Research Paper

novel Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the author shows his readers the complications of friendship through his use of symbolism, characterization, and setting.

The novel begins in the 1953, but then quickly flashes back. Gene one the main characters is the narrator of the novel and he describes Devon as one of the best schools set in the beautiful countryside of New England. First thing Gene wanted to see after he came back was the tree that he and his friends used to jump from to a river and the marble stairs. “The treÐ µ wÐ os tremendous, an irate, stÐ µely blÐ ock steeple beside the river” (Knowles 6). The reason Gene wanted to see the tree is because in the middle of summer session which is the climax of the story, a big change happens on his life and life of his friend. Gene is even mad a little on the tree because he thinks that it caused this big tragedy to happen. “In thrÐ Ñ*ugh swinging doors I rÐ µached a marble foyer, and stopped at the fÐ Ñ*ot of along whitÐ µ marble flight Ð Ñ*ld stÐ oirs” (Knowles 7). The stairs meant a lot to him and when he saw them the episode that he was trying to get rid of, erase from his head

flashes back and he can see again how, because of, for his actions his best fiend falls and breaks his leg again which causes death.

In the novel, Knowles uses great examples of characterization to show how important friendship is. He describes to us one of the main characters, Finny who is always happy and nothing seems to change his mood. Finny always gets away with being busted for skipping school or doing some other things you should not be doing in school. “Finny could gÐ µt awÐ oy with Ð onything. I could not help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal” (Knowles 18). Finny has a talent for charming adults with his big imagination. John Knowles characterizes him as a talented athlete and his grades are mostly D’s which is what drives Gene to excel in his studies because that is the only thing that he can do better that Finny. That’s where thÐ µ complicÐ otion of friendship rises. From Gene’s point of view if you are not the same as your friend and he is better than you in something, then you need to do everything you can to be even, or other way the friendship can’t exist. “I wÐ os more and more cÐ µrtainly becoming the best student in the school, Phineas was without question the best athlete, so in that way we were even”(Nelson 2). In the beginning Gene was kind of okay with Finny’s abilities to be the best athlete and that everybody always followed him and he was the best leader, but soon Gene is starting to get jealous of Finny’s abilities and looking for ways to get and be even with him.

Gene is portrayed as someone who usually conformed to the rules and policy of school and society in common, yet when he is with his roommate, Finny, he behaves very differently. Also Gene is the kind of character that will follow his best friend and always listen to him on how to do everything. “Gene never attempts to oppose this aspect of Finny to a point out to him: fearful of bossing face with Finny, Gene never refuses him. Thus, the tensions later in their friendship can never be brought out into the open; Finny never expects a no and Gene is never fearless enough to offer one” (Themes 1). Gene always was drafted by Finny to do bad things or even the things he didn’t want to do it. He never said a “no” to Finny, because he thought Finny would be insulting to him. “GenÐ µ is dividÐ µd between admiration and resentment, love and hate вЂ" an inner conflict thÐ ot grows more severe as the story progresses” (Themes 2). As time goes in the novel Gene doesn’t know what to do, follow Finny or not. He can’t understand himself if he is really best friends with Finny or not, and this conflict grows in side of him and it causes the big change in his relationship with his best friend.

The tree by the Devon River is the foremost symbol that the reader encounters, the thing that takes Gene back to the school fifteen years after he was a undergraduate there. Gene's view of the tree at these two completely unlike time periods is a sign of the change that has occurred within him. When Gene was at Devon, the tree was very big and looked serious standing by the Devon River. For the sixteen year-old Gene, the tree is fright itself, fear that he must rise and overcome a task that is easy for Phineas and as an outcome this will make them more equal. “As an Ð odult, the tree seems to Gene to be weary from age, enfeebled, dry"(Knowles 6). Gene writes that it is a symbol for those men, big men that you see and find that they are not really smaller in relation to your growth, but that they are totally smaller, shrunken by age. Years afterward, the tree is not important because of the fear it instills in our narrator, but quite because of the change it represents. Certainly, the tree has remained the same in the intelligence that it is still there with its branch hanging out over the water, but it has changed in that it only holds the remembrance of fear, it is now a shrunken, weak reminder of a past age for Gene. The tree is prÐ Ñ*of thÐ ot "Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence” (Wolfe 2). And, most confidently, as Gene demonstrates, the significance of a symbol-that too does not endure.

The conflict that grows inside gets stronger and stronger. “GÐ µne slowly becomes conscious of the tremendous resentment and envy that he feels toward Finny, who is a far superior athlete, hÐ os a much strÐ Ñ*nger personality, and can talk his way out of any trouble”(Nelson 1). We see Gene dÐ µvelop a strategy for coping with this resentment: he tells himself that Finny feels exactly the same wÐ oy, convincing himsÐ µlf that just Ð os he envies Finny’s athleticism so must Finny envy Gene’s Ð ocademic achievements. “ When Gene wÐ onted to tÐ µll Finny that he is his bÐ µst friend something stÐ Ñ*pped him Perhaps he was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contained the truth”(Holborn 3). This vision of a

deadly competition between himself and Finny sustains Gene for a while and it enables him to keep away feeling of shame about his hatred towards Finny and drives him to stand out academically in order to spite his friend. Up till now the vision is only temporary after he realizes that Finny shares neither his sense of competition nor his resentment, Gene sinks into a jealousy