Gene Forrester: A Separate Peace Essay

Submitted By noah41262
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Point of view: the story a separate peace is told in fp pov by gene forrester. Gene tell his story in retrospect while visiting his former boarding school in new Hampshire. We the readers are led to many point of view confusions, as we can never be sure which emotions belong to teenager gene and adult gene telling the story. The narrator is unreliable because we don’t know if gene is lying or capable of telling the truth after all these years.
Plot:
Exposition: Gene and Phineas are best friends. It’s a love and hate relationship for gene because he admires and resents his athleticism and moral superiority.
Risisng action: gene grows more and more envious of finny. Gene also comes to the conclusion that finny doesn’t have any resentment towards gene. Gene becomes jealous of finnys inability to be envious. Gene realizes how much of a better person Phineas is than himself. Finny suggests that they climb the tree together and do a double jump.
Climax: Gene shakes the branch of the tree making Phineas fall and shatter his leg.
Falling action: gene begins to feel guilty of finny’s fall, but the two friends form an even stronger relationship than before. They start to depend on each other more. One day some seniors that attend devon school put gene and finny on trial to find the truth of what really happened the day finny shatterd hisleg. Eventually finny puts the pieces together and realizes what happened. He storms out of the rooms crying. On his way down a flight of marble stairs he breaks his leg again. Finny dies during surgery.
Resolution: gene and finny made up before the surgery. Gene tries to get over the death of his friend. The school is taken over by war activities. Gene enlists in the army.
Setting: this story takes place at the devon school, which is an exclusive boarding school in new Hampshire. The story starts in1958, but it jumps quickly over to the years 1942-43
Characters
Gene Forrester
Gene is the narrator of the story and he tells the story as a flashback while looking back on his days at Devon school. He doesn’t seem to be a very reliable narrator, especially considering the motivations of his actions. Gene shows great admiration and resentment toward is friend and roommate Phineas. At one point during the story gene starts to assume that finny resents him for his academic success. When gene finds out this is not true, he resents finny even more for not resenting him. After finny’s fall gene lost all resentment for finny.
Phineas
Even though we see characters only through the eyes of gene, his description of Phineas is very detailed. Although gene contains dark feeling and jealousy for Phineas, whenever he describes Phineas, he talks of him as he were a god. Phineas is extremely athletic, and very charismatic. Finny’s charm helps him get away with mostly anything.

Elwin “leper” Lepellier
Leper is a peaceful quiet naturalist. He surprises his peers at devon when he becomes the first at devon to enlist in the army. He shocks them again by deserting the army not long after enlisting. When leper returns he send a letter to gene, saying to come visit him. When gene visits leper he discovers that leper has become mentally ill. He hallucinates and is emotionally unstable.
Brinker Hadley
Brinker in a way is the opposite of Phineas. the two boys are both seen as leaders to the
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