A Separate Peace - Gene's Journey

    Gene Forrester's difficult journey towards maturity and the adult 
world is a main focus of the novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. 
Gene's journey begins the moment he pushes Phineas from the tree and 
the process continues until he visits the tree fifteen years later. 
Throughout this time, Gene must become self-aware, face reality and 
the future, confront his problems, as well as forgive and accept the 
person that he is. With the jouncing of the limb, Gene realizes his 
problems and the true person he is inside. Fifteen years later, when 
revisiting the tree, he finally accepts and forgives himself. This 
journey is a long and painful one. At the end of this long and winding 
road filled with ditches, difficulties and problems, Gene emerges a 
mature adult.

    Gene jounces the limb and causes Finny's fall and at that moment 
becomes aware of his inner-self and learns of his true feelings. This 
revelation comes to him back in his room before he and Finny leave for 
the tree. It surrounds him with the shock of his true self until he 
finally reacts by jouncing the limb. Up in the tree, before the two 
friends are about to make their "double-jump", Gene sees Finny in this 
new light. He realizes that Finny feels no jealousy or hatred towards 
him and that Finny is indeed perfect in every way. Gene becomes aware 
that only he is the jealous one. He learns of his animosity and that 
he really is a "savage underneath". Over a long period of time Gene 
had been denying his feelings of hatred towards Finny, saying that it 
was normal for him to feel this way. Now all of the feelings come back 
to him and he sees how terrible he really is. The realization that 
these feelings are one-sided causes Gene to to fall dramatically in 
comparison to Finny (he paints himself black for these feelings and
because Finny doesn't share them, he puts a halo around Finny's head), 
concludes with the neccessity for Finny to be brought down to his 
level, and results with Gene jouncing the limb. 

    After the realization of the person he truly is, in his room and 
up in the tree, Gene must now confront his problems, face reality,
and deal with the future. He must learn that communication is very 
important in a relationship and that he must express himself instead 
of keeping his feelings inside, as he had always done with Finny. He 
must learn to listen to himself rather than to others. These were just 
a few of the many problems there were in his relationship with Finny. 
He must face reality and acknowledge the fact that he isn't as great 
as Finny, that he is his own individual person and that Finny isn't as 
perfect as he thought. Gene must accept the guilt for Finny's 
difficulties after his injury and must help Finny as a punishment and 
act of repentence for his deed. Gene does this by "giving a part of 
himself to Finny" as we see with the case of sports throughout the 
rest of the novel - how Gene "becomes" Finny when it comes to sports. 
Although the above are all of great importance, the greatest hurdle 
Gene must overcome is learning to live with what he's done. This 
painful step is the one which will allow him to completely mature.

    The final stage of Gene's maturation is his self-acceptence and 
self-forgivness. He has to accept that he isn't perfect and that he,
like any other normal being (even Finny), has faults. Accepting that 
his innocence has been lost helps Gene move on into another part of 
his life and realize that he can never return to the days of his 
innocent youth again. He can now become a man, enter the war and adult 
world and leave his youth behind. Forgiving himself is the step which 
allows Gene to lead a normal life and enter society. He must finally 
forgive himself completely for his blind act and allow himself to 
"come in out of the rain". By accepting as well as forgiving the 
person that he is, Gene enables himself to move on and join the adult 
world.

    Gene's maturation is long, painful. It is a painful and difficult 
process that reveals a darker side of Gene that he doesn't 
neccessarily wish to see. However painful, Gene is made a better 
person during his maturation through his suffering. Through
his pain and awful revalations about himself, Gene matures from an 
insecure child to a self-knowledgable adult.