Foil Characters In A Separate Peace

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Foil Characters in A Separate Peace In his bildungsroman A Separate Peace, John Knowles presents two completely different characters, Gene and Finny, and their complicated "friendship", which evolves throughout the novel. Gene and Finny work as a foil because they have completely different outlooks on life. Knowles' purpose is to show the conflicts between Gene and Finny in order to give a symbolic meaning to war and peace. The intended audience for this novel is adolescents because the tone is nostalgic. Gene is an explicit symbol of war. Throughout the novel he is constantly instigating arguments and disrupting peace. Finny and Gene always go to a tree and jump out of it. Although Gene never has the desire to, Finny always inveigles …show more content…
He lives his life realistically, knowing that it has its ups and downs. When Gene, Finny, and others are playing blitzball, Gene begins to think about reality and the war. He thinks about all of the components of the war. “The world, through his unleashed emotions, imprinted itself upon him, and he carries the stamp of that passing moment forever. For me, this moment—four years is a moment in history—was the war” (Knowles 40). He chooses to look at the past four years in a realistic outlook, realizing they consisted of internal and external battles with his “best friend”. After Finny fell and broke his leg the second time, Gene goes to visit him and talk about the first incident. As always, Finny tells Gene he believes him when he apologizes for his actions. Even after Finny tells him he believes what he is saying, Gene keeps asking what he can do to make him truly believe. “No, I don’t know how to show you, how can I show you, Finny? Tell me how to show you. It was just some ignorance inside me, some crazy thing inside me, something blind, that’s all it was” (Knowles 191). In reality, most people would not forgive someone right away for pushing them out of a tree, and Gene recognizes that. Finny on the other hand does not always see the world as a realistic
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