A Separate Peace - Gene's Journey

A Separate Peace - Gene's Journey Gene Forrester's difficult journey towards maturity and the adult world is a main focus of the novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. Gene's journey begins the moment he pushes Phineas from the tree and the process continues until he visits the tree fifteen years later. Throughout this time, Gene must become self-aware, face reality and the future, confront his problems, as well as forgive and accept the person …

…forgiving the person that he is, Gene enables himself to move on and join the adult world. Gene's maturation is long, painful. It is a painful and difficult process that reveals a darker side of Gene that he doesn't neccessarily wish to see. However painful, Gene is made a better person during his maturation through his suffering. Through his pain and awful revalations about himself, Gene matures from an insecure child to a self-knowledgable adult.