In the novel "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles, the relationship between Phineas and Gene is greatly influenced by Gene's undying amount of loyalty to Finny. Gene is a rather unstable main character who doesn't have a lot of confidence in himself and isn't the most courageous person, so he is easily influenced by the much more confident and bold Phineas. This difference in their personalities can easily be spotted when the two are together, specifically at the beach and in events concerning the tree.
One example of this theme was when Gene first climbed and jumped out of the tree in chapter one, at the request, or you could say the order of Phineas. Gene had said to himself that he didn't want to do it himself "What was I doing up here? Why do I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this?" (p. 17), but he jumped, nevertheless. Finny seemed to have a power over him and since Gene didn't have enough courage to explain to Finny that he didn't want to make the leap, he jumped......

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Title: A Separate Peace
Approximate Word Count: 571
Approximate Pages: 3 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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