Looking back now across fifteen years, I could see with great clarity the fear I had lived in, which must mean that in the interval I had succeeded in a very important undertaking: I must have made my escape from it.(p2)

This quote is from early in the book, while Gene is looking back on his time at Devon. He now realizes that he was living in great fear of the war he was fighting within himself during his senior year. Between 1942 and 1957, Gene’s mind made the biggest change of all. If he had confronted this fear during the fall and winter of 1942, his life would have changed drastically.

For example, Gene did not face his problems, causing him to be less of a friend to Finny. He felt a competitive rivalry between them that did not exist. This is why he jounced the limb, which set in motion the events leading to Finny’s death.

Knowles uses Gene’s changing mind to show his personality, which is indecisive and shunning to reality. Had Gene had been more decisive and less fearful, his life would have taken a far different course. He would have had a closer relationship with Finny and a different outlook on war. Most importantly, he would have found peace with himself more easily.

After this first incident in the tree, Gene starts seeing Finny as the enemy, and starts to compare himself with Phineas. In doing so, he concludes that he is short of Phineas’s standard. Obviously, this upsets Gene. “He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he.”(p51)

Yes, he had practically saved my life. He had also practically lost it for me. I wouldn’t have been on that damn limb except for him…. I didn’t need to feel any tremendous rush of gratitude toward Phineas.(p25)

Gene’s mind also changes concerning World War II. In the beginning of the novel, Gene listens to war reports on the radio in his room. Although he acknowledges the bombings in Central Europe, the war is not really personal to him. Upon Phineas’s return to Devon after the accident, Gene does not seem to know whether to believe Finny that the war is a hoax.

I took the sight of this… “What is this crap about no maids?” “After all, there is a war on”… I felt a certain disapproval of him for grumbling about a lost luxury, with a war on… “Is there?”… he was always speaking… asking rhetorical questions.(p96)

Some topics in this essay:
Gene Finny’s, Gene Forrester, Central Europe, War II, Devon Gene, Gene Finny, Vernont Leper’s, Knowles Gene’s, Carnival Phineas, gene’s mind, mind changes, gene’s mind changes, Separate Peace, gene’s changing, gene’s changing mind, war ii, feelings towards, gene believe, world war, return devon, novel gene, world war ii, takes stance,