Codependency in A Separate Peace by John Knowles

In tenth grade I had the amazing opportunity to read A Separate Peace. I loved it, I even went after school to rant to my English teacher about my fangirlly feelings. I wrote the following essay about the one of the themes in the beautiful piece of art: 

A Seperate Peace Essay: 

A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a novel taking place during World War II. Told from the point of view of Gene, the main character, it tells the tale of two teenage boys (periodic).  Gene tells the story of his friendship with Finny in their time at the Devon School.  One theme very present in this text is Codependency and its relation to a person’s identity.  The codependency in Gene and Finny’s relationship greatly affects their identities because it fuels their competitive nature, drives their actions, and without Finny, Gene seems lost.

Another common theme in this novel is competition and it is very apparent in Gene and Finny’s relationship.  One of the main issue leading to the climax of the book in chapters four and five is Gene’s fear that Finny is trying to sabotage him. His fear hangs like a cloud over his head (simile), changes the way he sees Finny, and displays how he sees himself. “Because it was what you had in your heart that counted. And I had detected that Finny’s was a den of lonely, selfish ambition. He was no better than I was, no matter who won all the contests” (Knowles, 26).  He connects both of their identities to their competitiveness.  This view changes how he acts.

In chapter four when Gene and Finny go to jump off a tree into the river, an activity they do frequently, Gene jounced the branch causing Finny to fall (compound-complex).  This is a very drastic action caused by Gene’s identity found in competition.  Finny, however, seems to see them more as friends than competitors saying, “ ‘I hope you’re having a pretty good time here. I know I kind of dragged you away at the point of a gun, but after all you can’t come to the shore with just anybody and you can’t come by yourself, and at this teen-age period in life the proper person is your best pal.’ He hesitated and then added, ‘which is what you are,’” (Knowles, 21). Recognizing their dependency, Finny, says he is willing to spend his teenage years, a time of self discovery, with Gene. Understanding their relationship, Finny, would like to spend time discovering their identities together, driving his actions.

In the chapters following Finny falling out of the tree and shattering his leg, Finny is absent because he is in the infirmary and then the hospital. Without Finny, Gene is trapped in a fog of confusion trying to make his way out (metaphor).  After Finny is taken to the infirmary, Gene has the following moment back at their dormitory: “But when I looked in the mirror it was no remote aristocrat I had become, no character out of daydreams. I was Phineas, Phineas to the life. I even had his humorous expression in my face, his sharp, optimistic awareness. I had no idea why this gave me such intense relief, but it seemed, standing there in Finny’s triumphant shirt, that I would never stumble through the confusions of my own character again” (Knowles, 29).  Is it the shirt or the reminder of his tie to Finny that comforts him (rhetorical question)?  

The codependency in Gene and Finny’s relationship greatly affects their identities because it fuels their competitive nature, drives their actions, and without Finny, Gene seems lost.  Their personalities are so different but they share the commonality of how they identify themselves (anaphora). Each other (rhetorical fragment).  Their identities are like conjoined twins sharing a heart, they need each other to survive (personification).