Assignment 12, Question 4: Gene reflects on Phineas’ impact on his life at the bottom of page 202 and top of page 203. In this passage, what do you think Gene means when he says “Phineas alone had escaped this” (202)? What did he escape? And did he do so by dying or by the way he lived his life? (see also page 204) (Maclin)

The war has caused all of the boys at the Devon school to have a sad view on life, Phineas however was able to “escape” this and provide a positive outlook on life. In the beginning of the year, war didn’t seem as big of a deal and the boys didn’t look at it the same as they do now. After seeing Leper come back and witnessing first hand what it did to him it showed them how sad and terrible the war is and how it can change the most innocent of boys. Phineas has gone through his entire life with constant happiness and joy. This is what has made him such a great friend to Gene and also helped him to become a talented athlete. Finny is looked at by the other boys as perfect and they can’t see how he could be any better as a person or athlete. Phineas is a very talented boy and also confident in his abilities. However, both of these traits are ruined when Gene jounced the branches and he came tumbling down breaking his leg ruining his sports career and damaging their friendship. The second incident is when he saw Leper return and heard about Leper and what the war had done to him. The final straw was when he thought Gene, his best friend, a person he believes to be “part if him”, had broken his leg on purpose. Gene realizes this when he says, “Phineas alone had escaped this…Nothing as he was growing up at home, nothing at Devon, nothing even about the war had broken his harmonious and natural unity. So at last I had,” (Knowles 203). Since Phineas is so focused on living life so perfectly and happily he tries to deny all of these problems to benefit himself. Gene knows Finny lies to himself and his tendency to block things out, you can see this when he says,”...and be accepted only a little at a time, only as much as he could assimilate without a sense of chaos and loss,” (Knowles 202). Phineas ability to “escape” these type of situations and the ability to only see the good in things is what led him to forgive Gene despite everything that happened.

Assignment 12 Q.3 - On 201, Gene reflects on his thoughts on war and says “…it seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart” (201). Do you agree with this sentiment? Why or why not? (PHOEBE)

Wars are made by two sides not being able to come to a solution and believing that people dying for each other's thoughts will settle the conflict. However unless it is a war over territory, wars are not won by body count. It is impossible to 'win' a war. In the end, one side is either captured completely or they surrender. Yet in the end, they all end the same way: talking. When Gene says  “…it seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart” (Knowles 201) he is saying that wars are made by people being unwilling and not realizing the value of other human lives. Being ignorant means "lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated" (dictionary.com). Any leader of a country who chooses war over a peace treaty is simply ignoring the fact that people will die just to prove their point and being ignorant. The leader is not only going to be killing people who oppose their views but that they are willing to kill their own people. If someone believes that much in their own cause, then they should be trying everything they can to come about this end goal in the most civilized and effective way possible. I agree with this statement completely. Wars are unscary. The President of the United States has the power to declare war but the true people who are fighting in it, who are drafted into it, and who are losing their lives over it are not deciding whether or not to kill someone. Although many people may choose to enlist in times of global warfare, it is not always because they choose to, like in Leper's case, they dont want to wait for it to happen. Modern politics not only in the US have so much pride involved in them. I believe that if leader's of countries spent more time talking about the actual issue instead of dropping bombs on one another, more actions could be done with fewer lives being lost. Fighting for peace is like closing your eyes to see. It is an action that is so contradictory to the end goal, that when put down into simplest terms is ridiculous.

Assignment 12: Explore the implications and subtleties of the conversation with Mr. Hadley. What does he say about “manhood” (see what he says about the G.I.’s) and how does he feel about Brinker and Gene’s involvement in the war effort? (198-200) (Julia)

Mr. Hadley feels that war memories, and character developed during the war will be integral to the rest of Gene and Brinker’s lives, especially their ‘manhood’. At the end of the book, just before graduation, Mr. Hadley comes to visit Brinker, and has a talk with him and Gene. He stresses the importance of dedicated participation in the war. Mr. Hadley says “It’s your greatest moment, greatest privilege, to serve your country,” (Knowles, 200). Hadley believes that war is the most important time for a boy to become a man and show his courage and character. He has an almost stereotypical idea of manhood, which is especially easy for him to have, because the war poses no danger to him. At the beginning of the conversation, Mr. Hadley thinks out loud: “I can’t imagine any man in my time settling for duty on a sewing machine. I can’t picture that at all,” (Knowles, 198). His idea of war is close to romanticized, and he sees any non-traditional male tasks, such as sewing, as detrimental to the war effort. Manhood for Mr. Hadley is war, trenches, and violent fighting, and he sees only this as valuable to winning World War II - not less active, more domestic tasks. He also believes that other men share his perspective. Hadley tells Brinker and Gene that the moments they have in the war will define them for the people they meet. “Your war memories will be with you forever… people will get their respect for you from that… that will mean a whole lot to you in years to come,” (Knowles, 199). He believes that to be respected, the boys have to be in the front lines, because that will show people that they have faced danger. Gene and Brinker have chosen positions that while not safe, are not ‘dirty’ places. Mr. Hadley believes that this is evading the war, and not meeting it head on. He thinks that boys should be proud to go into the war, and want to fight for their country, because of the honor and experience it brings them. While this is logical, he overlooks the fact that war can be, and often is, dangerous and traumatic. Gene and Brinker are already somewhat aware of this, from their experiences with death at Devon, and they are trying to avoid that. However, Mr. Hadley thinks that this is unacceptable, and that a true man dreams of war. Since it is somewhat clear that Brinker does not share his ideals, he finds Brinker to be less than his ideal son, and wants to change his mind. Mr. Hadley thinks that the war will be a very important piece of Gene and Brinker’s lives, and that to journey into manhood, they should go into it feeling a sense of pride and duty.

Assignment #12: What does Gene mean when he says “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war end before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (204). Who/what is his enemy? Why does he contradict himself there? What was his war? (Jack)

Throughout Gene’s time at Devon, he fights a private war against his best friend, Phineas. From the beginning of the novel to the end, there has always been the overarching theme of war. Although Gene never goes to the war, he impulsively creates a war between himself and his best friend at Devon. By doing this, he expresses the main idea of the book. Which is, that we “pit ourselves” against others to make enemies and grow up.  When Gene says that war is, “The result of something ignorant in the human heart,” (201) he is talking about the part of us that makes us develop our own enemies. When he does this, he builds hatred and resentment against Finny. In chapter 7, Gene says he is going to enlist in the war with Brinker. This idea is so appealing to him because it poses the chance for him to escape the war he is fighting against Finny. He says, “There was always something deadly lurking in anything I wanted, anything I loved. And if it wasn’t their, as for example with Phineas, I put it there myself” (101). This shows how Gene made Finny into an enemy and fought a deadly war against his longtime best friend, that lead to his death.  

Assignment #11: Does Finny's death surprise you? Why or why not? Does it seem like a logical climax for the novel? Is it the climax? (Mario)

Finny's death is not surprising; there are many times in A Separate Peace that lead us to think that Finny will not age as a regular person but must die. Throughout the book we see finny’s personality is very strong and loving. A person like him could not go to war and return the same. “Phineas, you wouldn't be any good in the war, even if nothing had happened to your leg." (Knowles, 190). Gene has an image of Finny in which he cannot take conflict seriously and always finds a way to become friends with the enemy. Gene even says to him, “You’d get things so scrambled up nobody would would know who to fight any more.” (Knowles, 191). The accident on the stairs is a logical climax because Finny is too perfect of a person to be ruined by the war. Gene and the other boys such as Leper and Brinker are affected by the war in normal ways ,but Finny is untouched. He was always the best athlete, the most fun person, and the boy with the biggest heart. “Smart lad, to slip betimes away /From fields where glory does not stay” ( To an Athlete Dying Young, A.E Housman). The athlete in this poem, like Finny, dies before his records are broken. Experienced soldiers know that not all of war is glory, but Finny died before realizing it and experiencing the loss of his own abilities. The climax of the novel, when Finny falls down the stairs, is appropriate because Finny was not the type of person to go to war even if he had not broken his leg. He will always remain in Gene’s mind as a role model.

Do you think that if Phineas and Gene went to war together it would be an appropriate ending?

Could Finny have died in the battlefield? How would Gene have reacted?

Assignment #11(178-194)- Does Finny's death surprise you? Why or why not? Does it seem like a logical climax for the novel? Is it the climax?(Anna)

Finny’s death did not surprise me, and it is a logical climax because everything is going to change after Finny’s death. Finny’s death did not surprise me because it seemed almost like a death you could expect. In many books, the characters readers like the most are often killed off, and this was just the case. I also expected Finny’s death after his return because Finny and Gene’s relationship after the accident was almost too good to be true. Finny and Gene were so close even after Gene tried to kill him that, “Phineas had thought of me as an extension of himself,”(Knowles 180). This is a logical climax. A climax is the turning point of a story where it reaches its point of highest tension and drama. This is where this happens because before the fall Finny’s greatest secret gets exposed to the person he did it to who was Gene, and then Finny dies which changes almost everything. So, this is a logical climax because everything changes because of this event. Everything will change because Finny was who Gene looked up to. Even though they had a very unhealthy relationship with each other, their worlds basically revolved around each other. Gene’s world is going to completely shift, especially since he will probably have to go to war soon so he literally is losing everything he has. At the end of the chapter it says, I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral,” (Knowles 194). Gene feels this way because now that Finny’s gone most of his problems and happiness and other emotions are gone with him. Along with the guilt of knowing what he did to him in the past and that he caused Finny's second fall even though he didn't physically do anything to him that time. After the logical climax where Finny dies, Gene’s entire world is going to change.

Chapter 12 Question 4 Assignment #11: If Finny had survived his operation, do you think Gene and Finny could remain friends? Or do you think the friendship at this point is too broken? Make sure to include support from the text in your answer. (Mali)

I think if Finny had survived the operation Gene and Finny would still be friends. One of the last conversations Finny and Gene have before the operation is when Gene brings Finny’s clothes. The tree accident seems to be on Finny’s mind, sparking his question about why Gene pushed him. Finny says to Gene, “it was just some kind of blind impulse you had in the tree there, you didn’t know what you were doing. Was that it?”, and Gene responds, confirming Finny’s explanation (191). Both Gene and Finny seem more at ease now, and Finny is a lot more calm than when he exploded at Gene at the night before. At the end of this conversation he says, “It’s okay because I understand and I believe you. You’ve already shown me and I believe you” (191). Finny had a had time getting these words out but it seems he finally has come to peace with Gene and the tree. He got over his resentment against Gene. If he can forgive Gene for the first accident, I think Finny could have overcome this too. I think, if he even blamed Gene for falling down the stairs (we don’t even know that), then I think their friendship would have survived. Finny’s wording, “you’ve already shown me”, makes me think he sees past these actions in Gene and sees he is a good person who made a snap decision. Finny did start to move on and forgive Gene, leading me to the conclusion that I think that their friendship would have survived.