A Separate Peace Quote Analysis

Phineas: Fun-loving, excitable, athletic, friendly, and daring

"No one but Phineas could think up such a crazy idea.He of course saw nothing the slightest bit intimidating about it. He wouldn't; or wouldn't admit it if he did. Not Phineas." (Page 14)

Gene: Descriptive, apprehensive, logical, nostalgic, and obsessive.

" In the deep, tacit way in which feeling becomes stronger than thought, I always felt that the Devon school came into existence the day I entered it, was vibrantly real while I was a student there, and then blinked out like a candle the day I left." (Page 9-10)

Significant Quote: "The houses were as handsome and as unusual as I remembered. Clever modernizations of old Colonial manses, extensions in Victorian wood, capacious Greek Revival temples lined the street, as impressive and forbidding as ever."(Page 20-11)

Significance of quote

This quote is significant because it shows not only Gene's attention to detail, but his admiration for it, as well. It almost seems like an obsession with him, as he does it several more times throughout the chapter. This could spring from him being either naturally sentimental or naturally bitter.

Question: Does Gene think of his past as completely horrible, or is he grateful to it for shaping him into who he would become?