Kevin McAdam
English 10 Honors/ Mr. George
12/10/08
A Separate Peace Essay

A SEPARATE PEACE
One of the most difficult periods in anyone’s life is the change from adolescence to adulthood. It is the time when all of the hopes and dreams a person had as a child have been thrust upon you and have become challenges and goals to accomplish in the years to come. As you get older, the more decisions you have to make, and for people like Gene Forrester, many of those decisions change your life. In A Separate Peace, Gene starts out as a very shady person, and throughout the course of the story, we see changes in the character of Gene that shows how he has developed from a boy to a man in such a short period of time. The certain ways in which Gene became a man were through dealing with emotions properly, coping with disaster, and becoming aware of things around him.
A major part of adulthood is how you control your emotions in certain situations. It is very common to see a five year old child throw a fit about not getting a toy that he wants. However, all adults must know that they must show control with their feelings and have maturity in unfamiliar situations. Even when that child throws a fit, there is some restraint over their actions because there is still the level-headed adult there to punish if he goes beyond his limits. If adults go overboard with passion, there is no one there to stop them from what they are doing. When Gene made Finny fall out of the tree he obviously lost control of his emotions but there was no one there to stop him. As a sign that Gene was growing from a boy to a man, he immediately regretted making Finny fall and realized that Finny was only trying to be his friend. Even though Gene committed such an unfortunate act, Gene’s ability to learn from that mistake and try to fight the battle between being a good person and a savage shows that he knows he must be better. One of Gene’s biggest flaws was that he was blind to the fact that Finny was never in competition with him. Gene wanted to be better than Finny so bad that he completely lost track of everything that is important in being a good person. When Gene pushed Finny out of the tree, he was too open with his emotions and expressed them too vagrantly. If Gene had just shown a little self-control then Finny would not have died later on. Although Gene could not control himself there, he was able to control himself when Finny died. Finny was his best friend, but he was able to remain strong after his death as explained in the quote, “I did not cry then or ever about Finny. I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family’s strait-laced burial ground outside of Boston” (194). Gene, who was once a paranoid and emotional person, now can control his emotions like adults should in difficult situations. A strong test for Gene’s emotions is how he is able to cope with disaster.
Many people say that it is not what you are like when times are good, it is what you are like when times are bad that is important. Throughout the story, Gene coped with disaster in many different ways, but each time became more mature in the process. When Gene pushed Finny out of the tree, Gene made up for it with several acts of kindness towards Finny. Gene would help Finny with whatever he wanted and listened to whatever Finny said. The most important thing in Gene’s life became restoring the friendship between he and Finny. Gene obviously made great strides towards turning his life around and getting rid of all the envy and jealousy he had in his body. The only thing that halted Gene’s progress was that Gene felt too much guilt towards Finny and could not forgive himself for what happened. As mentioned before, Gene did whatever Finny asked him too, and that was bad for Gene to be pushed around all the time. Guilt is what took the place of jealousy and envy when Gene tried to make his life better, which was just as bad as the jealousy. Gene shows how he did whatever Finny wanted him to out of guilt in this quote, “’Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,’ and I lost a part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas” (85). Until Gene could find something to fill the void of jealousy, only bad things would take its place. Finally, Gene realized how Finny had been helping him all along. Gene was able to take the good parts of Finny and place them in that void. By doing this Gene was able win the battle of being a savage and a good boy. Gene had been a savage before, but with the help of others he was able to help his growth towards becoming a man. Finny’s death is another step forward in adulthood for Gene because he does not feel as much guilt as the first incident with Finny. Gene does not feel as much guilt because he had come to terms with what had happened and understood that his death was very surprising and there was nothing he could do to stop it. The reason why Gene had advanced father into adulthood was because of his ability to see things with a level head and to go at things with an open mind.
Stubbornness is one habit that is very difficult for children and adults to get rid of as they get older. One of the most important things you must do while in school, playing sports, or starting a new job is that you must always be open-minded and accepting of criticism. Another problem of Gene was that he was too focused on what he believed and was too selfish to listen to others when they said Finny was not his rival. Gene’s stubborn behavior was exhibited in this quote, “You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record, but so what? He hated you for getting an A in every course but one last term” (53). If Gene had just listened to that thought then he could have realized that everything Finny did was, not to impress Gene, but for himself. Again, after Gene pushed Finny out of the tree he seemed to take on an entirely new way of life as he started to listen to others more. Gene knew that his jealousy had to go so by being open-minded he was able to take on the best qualities of Finny and become a more established adult. Everybody knows that young children are always very hyper and have a difficult time focusing on one topic. As they grow older, they become more mature and find it hard to relax and stop focusing. Well, one more way Gene became more open-minded was how during the winter Finny thought of creating blitzball to help other students get their minds of the war. It was a lot of fun for the students, but it really never took them away from the war at all because after the fun was over they still had all the army recruiters around them and ads in the newspaper telling them about the war. Gene and his friends all became closer to becoming men because later in the year they had become very aware of the war as they enlisted into different branches of the military and not even blitzball could take their minds off of that. So by entering adulthood, people like Gene find themselves staying more on task and being more aware of the things happening in their lives because they are adults.
This story shows how some young boy like Gene can become a mature, responsible man through dealing with emotions properly, coping with disaster, and becoming aware of things around him. Gene Forrester becomes a man the way someone should. He went through pain and anguish to learn what he found out. With the help of friends he became the type of man who can go out into the world and accomplish the hopes and dreams that he had as a child.