In the Novel a Separate Peace

1. In the novel A Separate Peace I felt that I had mainly connected with the character Gene. This is because his personality is quite like mine, the fact that he gets jealous of others like Finny reminded me of myself. It reminded me of myself because I remember when I was a little kid I would get jealous of my sister when she would bring home an award. Gene also shows a connection with me when he had deliberately caused the limb of the tree to shake causing Finny to lose balance. When I had read that part it made me realize the similarity between me and Gene of how when I was young I would take drastic measures just to be better than others for example, I would do everything I could to make sure I would be smarter than my sister. This is why Gene's personalities throughout the book show a connection with me.

2. Gene is an average kid back in the days in the year 1942. He is not short but not tall either, he is not fat or skinny as he has a normal body tone. From the way that the author described Gene the author makes it seem as if Gene is just a normal kid who was pulled his normal life and put into the school of Devon. Gene is not just a normal character though; his internal personality and feelings are what makes him unique and different from the other students. His inner personality makes him a person who wants to be better than everybody else. This personality motivates Gene to deliberately make Finny fall of the tree so that he can become better than Finny. The main motivation that motivates Gene is his jealousy and urge towards Finny.

3. Gene acts selfish and childish at times in the beginning, but towards the end he starts to lose his old ways and carve himself into a man for example, "My fury was gone, I felt it gone, dried up at the source, withered and lifeless" (203). This quote represents the feeling of Gene losing his old selfish ways and finally becoming a person, who is not afraid or angered. Gene is seen in one section of the novel where he hears about Finny's death and does not cry, "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). This quote proves that Gene has grown apart from his old self as he has had his personality changed into someone more serious and merciless. Gene has grown from his younger self to his older self throughout the book because of Finny which causes this to become a realistic change due to how realistic it felt while reading it.

4. From Gene's experience I have learned that every person in the world has their own problems and that they fight their own war. This is seen from the quote near the end of the novel, "When they began to feel that there was this overwhelmingly hostile thing in the world with them, then the simplicity and unity of their characters broke and they were not the same again" (202). This hostility