A Separate Peace: ResponsibilitySay no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original EssayA responsibility is something that everyone is held accountable for. Often people say that everyone is responsible for their own words and actions; if something happens as a result of something we do, we are responsible for it. But is it possible that something is the result of various actions of different people who are therefore equally responsible, or is there always one person who is most responsible for the incident in question? One such situation where this question is relevant is present in the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles. In the novel, the main character, Gene, questions his responsibility in the death of his best friend, Phineas or Finny. After reading Gene's account of the events leading up to Finny's death, the reader may notice that there are three people who are all partially responsible for Finny's death. Gene, a classmate named Brinker, and Phineas all have something to do with the incident, but who is primarily responsible? Gene is probably the most obvious culprit for part of Phineas' death. Gene clearly feels guilty, which is why he returns to the tree fifteen years after the fact, for some sort of closure. As Gene and Finny were about to jump off a tree branch into the river together, Gene shook the branch, causing Phineas to fall into the river unexpectedly and injure his leg. Later, when Phineas injured his leg again and needed to have it repaired in a routine operation, he died. The doctor said it was probably because some marrow got into his bloodstream and caused a cardiac arrest. But if Finny had never fallen, he wouldn't have been on that operating table. Therefore, indirectly, an action of Genes ultimately resulted in Finny's death. But was this action done consciously? The author does not specify this. “My knees were bent and I popped the limb” (Knowles p. 52) Gene says in his account of the incident. “I jumped” is an active verb, but “were bent” is a passive verb meaning that an unknown force bent Gene's knees and, as a result, caused the limb to jump. Since this action was not entirely Gene's doing, he is therefore not completely responsible for the fall or the events that resulted from it. Brinker, Gene and Finny's classmate, was responsible for the circumstances that led to Phineas' second fall. Brinker suspected that Gene was responsible for Finny's first fall and was somewhat angry with him for not joining the army with him when he wanted to. It was Brinker who called the trial in which Gene was prosecuted for deliberately knocking Finny out of the tree. But even if Gene was responsible for Finny's first fall, there was no need to drag Finny out of bed in the middle of the night and subject him to such emotional upheaval while he was still physically vulnerable from the accident. If Brinker hadn't set up the trial, Finny would never have rushed out in such an upset manner, causing him to fall and get hurt again. The doctor didn't know why Phineas died. “In the middle of the operation, his heart stopped. I can't explain it. »(Knowles p.185) He said. Later, the doctor speculated that Phineas probably died when the marrow entered his bloodstream and blocked his heart, but Gene meant everything to Finny. The idea that Brinker presented to)