The Fall of Innocence in A Separate Peace :: essays research papers

Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a mistreat toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to number at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke by dint of the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud, It was the head start clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With unthinking confidence I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every suck up of my fear forgotten. (Knowles 59-60). Gene Forrester, one of the main characters in John Knowles original A Separate Peace, describes his best friend Phineas f only from a grand tree, an irate steely black steeple beside a river,(Knowles 6) at their all boys boarding school, Devon. Gene is an introverted young boy who is very academically gifted. Finny, however, is an extremely extroverted boyish young boy who is very athleticaly gifted. Finnys decrease eventually leads to terrible thin gs, such as death and guilt. Throughout the wise Knowles uses Phineas alight from the tree to symbolize his loss of innocence, to show Genes guilt, and to develop Phineas death. aft(prenominal) Phineas, also known as Finny, falls from the tree, he slowy begins to change. He begins to sustain his innocence, It can be seen in the beginning of the novel that Finny acts very innocent. For example, Finnys mettlesome of Blitzball shows his spontaneous style of play, and his innocent child like personality. However afterwards Finnys tragic fall from the tree, he begins to seem less innocent and childish. He begins to reveal secrets to Gene, such as when he tells Gene about nerve-racking to enlist in the war. Ive been writing to the Army and the Navy and the Marines and the Canadians and everybody else all winter..(Knowles 190). fight is non an event for innocent little boys. When readers find out that Finny had been toilsome to enlist in the war all winter it shows that after th e fall Finny becomes less and less innocent. He no longer begins to play his childish games, and no longer tries to preform his crazy stunts. Though he is hurt, he does not seem to want to watch or help recruit in any of these activies. On the day Finny fell from that tree, he did not just plument down into the river beneath him, but also fell from innocence.