Finny Character Traits

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Phineas, better known as Finny, is the heroin in the book Separate Peace by John Knowles. He is senior in boarding school called Devon, at New hampshire. He is rommate, and also best friend with protagonist, Gene. Although the book is in Gene’s perspectives, Finny’s characteristics were more shown than Gene. Finny is from outer side of Boston, Massachusetts. Not much of his background is known, but readers can predict that Finny’s family is all from Boston. At Finny’s funeral in chapter 12, page 194, Gene says that “..him being lowered into his family’s strait-laced burial ground outside Boston.”
Finny has a does not look like he have a physical. As Gene’s account in page 16, he is five feet and half inch, and weighed hundred and fifty pound. …show more content…
For example, at chapter 3, Finny make a game called blitzball. There is no goal at this game, but Finny changed the rule while they were playing the game. Throughout page 36-38, it shows the frustration of people with Finny changing rules all the time. His self oriented characteristic can be also be seened in chapter 12. In chapter 12, he told Gene that he was trying to enlist the war during the winter but nobody enlisted him with the leg. Then he said in page 190, “why do you think I said there wasn’t any war all winter? I was going to keep on saying two seconds after I got mail from some place saying that I was enlisted,” then he says” Then there would have been a war” . This shows that he does not believe in war because he is not participating in it. He also does not like doing competition. This is shown clearly at chapter 3, and chapter 11. In chapter 3, Finny and his fellow friend was playing ‘blitzball’ which had no goal, had no objective of the game. In chapter 11, they have a snowball fight. This also does not have goal of the game. There are no objectives in the game Finny play. This shows how Finny is uninterested in competition. This characteristic was directly in chapter 3 when Finny broke the school record for 100 yards freestyle. He says in page 44, “I am not going to do it again” when Gene tries to convince him to do it one more time to make the record official. He also says “I just wanted to …show more content…
Gene is power-hungry, wanted to be better and get recognize for his effort. Finny in the other hand, does not care about competition, and does not like dominating others. Finny also have a trust with Gene. Quoting Finny in page 48 and page 163; “ Naturally I don't believe books and I don't believe teachers, but I do believe-it's important for me to believe you(Gene)” . Since beginning of the book, Finny was always beside Gene. Finny even saved Gene’s life once when he almost fell down the tree. However, Gene acts Finny as his competitor, and always want to dominate him. Therefore, he start studying because he know he could dominate Finny in it. Gene was behaving this way because he was jealous at his talent. This could be found at chapter 5, when Finny was at his home, Gene tries Finny’s cloth and acted like Finny. His jealousness unconsciously caused Finny to fall from the tree in chapter 4. Finny did not believe that Gene pushed him until chapter 11 when there was a court about the truth about this accident. He also forgive Gene for his act in the next chapter, and became friends, until he got killed during the surgery. Finny’s character is also different from Brinker. Brinker is a Finny and Gene’s friend, who liked to always get respect from each other. He invited Gene to the Butt Room, was about the first one to enlist. This is opposite from Finny who thinks everybody likes him, so he does whatever, he likes, and often break
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