September 12th ASP Quote Response

On page 53 of the novel A Separate Peace, Gene thinks to himself, "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). This quote is the pinnacle point of Gene's conspiratorial rivalry against Finny. At this point, Gene is desperately trying to rectify his deep contempt and rivalry for his best friend. He tells himself that they are both equal, both trying mercilessly to get ahead, so that makes Gene feel better. At this point, he has not discovered that his ill will for Finny is unrequited. As long as Gene can keep telling himself that he and Finny are both against one another, he can, in his mind keep trying to bring Finny down and get ahead. Gene hated Finny for breaking the swimming record because upon smashing the Devon School all time record, Finny needed no recognition. While Gene would have wanted to bask in the glory, notify the papers, and tell everyone he knew, Finny simply continued on with his day, as if nothing extraordinary had occurred. He believes that in return for this hatred, Finny must hate him for getting an A in almost every class. However, Gene is dead wrong. Finny is such a good person that he is pleased when others succeed, especially his friends, so he is very happy for Gene. While Gene may believe that Finny's antics are merely to keep him from being able to study, that was never Finny's intention. He always just believed that ability was natural, like his own. He did not understand that Gene had to work for what he earned. In fact, the very next passage in the book Gene states, "You would have had an A in that one except for him."(53) Gene goes so far as to directly lay the blame on Finny. This adds to the fire burning within him and makes the rivalry all the more real for him. These two quotes are important because they highlight Gene's cold hearted feelings for Finny and pave the way for the events to come.

September 10th ASP War & Text

Throught the novel, A Separate Peace, many different aspects of life greatly changed the way the characters were forced to live their lives. From the way in which they learned, trained, were brought up, and the direction that their futures would take, the boys were expected to change the course of their lives as a result of the raging war. Also, it caused their opinions of one another to change as their opposing views often collided during the course of the book.
Finny, whose athletic prowess is envied by most of his peers, is expected to put his body to work in the war. However, he is a bit of a conspiracy theorist and does not believe that there even is a war. According to his views, the war is practically a figment of the imaginations of the men in charge of everything. Contrary to this, Brinker is a firm believer in all things war related; he often pushes enlistment on his fellow classmates. Leper has a bit of a different situation. He becomes inspired immensely by the thought of skiing in the war. However, his experiences in the service, although not mentioned in detail, drastically change him. He is fidgety and not very mentally stable. The war allowed for a variety of paths in character development. This made the story very interesting.
These boys were not simply allowed to live the lives of the average teenager. They had to prepare themsleves for the lives that lay ahead of them, due to the damper the war put on their world. Also, I believe that the war was a bit of a metaphor for the war that Gene was fighting within himself about his actions against his best friend Finny. His dilemma relates to the fact that he let the jealousy within him overcome his friendship and bring him to the point of purposely harming Finny. This serves as somewhat of an internal war opposite the the real war in the world during the book. His heartless betrayal of Finny to advance himself in many ways mimics the actions of the world leaders who purposely went after other countries, or specific groups of people to simply gain power. The motives behind their ways and actions can be compared to Gene's.
World War II affected the book both directly and indirectly. It directly changed the lives of the characters and the way they grew up. Indirectly, it provided us with a comparison for the main conflict throughout the book. This conflict was Gene's constant obsession with getting ahead; it was never enough for him to be simply Finny's equal, he wanted to be more, and it proved that he would do anything in order to achieve that goal. Although it was not always blatant, the conflicts were quite tied together.