Ryan Harris

Mrs. Curtis

Honors English 9

1/18/12

Together We Stand

I remember as a kid, about six or seven years ago. Standing in a hotel in downtown Chicago with my dad, I saw a painting of soldiers. The image of the painting is still vivid. There was a soldier with his rifle shouting back to other men, in front of him was an immense city under siege. Helicopters flew through the air, and tanks rolled through the rough sand. The painting was amazing! But that's not what stuck with me. I remember seeing in the eyes of the men together running towards the city. The fear their eyes seemed to portray. They were just like little kids, running towards the unknown, expecting the worst. The painting had a sense of "we all go together." No matter how quickly we move forward, no matter how scared we are; there is still that one person next to us always. Just as scared. There is a person that will die with you, and stand with you until the end.

After reading the novel A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles. The memory of this painting came back to me. The brotherhood between Gene and Phineas really struck me. It was often confusing, all of the twisted ideas behind this friendship. But in the end, I'm willing to say it was just two friends scared of the future, scared of what would happen to each other. This was not clear to me until the last chapter. But after the death of Finny and after the concept of Gene dying with him had been introduced, the original reputation of every boy at Devon as jealous rivals and liars was broken during Brinker’s conversation with his selfish, foolish, idiotic dad. "We'll do what we have to. After all, that is all we can do." Brinker said we, not I. This term is common and overused, but in this case, its definition serves just the purpose. All of the boys are scared. Scared to die and not be remembered, scared to grow up, scared of the future. What keeps them going forward is them going forward together. This is why I find the title of the last chapter together.

What happens when that motivation, that person keeping you moving on leaves? What happened when it dies? You die with it. "I did not cry then or ever about Finny. I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family's straight-laced burial ground outside of Boston. I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case." In order for Gene to move on in his life, Finny was to unwillingly die for him. For if Finny had not left Gene; Gene wouldn’t have known how important Finny was to him.