Recently our class had the opportunity to read A Separate Peace by John Knowles, an intriguing look into the mind of the maturing teen. Though a generally convincing and indeed well written book, the character Phineas in this story is portrayed by Knowles as an intentionally unbelievable character, through general naïve characterization, as well as the portrayal of Phineas as a character of extreme light, and as a prodigy or god, in order to …showed first 75 words of 604 total…

…showed last 75 words of 604 total…points the author tried to get across to the reader would become lost, or not be as strongly shown, such as that of Phineas' rebirth in Gene. With no such strong and idealistic characterization, such a rebirth would have been less noticeable and the theme involving the way in which we deal with our selves and our enemies would have also been completely lost; the book would have become a boring read- it needed Phineas.