Group 3: Esther Kwon's Character Blog

Phineas:
Age:around sixteen~seventeen

The LOOKS: devilishly handsome, athletically built but not so "built" and tall enough for a girl.

Relationships: Gene's bestfriend in the whole wide world : D

Personality and attitude: so amazingly cool, "what a heart swooner" for the girls, absolutely flawless when it comes to sports and anything physical, favorable when it comes to the social life and popular enough to start things that people will follow. Phineas is able to talk his way out of everything and the way he faces life and how he deals with it, he shares with his friends because it is fun and spontaneous. He lives off inspiration and sees life as something to accomplish and not a big competition.

Job: ... nope, he broke his leg : O

SYMBOLISM: Phineas is a magnificent and important symbol in A Separate Peace. He is what the world was not all about. He represents the heart of a spirited young guy who had no bad intentions toward anybody. He denied the bad and the corrupt. He represented anarchy based on pure fun and not chaos. He loved, he inspired, he had fun, he ruled, he brought change and he had a heart. Kudos Phineas, kudos...

Quotes:
He climbed out of the pool. "I'm not going to do it again," he said quietly.
"Of course you are!"
"No, I just wanted to see if I could do it. Now I know. But I don't want to do it in public."
(Knowles 44)
This is when Phineas breaks the school's swim record with only Gene watching. Gene goes on telling him to do it again with officials and people around but humble and simple-minded Phineas does not want the attention Gene is craving. Phineas does not use his talent to compete against anybody because he does not feel the need to prove anything to anyone except to himself. Phineas is really all about self-contentment because he does not care what other people think.

"You aren't going to start living by the rules, are you?"
I (Gene) grinned at him. "Oh no, I wouldn't do that," and that was the most false thing, the biggest lie of all. ( Knowles 71)
Now that Phineas was going to be home-bound and suffering of boredom because of Gene's inhumane action toward Phineas, Phineas just wanted Gene to have fun even though Phineas had left Devon. Gene can lie and deceive and over think but Phineas is so simple. He is not emotionally retarded because he is in denial about what his bestfriend did and does not do the unmanly way of making Gene suffer with verbal torture. Phineas is honest with pure, good intentions.


Character-Theme-Tie-In: I think that Phineas supports the "friendship" theme of this novel. Well more like he is the "friendship" theme. Phineas is so good to Gene when Gene is so cruel to Phineas. The story is told through Gene and the fact that we know Gene's thoughts makes it harder to know that Phineas trusts Gene. Trust, honesty, loyalty and love is what makes a frienship strong and Phineas shows all of those qualities. The friendship seems like a one-way from Phineas to Gene when we put into consideration what friendship consists of and what it really is. When things got rough and true inner thoughts got pulled out to the surface, Phineas denied the ugly that Gene had committed. Phineas never twisted anyone's actions or what they said to turn it all against himself. Phineas is the exact opposite of Gene and Gene really needed a friend like that.