and Gene just drops everything and goes. and to think most of this started because he enlisted. Gene was a good friend for going to see Leper at his home in Vermont, but realized after going for a walk with him that he can't bear to listen to him cry anymore about all his troubles.

As i mentioned the friendship of Finny and Gene before, and about their identity and living through each other. I think Gene feels he needs to live through Finny. After Finny's accident Gene starts trying on his clothes and trying to act like him. Because in the first part of the story Gene almost resents Finny because he is so good at sports and his talent for being able to talk his way out of trouble. The two boys start depending on each other more and more. Finny using Gene to live his dream of sports and Gene using Finny to be somebody he wanted to be instead of who he was. This book shows that well and i liked it.