a seperate peace by John Knowles chapter 5?

Question

1. What is the signicant in the doctor's remark about "facing things"?

2. Why does Gene accuse Finny of trying to pull him down?

3. What is Finny's comment about the espression on Gene's face?

4.What is Finny's "decalogue"?

5. Why does Finny refuse to accept the truth of the accident?

Even if it is just one answer, any help is greatly appriciated. thank you!

Answer 1

These are pretty easy questions to answer, and this is a good book, so I'd like to try and convince you to read it and come up with your own answers. I mean, there are the obvious answers. And, I'd just add that I suppose they're only obvious to me because answers to questions about literature are always dependant on the person answering. That's the point of a teacher asking these types of "easy" questions. She or he is probably very interested in reading about what you think, how you feel about the characters, what meanings you can draw from the situations.


1. It's Gene's fault Finny falls out of the tree and breaks a leg. Dr. Stanpole tells Gene that Finny will never play sports again, that he's lucky he'll even be walking again. The doctor tells Gene that because he's Finny's friend, he should try and help Finny to face the truth and accept the consequences. It also seems, though, that the doctor's words could be directed at Gene, because the sooner Gene faces that it's his fault, the sooner he accepts it, the better off he'll be. But instead...

2. Gene accuses Finny of trying to pull him down. Gene's feeling guilty, and he doesn't want to face the truth, so he accuses rather than confesses. The whole time, it seems Finny's trying to get Gene to tell the truth. I think Finny knows the whole time that it was Gene's fault, and he's not mad, he's too good-natured for that, but it would still be nice if Gene, his roommate, his best friend, would just admit that he screwed up. Also, things come pretty naturally to Finny, and Gene's been pretty jealous of this. Gene's a hard-working student, who needs to study a lot, especially since his class rank really matters to him, and when Finny convinces him to go play ball or skip class, etc., Gene's resentment has been building up about this. So the accusation has a double meaning--literally, it's about the tree; on a deeper level, it has to do with academics.

3. Gene's lying through his teeth when he tells Finny that he tried to reach out and save Finny from falling out of the tree. Finny comments that before he fell, that turned and saw the expression on Gene's face. He says, "I just remember looking at your face for a second. Awfully funny expression you had. Very shocked, like you have right now." It's strange that Gene would have a "shocked" expression on his face as he's lying. So the shock has to be about the news the doctor told him. He didn't realize how serious it would be, didn't realize that Finny's injury would mean he'd never be able to play sports again. So he is shocked about that. But then Finny goes on to say that it's a little weird that Gene's so shocked. He says, "But I don't see why you should look so personally shocked. You look like it happened to you or something." I think Finny's still trying to subtly convince Gene to confess that he did it on purpose. These are agonizing moments in this book. But it's interesting because earlier in chapter 5, Gene put on Finny's clothes. So for Finny to make a comment that puts Gene in Finny's place is interesting because Gene has put himself in Finny's clothes. You can read into that however you want.

4. It's his rulebook, his guidelines for life, etc. After Gene comes right out and asks Finny if he remembers how he fell, Finny almost, almost, almost says that he knows Gene did it on purpose. But then he doesn't. He doesn't want to accuse his friend, especially if his friend, who he has always thought so much of, doesn't have the human decency to just confess. The whole time, he just wanted Gene to come out and admit it, but since he didn't, Finny isn't going to accuse him. So he says he must have just lost his balance. Gene feels so bad that he thinks to himself that Finny "must have been formulating a new commandment in his personal decalogue: Never accuse a friend of a crime if you only have a feeling he did it." So the decalogue is made up of all the rules/commandments that Finny's said all through the book. This last commandment is the latest addition.

5. All that happened over the Summer Session, which was summer school. The boys go home, and then in September before school starts up again, Gene goes to visit Finny at his house, where he's still recovering. Feeling guilty, for not having told the truth earlier, Gene confesses. Finny freaks out, refuses to believe it. I think he partly refuses to accept it because it's too late, because Gene should have told him when Finny expected to hear it, when Finny was prepared to hear it. But Gene's sudden, unexpected visit to Finny's home is a rude intrusion on his life and on the peace he's had to make with what he thought happened.

Hope these help you get started! Don't use these answers. Seriously. The chapter is so short! Just read it for yourself, take my answers, and go from there. There are no right or wrong answers in English / literature, but you just have to be able to make a reasonable and convincing argument for what you have to say, and for what you believe. I have to think you're in high school because generally it's high school students who have to read A SEPARATE PEACE, and I'd just say that since it's been such a long time since I've been in high school, you're better off not using my answers as they are. I'd say, either tone them down and make them much simpler, or beef them up and make them much more involved.

Good luck, read the book.

Answer 2

0. Why don't you just read the chapter?