A Seperate Piece

The novel “A Separate Peace” was written by John Knowles, and it tells a story about friends in school during the time period around World War Two. A man named Gene tells the story, and he is reflecting back upon his days at school with his best friend Phineas. Throughout the novel, the characters face many minor incidents, but also encounter some life changing experiences. Through all of these times, the characters demonstrate courage.
One of the minor examples that a character shows courage is when Gene jumps out of the tree and into the water for the first time.
What was I doing here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this? Was he getting some kind of hold over me?
“Jump!”
With the sensation that I was throwing my life away, I jumped into space. (Knowles, 762)

Gene demonstrates courage at this point in the story because he is afraid to jump out of the tree and he doesn’t want to do it. However, instead of chickening out, he jumps ...