Character analysis of Finny in A Separate Peace

Character Sketch for Finny in "A Separate Peace"

John Knowles created the character Phineas, nicknamed Finny, as the representation of the innocent to be sacrificed to the Gods in exchange for redemption. The reader learns about Phineas from two sides only: the narrators' thoughts and opinions and the character's words and actions. The entire novel and Phineas' character himself are full of symbolism. Although the writer never reveals Finny's own thoughts, the reader still gets the chance to indirectly acquire an idea about what went on inside a sixteen-year-old boy's mind. "The most beautiful school in New England"(Knowles) is the set for the joyful Summer sessions of 1942 when two boys who became best friends will forcefully pass from the happy days of childhood to the drama of adults living in the middle of a world, war still fighting to shape their own identities. The narrator, through the voice of Gene Forrester who immerses back into the summer of 1942, tells the story of his friendship with the best athlete of the school, Phineas, ended tragically by Phineas' fall from a tree.

The two boys were apparently very different and yet they seemed to complete each other perfectly. Gene was taking his studies seriously and generally tended to obey the rules, whereas "Phineas didn't really dislike West Point in particular or authority in general, but just considered authority the necessary evil against which happiness was achieved by reaction, the backboard which returned all the insults he threw at it."(Knowles, 19)

Finny inspires a fearless, free of inhibitions character who feels natural in every environment and sets an undisputable example for every student of Devon. His out of the ordinary athletic achievements helped him to be the star of the school, although he never used them to brag about. He attracts children and even adults like a magnet by everything he does, especially because he always seems to act as naturally as a fish in the water; "everything he said was true and sincere; Finney always said what he happened to be thinking, and if this stunned people then he was surprised."(Knowles, 23)

On the other hand this could have indicated a first sign of his sin. The innocent was not spotless. His fall from the tree made him look like a sacrifice for the sin of envy he awoke in his best friend, but it could also have had a meaning for his own sin: his free spirit and almost carless behavior that stopped him from really getting to know his closest friend.

Finny succeeded to draw a circle of truth around himself that made him credible and put him above any intention of punishment whatsoever. His unique behavior and his style brought a breath of fresh air into the old school especially because "the Devon Faculty had never before experienced a student who combined a calm ignorance of the rules with a winning urge to be good, who seemed to love the school truly and deeply, and never more than when he was braking the regulation, model boy who was the most comfortable in the truant's corner" (idem). For all that, Finny unconsciously paved the way to perdition for his friend, Gene. He uncovered the feeling of envy in his best buddy that further led to suspicion and ended in indirect murder. As a result, Gene made Finny fall from the tree while exercising their dangerous jumps into the river, leading to his leg being fractured. The injury was fatal for Finny's athletic career and put him definitively out of the play. Even so, Finny did not stop to ponder. He simply changed his focus from himself to his friend, Gene, whom he wanted to prepare for the 1944 Olympics regardless of the Second World War that was currently being fought. In contrast with the fact that "the school is involved in everything that happens in the war, it's all the same war and the same world"(Knowles, 27), Finny lives in a world of fantasy and drags all those round him into it. "Bombs in Central Europe were completely unreal to us [...] because our place here was too fair for us to accept something like that" (idem, 30). The reader found out at some point that it was not just because the boys discovered an efficient way of prolonging their happy careless childhood, but also because Finny's personal intereste in enlisting in the army subsequently followed by his failure to do so. His way of setting his own rules, disregarding the conventional ways and always getting away with it proved that "Finny's life was ruled by inspiration and anarchy"(idem, 34), yet it led to his own death.