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A Separate Peace: Contrasting Gene And Phineas And The Struggle For Power - Term Papers

A Separate Peace: Contrasting Gene And Phineas And The Struggle For Power

John Knowles' A Separate Peace depicts many examples of how power is
used. In A Separate Peace, two opposing characters struggle for their own
separate might. Gene Forrester, the reserved narrator, is weakened by his
struggle for power. While, Phineas was inspired by his own power within. The
novel conveys how peace can weaken or inspire during a mental war.
Phineas, a natural rebel, is known as the best athlete in school. For
example, he and three others come to look at a tree, which is considered among
the Upper Middler students at Devon an impossibility. Phineas demonstrates his
supreme power by stating that the tree is, indeed, a "cinch" (p. 6). No Upper
Middler had dared to do the ...

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classmates. Phineas'
spontaneity inspires many others to be like himself and jump off the tree.
Another example of Phineas' power is his character establishing scene of
disrespect to the school by wearing his pink shirt and the Devon School tie as
his belt. We here, again, see him as the spontaneous individual who "can get
away with anything" (p.18). Phineas' nature inspired Mr. Patch-Withers, a
teacher at Devon. Phineas has an eloquence about himself, allowing him to get by
with so much. Phineas "might have rather enjoyed the punishment if it was done
in some kind of novel and known way" (p.20). Even with negative actions,
Phineas can enjoy a situation if it presents something new and different. It is
this spontaneous and contradictory nature which Gene cannot understand and
which ultimately contributes to his attempting to destroy Phineas.
Gene Forrester, after being gone for fifteen years, returns to the Devon
School to recollect his past memories of the summer session when he ...

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 3/1/2007 09:11:57 PM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 796
Pages: 3

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