Throughout the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, there were two dominant
characters. Gene who is the narrator and Finny who is Gene's best friend have a
great relationship shown in A Separate Peace. Finny whose real name is Phineas
has three qualities, manipulation, athleticism, and is a strong leader.
Manipulation is shown all through the novel by Finny and is one of his best
assets that he has. We see his manipulation skills from getting out of trouble
when they skipped dinner to the time he made Gene first jump out of the tree.
""The reason sir is that we just had to jump out of that tree. You know that
tree...because we're all getting ready for the war...Mr. Prud'homme released his
breath with a sort of amazed laugh, stared at Finny for awhile, and that was all
there was to it'" (15,16). Finny, in this quote, gets Gene and himself out of
trouble after they skipped dinner the night before and every time they get in
Finny Plantation, Rodsley, Derbyshire
A Separate Peace
English: Finny Joseph an Gospel Singer.trouble. In the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session he persuades Gene
to go on the jump every night even though Gene does not want to and would rather
study.
Finny is an incredible athlete, modest, and is very brave, this is shown through
his breaking of the long-standing school swimming record and not wanting to show
off his talent. Another athletic move Finny makes is inventing a new game
called blitzball during the summer classes, which they play all the time. When
Finny breaks his leg and is never able to play sports again it devastates him.
"'Listen, pal, if I cant play sports, you're going to play them for me'" (77).
When Finny says this his anger is so high since he cannot play sports that...