A Separate Peace: Gene Trivia Quiz

Answer: The tree and the First Academy Building

Respectively, these are the places that Phineas (Finny) broke his leg and his heart.
Following a trial that breaks Finny apart, he tries to run out of the building and falls down the marble stairs. Upon revisiting the site, Gene makes a mental note of how hard the stairs were, and how that might have been an important factor in Finny's death.

Answer: Jumping out of the tree

He first describes how Phineas forces him through friendship to jump out of the tree. Although he hates it, Gene always jumps out of the tree to remain in friendship with Finny.

Answer: All of these

After he flunks, he grows increasingly paranoid. He believes that Finny set him up to fail these tests, and that all of his little summer inventions were set out to wreck his studies. He wants to be superior to Phineas, so Gene starts studying harder, trying to be the top student in the school.

He believes that he surpasses Chet Douglass in this aspect because Chet actually enjoys learning, while Gene just cares about getting the 'A'.

Answer: Gene jounces the limb, and Finny falls

Interestingly, Gene says that his knees bent, giving the impression that he didn't jounce the limb based on free will. Either way, the outcome is clear: Phineas can never play sports, or even walk normally, again.

Answer: True

He does tell his friend what happened, but Phineas does not believe him. To retain his sanity, Phineas tells himself and believes that his best friend did not do anything, and that his was his own uncoordination that led to his accident.

Answer: Joining the war effort

After Gene agrees with Brinker to throw away his high school life and join the war, Finny returns to school. His statement "Hi pal, where's the brass band?" shows that his sense of humor has returned.

At this point of the book, Gene and Finny's roles are switched. At the beginning, Gene was a parasite on Finny, desperate to get some popularity or success from the unintentional perfection of Phineas. Now, Phineas physically and emotionally needs Gene to help him.

Answer: The 1944 Olympics

Each morning, they go outside, and Gene runs and runs and runs. It shows that Finny had little or no pride to swallow when he aids Gene with the athletics. Although Phineas would rather be the one running, he tries to get his best friend to succeed just as well. In the end, it pays off when Gene finally finds his inner athleticism.

Answer: It's signed "Your best friend, Elwin Leper Lepellier"

The letter says your best friend, not my best friend! Leper understands Gene and Finny's relationship probably better than either of them. When Gene goes to look for him, though, it's too late: the military has made him mentally unstable.

Answer: Bone marrow through the heart; Infirmary

Although some might say that Phineas' desperate attempt to flee life was suicidal, he did die in the Infirmary. Dr. Stanpole tells Gene the news, after ensuring him that Phineas would be all right. Gene is unable to accept the news.

Answer: He felt like it was his own funeral

Several times during the book, Gene says that his goal was to become a part of Phineas. Now that Finny had died, Gene felt like it was his own funeral, and "...you do not cry in that case."

Thank you for taking the quiz, and please take the time to rate it!