"A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

(Compare and Contrast Finny and Gene)
Have you ever had a best friend who was the complete the opposite of you? The novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, tells of a pair of best friends who vary quite a bit from one another. Gene's best friend, Finny, is an athletic individual who loves to break the rules while he himself is a law abiding studious person. The two main characters in this novel are similar to and different from each other in many ways.
Finny is the epitome of the good in the human heart. He, unlike Gene, disregards the rules. An example of this is when Finny jumps out of the big tree near the river although it is against the rules. He considers authority the "necessary evil against which happiness was achieved." He also breaks the rules when he wears the Devon School tie as a belt to a traditional term tea. …