Sacrifice In John Knowles A Separate Peace

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“We tell ourselves stories in order to love” — Joan Didion. Youth is the most exciting time of one’s life, but many sacrificed their lives in the name of youth. Finny from A Separate Peace by John Knowles is an example of such a sacrifice. Finny was a natural born athlete who was not an individual player, but a team player and has a charming and witty mouth that can get away with any rules anywhere. But one day everything changed when Finny fell out of the tree as if something or someone pushed him just, gently, ever so lightly and laid there Finny on the ground looking vulnerable for once in his life. Youth is about taking adventures that is way beyond the realm of imagination but the more thrill one seeks the more the danger the results will …show more content…
The dark side of youth is that many are unaware of the fact that they can face death at any time. Finny always seek and invented thrilling activities that are played throughout the campus at Devon but one game, in particular, destroyed him both physically and mentally; leaping from the limb of a tree into the shallow river. What Finny doesn’t know is this jump will be his last and a crisis in his life. “Phineas began exuberantly to throw off his clothes, delighted by the fading glow of the day, the challenge of the tree, the competitive tension of all of us. He lived and flourished in such moments. “Let’s go, you and me,” he called. A new idea struck him. “We’ll go together, a double jump!” (Pg. 28). Finny had no fear or even hesitate a little at all, fear never crossed his mind as youth masked the feeling of threat or danger so, then it led to the worst possible outcome: a paralyzed leg and eventually death. Now all his dream about becoming the champion of the Olympics of 1944 or enlisting in the war with Gene Forrester hails “best friend” has come to an end. But who or what exactly ruined Finny’s style of walk, athleticism, and most important of all his
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