Wednesday, January 22, 2020

What are some quotations from A Separate Peace that show peace and conflict in the scene where Gene visits Finny in the infirmary?

In chapter 5, the closest quotes that show peace and conflict during Gene's visit to Finny are below:

"I don't know; I must have just lost my balance. It must have been that. I did have this idea, this feeling that when you were standing there beside me, y—I don't know. I had a kind of feeling. But you can't say anything for sure from just feelings. And this feeling doesn't make any sense. It was a crazy idea. I must have been delirious. So I just have to forget it. I just fell . . . that's all . . . I'm sorry about that feeling I had."
He was never going to accuse me. It was only a feeling he had, and at this moment, he must have been formulating a new commandment in his personal decalogue: never accuse a friend of a crime if you only have a feeling he did it. And I thought we were competitors. It was so ludicrous I wanted to cry.

In the first quote, Finny hints that he had suspicions about Gene's involvement in his accident. However, since he only has his feelings to go by, he refuses to make accusations. 
In the second quote, Gene comes to the grim realization that he's been mistaken about Finny, and he becomes ashamed of the way he's treated him.The conflict first originated in Gene's mind. However, the tension between the two is clear in the two quotes above.
Gene visits Finny again later in the book, and we find them reconciled in chapter 12. Here, your best bet for quotes about peace and conflict are:

. . . I've gotten awfully mad sometimes and almost forgotten what I was doing. I think I believe you . . . Something just seized you. It wasn't anything you really felt against me, it wasn't some kind of hate you've felt all along. It wasn't anything personal.
. . . Tell me how to show you. It was just some ignorance inside me,some crazy thing inside me, something blind, that's all it was.
. . . I believe you. It's okay because I understand and I believe you. You've already shown me and I believe you.

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