A Separate Peace

    A Separate Peace is a novel about two boy's lives and how they evolve during the course of WWII.  The story was written by John Knowles, who also left home to attend a school at the age of 15.  The story involves many instances in which the barriers between friendship and rivalry are cited.  One of the main characters of the story, Phineas, often demonstrates that it is important to be yourself and try to make the best out of a situation whenever confronted by one.  Phineas is athletic, friendly, and competitive.

    Phineas is a very athletic person.  He seems to be good at any sport he tries and all of it comes without practice or post-effort.  During the course of his stay at Devon, Phineas wins several awards in all the sports he plays in.  One day while the others are away, Phineas and Gene go to the gym and Phineas breaks the school time trial record for swimming.  If Gene was not injured by his fall out of the tree then he would be able to compete in the Olympics.

    Phineas is a friendly and outgoing kind of person.  Finny was always friendly and respectful towards other people and whenever one of his classmates such as Leper was being isolated from the rest of group, Finny would take up for him.  Even though Gene made Finny break his leg, Finny still didn't hold anything against him and refused to believe what happened.  Finny has always been friendly to others due to his outgoing personality.

    Finny is a competitive sportsman like person.  Whenever Finny sees a challenge that has never been achieved he will try to do what the others could not.  During the summer when there was nothing else to do, Finny decides to make a club.  When the club meets, all the members have to jump out of the tree to be initiated.  Finny will always stand up to challenges set by others and succeed in breaking them.

    Although Finny is not very smart, his athletic talents make up for it.  With Finny's outgoing attitude and friendliness, he can usually talk his way out of most situations that arise while at Devon.  When Finny died after breaking his leg, the world lost a great person.