Now that Finny’s crippled state makes it impossible for him to have that goal, he decides to coach Gene for it. Even when Gene tries to tell him, Finny ignores the fact that the Olympic might not happen because of the current war for he believes it’s merely a scheme. “…I went along, as I always did, with any new invention of Finny’s. There was no harm in taking aim, even if the target was a dream. ” (109).
Gene simply allows himself to Finny’s idea, because that way he gets the opportunity to become Finny “even if it’s only a dream”. Gene hopes obtaining this opportunity will get rid of his own identity that he spites.
Gene soon temporarily believes the false mindset of the war as a fake game plan that the calculating fat old men creates because he lapses into Finny’s vision of peace, which maintains the idea of no war happening whatsoever. After some training with Finny and becoming a part of Finny, Gene admits to himself, “…and the surrounding world confusion found no reflection inside me. So I ceased to have any real sense of it. ” (115).
Gene’s self no longer finds war to exist and deciding not to worry about it anymore amplify the consequences of Finny and Gene’s codependent relationship, for it only convinces Gene to eep training for the never-happening Olympics. The boy’s codependency works as a way for them to lose themselves in their virtual reality of the Olympics, losing themselves by completing their own needs; Finny’s continuation of his athletic dreams by coaching Gene, and Gene’s hunger to lose his identity to Finny. This may indicates their refusal of truth because their own personal goals blind them from the fact that war happens at their very moment. However, because of following their personal goals, they choose to be blind to the fact and believe the false instead.
The Essay on Gene Finny War Jealousy
John Knowles, in A Separate Peace, illustrates a young man? s internal struggle to understand adulthood and its realities. This struggle emphasizes a continues jealous rage inside Gene, which in turn causes him to cripple and kill his? best? friend. The theme of jealousy is woven carefully throughout the novel in Gene and Finny? s relationship. Gene? s inability to acquire the purity, perfection, ...
Finny and Gene continue to aim for the illusion of the Olympics because each gains happiness from their codependency. Le, 2 Le, 2 Gene and Finny face the hard truth that they hide from themselves purposely in the first place due to their relationship of codependency. Gene tries to become peace with himself through Finny by letting Finny trains him for the Olympics. After a while, he realizes the happiness he gets from trying to become Finny, is a lie. However he forgets about this and moves on with his objective. Gene states, “What deceived me was my own happiness; for peace is indivisible…I ceased to have any real sense of it. (115).
Gene not accepting the truth that peace being unable to separate from anything or anyone, in this case Finny, implicates his fear of facing the fact he can’t become Finny. That also goes for the war happening in his country because he needs to become Finny in order to lie to himself the war as a fictitious. Even not shaken even by the enlistment of Leper Lepellier will change Gene’s mind because his will is that strong to find a new identity of not himself to face the fact his whimsical friend turns out to be the first to enlist in the army.
After a week of being in the army, Leper asks Gene through a telegram to come to his house. Gene then finds that Leper has become a different Leper, one that has a nervous breakdown and acts crazy unlike the calm Leper back in Devon. Gene tells Finny about Leper’s situation, Finny reacts somberly and defend his belief unenthusiastically that there isn’t any war. Gene concludes, “Now the facts were re-established, and gone were all the fantasies, such as the Olympic Games for A. D. 1944, closed before they had ever been opened. (150).
After hearing about Leper’s state of insanity follows after his enlistment to what Finny calls, a scheme, Finny starts facing the fact to himself that there is no scheme when his grave reaction shows and he can’t support his own lie with the mad eagerness he carries when speaking of war; rather shallow and dead. Gene also yield to these facts, but less depressing than Finny because he knows the war exists in the first place when he declares “re-established” and knows he lives in a fantasy of the Olympics all a long.
The Term Paper on Separate Peace Finny Gene War
A Separate Peace In his book A Separate Peace John Knowles communicates what war really is. He uses a number of complex characters in a very complicated plot in order to convey the harsh, sad, cruel, destructive forces of war. The Characters Gene and Finny are used as opposing forces in a struggle between that cold reality of war-that is World War II in this story-and a separate peace. A peace ...
Gene only lies to his own self because he wants Finny’s identity to replace Gene’s so then he won’t feel guilty, because it’s the one who causes Finny’s incident in the first place. Gene and Finny lies to themselves to not admit World War II presents in their lives because they rely on each other for support to cover their weaknesses. Le, 3 Le, 3 Gene and Finny stays back in Devon to continue their codependent friendship, refusing to embrace adulthood. Finny decides to coach Gene to prepare for the 1944 Olympics as a way for him to protect himself from the reality that he’s crippled permanently.
Mr. Ludsbury, the master of the boy’s dormitory, asks Gene about the exercises and reminds him that now it should only aim for the war. Finny shocks Mr. Ludsbury by saying “No” flatly to his statement. Finny addresses to himself after Mr. Ludsbury walks away with a red face, “He’s really sincere, he thinks there’s a war on,” (114).
Finny saying “No” to Mr. Ludsbury’s statement of war implies Finny’s seriousness that the Olympics will happen and war isn’t real.
Finny lives in his own lie and he simply knows it because he needs Gene to stay back in Devon so that Finny can train Gene to be an athlete just as good as he once was. Not only that, he fears of leaving into adulthood because he forms a tight friendship with Gene, not wanting Gene to leave for the war. Gene also denies adulthood as a truth that he must perform eventually. However, he has his own goals to not leave his childhood and stay in Devon, and it requires Finny. The Codependent state allows them to feel secure and guarded because the war is far away from them to care.
Gene and Finny hold on to their childhood at Devon together because of their fear of growing up. Le, 4 Le, 4 Codependency makes a person to refuse the truth that needs to be accepted. Knowles shows this through Gene and Finny as their codependent friendship acts as an excuse for them not to know a war is real under their nose and just a matter of time until they accept it with tough emotions. Both boys were so focused on their intention to be a part of one another that they don’t want war to get in their way, therefore they both refuse the war to be true.
The Essay on Finny Gene War Time
A Seperate Piece The Idealist I would say that Finny (Phineas) was the biggest idealist in the story. His feelings and many things on many issues, made me think of him this way. The actions that Finny take in the novel make him seem as though he is the happiest person on the planet, like for instance when he says "There is no war", this showed that he wasn't really bothered by the war which during ...
