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Gene and Finny in A Separate Peace


            Does Gene "kill" his innocence? Gene kill his innocence also known as his youth or childhood. He comes out of his comfort zone and starts to transition from a boy to a man. In order to transition he has to go through conflicts and struggles but Devon does not exactly allow him to do so. Does Finny lose his innocence? Finny has no innocence to lose. He acts as of he has nothing to do but break the rules and be disobedience. Finny is just a representation of what risk Gene is taking which is causing him to lose his innocence.
             In the beginning of the novel, Phineas (Finny) is Gene's best friend, but as the novel progresses we learn that Gene thinks Finny is the enemy when indeed Gene's real enemy is his youth. Gene uses his youth, or his comfort zone, as a shield from what is really going on in the world. The more Finny breaks through Gene's conformity the more Gene begins to hold in all his mixed emotions and resent Finny. While Gene has this fire burning inside of him he lets it get the best of him, Gene jounces the limb. By Gene jouncing the limb, hurting his best friend, and coming to realize it was his own fault. Gene kills his innocence when Finny dies by bone marrow going into the bloodstream. .
             Gene's innocence isn't just lost in one specific spot, but throughout the novel. Although Finny is Gene's friend, he encourages the loss of Gene's innocence by showing him the wild side of life. An example of loss of innocence is when Finny encourages Gene to skip his trigonometry test to spend a day at the beach drinking beer and swimming. Finny encourages Gene to break the rules of obedience, and take a walk on his side of life. Another example of loss of innocence is when Gene feels that Finny is pressuring him to blow off studying to attend Leper's ceremony jump. Gene breaks his own personal rule of academics when he blows off studying to attend the ceremony with Finny. Most of Gene's innocence is lost when Finny falls from the tree and breaks his leg.


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