“Only Phineas was never afraid, only Phineas never hated anyone. Other people experienced this frightening shock somewhere, this observation of the enemy, and thus began an obsessive work of defense, began to ward off the threat they saw in front of them by developing a particular state of mind . ” (Knowles 204) John Knowles, the author of A Separate Peace states this quote to explore how some people develop defense mechanisms in order to protect themselves from any harm they may experience. Gene, the protagonist of the novel, feels like his best friend Phineas is out to get him one way or another. However, Finny's perception of his friend was completely different from Gene's. In fact, Finny acts as a foil for Gene throughout the story, bringing a completely different view of things. Gene's wild nature allows him to identify evil in people while Finny simply recognizes the positive traits in his friends, ignoring the concept of evil as a whole. Through Gene and Finny's friendship, John Knowles illustrates the importance of how each person has the ability to perceive others. Gene believes that people are deliberately out to get at him and focuses only on understanding the evil within his friends. Therefore, Gene decides to defeat his enemies before being defeated himself. During the summer session at Devon, Gene comes under dark suspicion that his friend Finny is taking him away from his studies in order to make him fail. This makes sense to Gene since he religiously follows the rules to gain approval from the Devon staff, and anyone who persuades him to disobey those rules wishes him failure. Therefore, Finny had to be his only enemy that needed to be eliminated. Gene is also envious of Finny's humble personality, his ch...... middle of paper......em at the end of the novel. Gene's strong defense systems allow him to paralyze and betray his best friend. Additionally, Finny's denial of evil in people allows him to detach himself from the limb, leaving him injured. I believe that people are capable of containing both good and evil within themselves. Therefore, my opinion is that people should integrate both perceptions of Gene and Finny. They should be able to contain some sort of defense mechanisms to protect themselves, because some people cannot be trusted. Before you decide to stop someone from entering your life, it's best to know them well. The lesson learned from this novel is that people should look for the positive traits in others, while being aware of their intentions. Investigating a person's positive and negative qualities is the ideal defense mechanism that I finally learned to accomplish..