Friday, August 21, 2009

A Separate Peace- My thoughts and feelings

From what I can tell, I'm agreeing with everyone in saying that I enjoyed this book a lot more compared to Huck Finn. Although I liked this book a lot more, my favorite thing about it is the same as it was in Huck Finn.

The relationship between Finny and Gene was so incredibly interesting to me. All the different emotions felt between the two is astonishing. For example, there's love and compassion, but at the exact same time there is hatred and jealousy. This is something that stands out to me, because when I think of best friends I don't think of hatred and jealousy. Also, there are differences between them that would make you think that they couldn't be best friends. Gene is the good student and as Katie said, the "overachiever", while Finny is the star athlete who everyone looks up to and isn't necessarily the best student academically. He thought Gene did too much as a student. This ties into their personalities, which were completely different, too. As you all know, Finny was the adventurous and optimistic leader, who everyone followed. It was as if nothing could bring him down, even losing his athletic career. Gene was in a way more mature about taking risks because he thought about the consequences of his actions (that didn't always stop him, but atleast he thought about it), and he was one of the many that followed Finny's lead. They were going in completely different directions, but still managed to become best friends. I suppose this is a case of "opposites attract".

What do you think about Gene and Finny's friendship? How does this compare to any of your friendships? Can you think of something to add to what I've said that could make my point even clearer?

1 comment:

  1. I completely agree on the "opposites attract" statement. I think they brought out the best in each other and sometimes the worst. Also, everyone keeps bringing up how Gene was the bad friend in this situation and Finny was such a great friend. I'd have to disagree because Finny constantly pressured Gene into doing things that interrupted his studies. Finny never realized this because in a way he was very self-absorbed. Before the accident he constantly made excuses for himself. But he explained them in a way to get himself out of trouble. Yet, he always seemed to drag Gene into it. Gene never had another choice but to stick by his best friend.

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