A_Separate_Piece_Summary

Character Study Gene Forrester At the beginning of the novel, you can tell that Gene will be the main character of the story. Gene is also the narrator because he begins to talk about the Devon school in a personal way. We see Gene as an older more mature grown adolescent returning to Devon. He begins to tour the school and begins to have flashback of fears and insecurities he had during his school years. Gene’s life is influenced a lot by his best friend Finny, especially at school. Since Gene is not very athletic he decides to succeed in academics, which is something Finny isn’t good at. I believe that Gene has two different characteristics that are distinctive, he is a loyal friend but yet he is a survivalist. The reason that he is a survivalist is because he is always trying to keep his grades high and all Finny does is disrupt his studying. He is a loyal friend because he gives in to whatever Finny tells him. Gene follows Finnie’s ideas and seems to tolerate Finny, even when he becomes competitive. Gene represents a theme, he is a protagonist and he is also influenced by the war a lot. He is in the middle of a battle between himself, and Gene doesn’t fully understand the basis of an enemy because he doesn’t know his true identity. Phineas – Finny Finny is the best friend of Gene, he also seems to be very athletic which may lead to him having a toned body. He surely is strong because he plays sports, but is weak in academics. Finny never seems to care about school work. Instead he tries to be the class clown of the class by wearing a pink shirt, wearing his tie as a belt and causing mayhem. Finny is an all around good guy, personality wise of course. Finny once told Gene that he didn’t know that Gene knew he needed to study because he thought academics simply came to him and had ease with it. After the incident when Gene knocked over Finny and Finny shattered his leg, it seemed that Finnie’s hopes and dreams were shattered as well. Finny realizes that Gene has now become a part of him, because if he cannot do what he used to, he will have Gene carry on his dreams. It is ironic that when Finny was having surgery, his heart stopped and had a tragic death. After Finnie’s death Gene realizes that what he was missing was some malice in his life, that’s all he was just insecure and needed to unique like Finny was. Brinker Hadley Brinker Hadley is a very unique individual, he seems to be a natural leader. He is the type of guy that has the looks, is in charge of several committees and seems to be more responsible than the other boys. He appears to be more mature than the boys because he seems to know what to do next. Brinker convinces everyone that there is a war going on in the outside world, so he decides he will be a leader and enlist in the army. He then realizes that enlisting in the war is useless, so he decides to reject the idea of it. Rejecting enlisting in the army, says that Brinker has grown a lot and understands why you shouldn’t waste time fighting a war that isn’t yours. Brinker represents the themes of summer and winter because in the summer Finny seems to run Genes life, but then he gets hurt. So then in the winter, Finny is no longer there, so Brinker takes over and disciplines Gene. Cliff Quackenbush Cliff Quackenbush seems to resemble a bully, because not very many boys at Devon like him. He is a senior at Devon and he is also the manger of the crew team. I believe that the theme for Quackenbush is that he is insecure of himself, which leads him to be mean to other kids. He enjoys treating people like slaves, demanding that they do as he wishes or they will be beaten. Gene decides that he has had enough of Cliff and decides to tell him to his face that he is a son of a gun, which then leads to a wrestling match. I believe that this character influences Gene to have more courage and really expresses Gene’s thoughts and actions for once. Elwin “Leper” Lepellier Leper is very quiet, peaceful and enjoys the outdoors, because it makes him feel one with the universe and likes nature. All of a sudden, he decides to enlist in the army which surprises many because he didn’t seem like the type of person that would run off to war first, as a leader. When Leper runs off to the army, it creates commotion between the boys at school and the war. It seems as if war wasn’t anything that they thought, so they become scared of the unknown. Later, we find out that Leper has ran away from the battlefield because he suppose ably had lost his mine. Leper begins to have hallucinations of the war, seeing men turn into women and arm chairs turn to human limbs. It seems that these hallucinations reflect his fear of growing up. He doesn’t want to be a man yet because that would mean that he would have to enlist in war. Literary Elements The first symbol I noticed was the summer and winter sessions at Devon. I chose this literary element because there seems to be a lot of action during these times. Also Finny one of the major characters of the novel seems to only be in the summer sessions and not the winter session which brought more attention to it. The novel says that in the summer session, Finny tries to bend the rules to the extreme by putting on a pink shirt and wearing his tie as a belt, which signifies that he is trying to be a distraction. (Pg. 18 -25)The actions of Finny make the summer session seem like it is a time of anarchy and freedom. It’s a time of freedom because Finny and Gene seem to get away with a lot of things while being in the summer session, like leaving school, going to the beach and starting the Suicide Society. Another symbolic element in the summer session is that when Finny breaks his leg, the summer session ends, which is ironic. The winter session is very strict, disciplined and filled with difficult tasks. (Pg. 60-70) I believe that it seems to get harder because the school is trying to get the boys ready for the war. When Gene is made assistant crew manager, he begins to deal with Cliff Quackenbush and later leads to a fight. The fight symbolizes that Gene is finally willing to stand up for himself, and that he is beginning to undergo change as in becoming a man. Basically, both of the seasons are times from when the boys are starting to grow up and become men. Author’s Purpose Friendship: There are many objectives that involve building a friendship, first reach out to the person that you are trying to befriend so it is easier for them to get attached to you. Then establish some sort of trust with them, so they can feel secure about talking with you. When they begin to search for support from you, and advice it’s obvious that a friendship has been established. I believe that the only thing that destroys friendship is envy and mistrust. Those are certainly key sentiments that must be avoided because it can harm your relationship with that close friend. Gene envy’s Finnie’s ability to be athletic, being unique by thinking the best of people and being spontaneous. The rivalries among the friends include Finny and Gene because Gene seems to compete with Finny academically because he knows that Finny is not good at school. Gene and Brinker, they get into a fight because Brinker tries to control Gene and also Brinker blames him for having broken Finnie’s leg. Conformity vs. nonconformity: One of the conformists in this novel would be Gene. I believe that Gene would be a conformist because he seems to go along with the flow. He doesn’t seem to act differently from others; Gene is rather laid back and mostly works behind the scenes. Finny would be listed under being nonconformity because he is very unique. Finny is unique because he decides to go to extremities by breaking the rules and decides to wear a pink shirt which stands out. Not only does the pink shirt stand out but it resembles an outgoing sort of attitude. The tie being used as a belt speaks to me as being a rebel. War is the backdrop to the events at Devon: The wars that are going on in the world is the World War II, the war being fought in Devon is that the boys are trying to get away from conflict and the enemy, which is the war they are suppose to enlist for. In the novel, it explains that the boys are so afraid that they always seem to be fighting a war with themselves, like Gene trying to fight the war whether he should tell Finny the truth about the fall or whether he should focus on his studies and school, rather than hanging around Finny. The larger war is obviously between Gene himself. As I mentioned before, Gene is trying to find his true persona throughout the book, because earlier in the novel he puts on the pink shirt Finny wore and Gene tries to be like Finny and it simply does not work. Growth from adolescence to adulthood: The person that grows in the novel, I believe is Gene. The reason that Gene grows in the novel is because he has to overcome many obstacles that are put in his life. One of those obstacles is that he has to deal with the pain of having pushed Finny off the branch and breaking his leg (hopes and dreams). He also has to deal with the bully in Quackenbush, and the way that he overcomes this is by not giving in to his orders, instead Gene stands up for himself and I believe this is an act of revolt. Leper’s quote means that simply if you have nothing going for you in life, you shouldn’t just stand there motionless until you die. You should simply make the most out of the time that is available. Like in the incident where Gene and Finny both evolve after the incident that ended Finnie’s dreams. Gene evolved by becoming better at sports and being more loyal to Finny after causing the terrible accident. He also spends more time with Gene because he doesn’t want Finny to think Gene is a bad friend. Finny evolves when his leg is shattered, leaving him enabled to play sports. Since Finny can longer to this on his own, he decides to pass his athletic abilities to the next species (Gene). Passing his talents on to Gene is like evolution because he is passing on traits to the next generation. Separate Peace: The meaning of the title is that Finny has an imaginary world that he has created and so he decides to invite Gene to his world managed by peace not war. Since Finny does not believe that there is an actual war going on, it makes sense that the title makes reference to him, because if there is not war, there has to be a peace. Gene can be a reference to the title because throughout the novel he is trying to find peace within himself and continuously fights a war. The war that Gene is fighting is growing up, and he doesn’t find this peace until he separates from Finny. That is why I believe that Finny had to die in order for others to realize that the only enemy they have is themselves. Synopsis Chapter 1: Gene Forrester is the narrator of the story and has returned to Devon fifteen years after being a student. Gene decides to go back to the places that have caused fear in his years at the school, but as he re tells his story, there is still some insecurity left in him from his childhood. Chapter 2: Gene and Finny attend the Summer Session at Devon and Finny wears a pink shirt and gets away with it. Gene becomes jealous of Finny. Gene and Finny jump off the tree but lose their balances and Finny seems to save Gene’s life. Chapter 3: Gene feels as if Finny wouldn’t of made him jump off the tree, he wouldn’t have almost had an accident. Finny creates a game called blitzball. Finny also tells Gene that he is his best friend. Chapter 4: Gene fails his Trigonometry test, then later Finny finds out that Gene has to try to be a valedictorian and it doesn’t seem to come to him like sports come to Finny. Finny invades Genes studies in order for him to jump of a tree to join the Suicide Society. Chapter 5: Finny’s leg has been shattered from the fall. Gene decides to put on Finny’s shirt, shoes and pants. Gene is afraid to confront Finny because he thinks Finny is mad at him for making him lose his balance. Chapter 6: Gene returns to school and begins the winter session. He meets Brinker Hadley on campus and Cliff Quackenbush. Gene becomes assistant crew manager and gets bullied by Cliff. Later he receives a phone call from Finny and he tells him that he will be coming back to school. Chapter 7: Brinker makes fun of Gene for having a room all to himself, so then Brinker decides that they should reenact the crime from when Gene pushed Finny off the Branch. The boys begin to think about enlisting in the army early because they feel thrilled about the war. Chapter 8: Finny returns to Devon after his injury and he begins to train Gene for the Olympics. Chapter 9: Finny arranges to have a winter carnival and holds a decathlon to show off Gene’s skills, which Finny has been training for the Olympics. Leper enlists in the army after watching a documentary. Chapter 10: Gene goes to Vermont to visit Leper because he has escaped from war. Leper tells Gene about the hallucinations that he has been having about seeing man turn to women and arm chairs turning to human limbs. Chapter 11: Gene returns to Devon from Leper’s and finds Finny being involved in a snowball fight, which Finny said he had felt his bones getting stronger and better. Finny finally gives in that World War II is indeed a reality, because it caused Leper to go crazy. The boys begin to enlist in different military branches. Chapter 12: Finny and Gene are looking for Dr. Stanpole because Finnie’s leg has been broken again. Finny is taken to Dr. Stanpole and gets prepared to have surgery, while being there Finny tells Gene that the reason he told Gene there was no war was because he was unable to enlist in the army because of his leg. At the end of the chapter Finny passes away and Gene feels no emotion whatsoever. Chapter 13: Gene’s class graduates and the boys are ready to go to war. Gene enlists in the navy and goes to war. Gene never kills anyone at war, but he knows that he had already killed his own enemy back at Devon, the novel ends in remembering Finny as a person who was never afraid of anything and that he didn’t hate anybody. Finny knew from the start that there was never an enemy at all. Reaction The end results in the novel were rather disappointing. I don’t like the idea of seeing Finny die after having convinced many of the boys not to be afraid of growing up and enlisting in the war. It does seem reasonable that Finny had to die, because when something is lost, you put a lot of thought into it and that’s what Gene did. He found the good thing in Finnie’s death and not the bad. After his death, Gene realized that the only enemy in his life was him. My favorite character was Finny, I could relate to him because I can see myself being like him. I always try to bend the rules and be the center of attention. Another reason that I like Finny was because he was the type of person that didn’t just care about himself. Even though some people didn’t deserve the love and support that Finny gave them, Finny still helped them out. The characters that I didn’t like were Gene and Quackenbush. I didn’t like Gene because of his emotion in the novel. He has a lot of jealousy towards Finny, which is not good. If you are going to be good friends with someone you shouldn’t envy them, instead appreciate their skills, talents. Cliff was another character I dislike because he simply was a bully. There was no need, for him to act that way toward people. I believe that he was a bully only because he was insecure of himself and I also saw that Gene could relate a lot to him. Even though Gene isn’t a bully, he still could have ended being one because Gene was also insecure and didn’t vent his feelings enough. The novel A Separate Peace was a very educational book because it teaches us moral lessons about friendships and it teaches us to learn from our mistakes.