insight into Finny's feelings after Brinker asked Gene if he was ready to go enlist.

He needed me. I was the least trustwrothy person he had ever met. I knew that; he knew or should know that too. I had even told him...He wanted me around.

Throughout the novel, Gene and Finny's relationship develops and changes as Gene's insecurities indirectly cost Finny his life. Initially, Gene and Finny begin their summer session at Devon as best friends. Gene, who is fascinated and attracted to everything that Finny does, reluctantly follows his friend into some precarious, unforgettable situations. However, Gene's insecurities manifest into jealousy toward Finny as he begins to view Finny as more of a rival than friend. Gene drastically misinterprets Finny's motivations and feelings towards him by thinking,

I found a single sustaining thought. The thought was, You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record, but so what? He hated you for getting an A in every course but one last term. You would have had an A in that one except for him. Except for him (Knowles, 24).

While Finny innocently trusts Gene and has no harmful feelings towards him, Gene deeply resents Finny for his natural charisma and effortless ability to succeed. Gene's insecurities and jealousy take a turn for the worse when he decides to purposely make Finny fall from a tree, which shatters Finny's leg.

After Finny becomes incapacitated from his injury, Gene's sense of remorse is evident. However, by making Finny his "equal," Gene's love for his friend is finally revealed in the mirror scene when Gene puts on Finny's clothes. Gene and Finny essentially become codependent on one another, and Gene's feelings toward his friend seem genuine. Unfortunately, Finny cannot deal with the reality that Gene purposely made him fall from the tree and dies of complications stemming from his initial accident. By the end of the novel, Gene feels at peace with himself and recognizes the true nature of his complex friendship with Finny. Gene's experiences with Finny have dramatically impacted his outlook on life, war, and his inner conscience as he comes to terms with his past actions.

In the final chapter of A Separate Peace, Gene admits to having killed Phineas as he reflects upon World War II:

I never  killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy.  Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.

Further, Gene admits to having been involved in "an obsessive labor of defense...by developing a particular frame of mind" while he was in school against that whom he considered his "enemy...if he was indeed the enemy," Phineas.

In Chapter 4, when the envious Gene realizes that Finny really is a superior person--

Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he--

he reflects, "I couldn't stand this."  When Finny suggests that they have a meeting of the Super Suicide Society, Gene at first demurs, saying that he must study. But, then, because Finny has believed that Gene does not need to study, Gene does not want Finny to "excel me in this," so he agrees to go along. Thus, when they get to the tree and Finny suggests that he and Gene jump together off the limb, they climb up. Once there, Gene describes his action,

....Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb.

 While Gene describes his action as not premeditated--inextricable--it appears to be a subconscious act of envy. It is this spontaneous act that Gene as an adult analyzes and concludes, as he does in the last chapter, was indeed meant to harm Finny.

As Ronald Weber writes in an article from Studies in Short Fiction, "It is Phineas's innocence that Gene cannot endure. As long as he can believe Phineas shares his enmity, he can find relief, but with this assurance gone, he stands condemned before himself and must strike out against his tormentor." (enotes)

At any rate, it is the first act of injurying Finny's leg that later leads to Finny's next injury in which, after he overhears "the trial" of Gene, plunges out of the doors and careens down the marble stairway, causingh his leg again to break. But this time, by a fluke, some of the marrow of his broken bone lodges in Finny's heart, stopping it.  Indirectly, then, Gene is again responsible for Finny's injury, and, ultimately, for his death.

And he did everything he could think of for me. Ch.3

Gene finds comfort in putting on Finny's clothes because for a little while he can be someone other than himself. Because of Gene's guilt and self-loathing, just being himself is painful. Finny is still in the infirmary, and Gene has yet to face him after making him fall from the tree. Gene lives in fear and dread of that moment. No one seems to suspect Gene, but Gene believes that Finny knows. The weight of all his emotions makes Gene's life almost intolerable. After wearing Finny's clothes all evening, Gene sleeps well. When morning comes, however, Gene must once again deal with reality: "[I]t was only on waking up that this illusion was gone, and I was confronted with myself, and what I had done to Finny."

A foil in literature is someone that makes another character seem better by contrast. Since A Separate Peace is narrated from Gene's point of view, his insecurities are pitted against Finny's greatest talents. For example, Gene feels insecure because he compares his introverted self and academic achievement with Finny's extroverted personality and athletic abilities. This does not provide the satisfaction he is seeking because it is as if he is comparing the proverbial apples to oranges. As many people do, Gene sees his weaknesses in Finny's strengths. Little did he know, however, that Finny may also harbor some jealous feelings. When Gene asks Finny if he would mind if Gene graduated at the first of the class, Finny says the following:

"'Mind?' Two clear green-blue eyes looked at me. 'Fat chance you've got, anyway, with Chet Douglass around'

'But you wouldn't mind, would you?' I repeated in a lower and more distinct voice.

He gave me that half-smile of his, which had won him a thousand conflicts. 'I'd kill myself out of jealous envy'" (52).

Now, whether or not Finny was serious is arguable, but the physical and mental contrasts between Gene and Phineas are sure. Finny's weaknesses in academics highlight Gene's strengths, whereas Genes weaknesses in athletics help to highlight Finny's strengths in that area. In an ironic twist though, Finny loses his ability to use his athletic strengths when Gene makes him fall out of the tree and he breaks his leg. Doctors say he will never be able to use it for sports again.

As unfortunate as the accidents is, Gene didn't intend to get Finny out of the way by jouncing the tree limb; he was just trying to make Finny look foolish for once during an athletic endeavor because they had just been arguing. Gene didn't want Finny to lose his athletic abilities for good, but once that does happen, Gene is able to become a better person. This is where the true nature of Gene and Finny as foils makes a difference in the story. Finny suffers a traumatic event that spirals him into depression and denial about the war. Gene wrestles with his conscience and how to be a better friend after witnessing and experiencing his own vengeful feelings exposed toward someone who was supposed to be his best friend. Had Finny not broken his leg and declined in his strength of character, though, Gene would not have been able to rise up out of his jealous nature to become a better person. In the end, Gene explains it best as follows:

"I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there" (204).

In summary, Finny seemed to be the strong, more dominant character at the beginning of the story, but he declined physically and mentally in the end. Conversely, Gene seemed to be the weak one at the beginning of the story and ends up being the stronger one. This is the perfect example of foil characters in literature because by contrasting both boys throughout the novel, one seems better than the other at different times and for different reasons. 

Stereotypically, Gene can be seen as the nerd and Finny as the jock or the "cool guy". Gene envies Finny's ease in social situations, his ability to be himself and not take himself seriously, his willingness to take risks and his athletic ability. Finny envies Gene's studious behavior and his responsibility, but tries to get him to let loose more often. Both want to be friends, but it is their differences that stand in their way. Gene's jealousy causes him to jounce the limb and cause Finny's fall. Gene mistakenly thinks with Finny out of the way, Gene will be more well-liked, which doesn't turn out to be the case at all. In fact, it sours Finny's personality, which reflects on Gene.

The novel can be interpreted as an allegory in which Gene and Finny both play significant roles. As they move through their final year at Devon, knowing that the awful realities of World War II await them, their journey becomes an extended metaphor for the loss of innocence. From the summer of 1942 until the spring of 1943, Gene and Finny experience one emotional shock after another and struggle in their own ways to survive them. By the conclusion of the novel, Finny has been forced to face Gene's betrayal and Gene has come to understand his role in Finny's destruction; Finny dies and Gene goes to war: Innocence is lost.

The novel as allegory is further supported by the other characters, especially Brinker and Leper. The boys of Devon become a metaphor for the entire generation of American young men who had to grow up too quickly to meet the demands of World War II. In the novel's conclusion, Gene's mature understanding of what causes war, "something ignorant in the human heart," moves the allegory into the realm of universal truth.

Within the allegory, Finny acts as the symbol of innocence. Of all the characters, only he is not given a last name, suggesting his symbolic significance in the story. In Finny's grace, joy, kindness, humor, love, and unrealistic optimism, he symbolizes the best qualities of being young and as yet untouched by the adult world. Since he does not survive in the novel, his death becomes symbolic of the death of youthful innocence itself.

Very interesting question. This is one my students and I discuss every time I teach the novel. There are many different answers to this; just like any work of literature, this novel is subject to many theories. I personally think the two boys are in a codependent relationship, which turns out to be very unhealthy for both of them. I see Gene as very tortured both emotionally and mentally, and Finny as the victim of his madness.

The best textual evidence for my theory of Gene's mental/emotional state is revealed in the first few chapters. It is here that Gene professes his obsession with Finny and his perceived jealousy over Finny's athletic achievements. Read back over these chapters, and note how Gene discusses Finny. First, he praises his roommate, nearly gushing with pride. At one point he says how lucky he is to have Finny as a best friend. However, only paragraphs later, he denounces Finny over some imagined slight. He then revels in paranoia, claiming Finny's been out to get him and destroy his grades the entire time they've known each other.

Many people think that is the reason Gene pushes Finny off the branch: the imagined attack Finny has wrought on Gene's academic legacy. But if you read closely, you'll see that Gene actually realizes Finny was never out to get him before he pushes Finny off the branch. This is perhaps more disturbing, since it means there must have been a completely different motive for Gene's action. What could it possibly be? Only the product of a deeply troubled mind, that's for certain.

After Finny returns to school, the two boys grow even closer. This is where the codependency is obvious. Gene needs to feel like Finny needs him, so he stays as Finny's roommate and seeks to help him any chance he can. Finny needs to live vicariously through Gene; hence the continuous training and exercise. Yet Gene is burdened by his secret, which ultimately destroys not only their friendship, but Finny's life as well.

In an article from Studies in Short Fiction, Ronald Weber writes,

It is Phineas's innocence that Gene cannot endure. As long as he can believe Phineas shares his enmity, he can find relief, but with this assurance gone, he stands condemned before himself and must strike out against his tormentor.

Indeed, Phineas is one of life's true Innocents. He is without an pettiness, any jealousies, any uncharitable thought; in short, he has the heart of a young child, breaking rules not to be defiant, but simply for the enjoyment of freedom. On the other hand, Gene comes to Devon School with several personal issues. For one thing, he is obviously insecure; therefore, he interprets the motivations of Finny always in the wrong way. He believes that Finny has ulterior motives for his actions: 

• He suspects Finny of preventing him from making good grades by taking him away from his studies.
• He develops insecurities and feelings of inadequacy as he measures himself against Finny and, thus, envies him.
• He retaliates against Finny by jostling the limb while Finny is on it during the Secret Suicide Society jumps.

After World War II is waged, Gene begins to realize that he has made introspective judgments because he has been isolated from the realities of the world. In Chapter 13, he concludes,

...I was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth....

Then, too, he understands that this same subjectivity of feeling on a broader scale causes bigger wars: 

....Because it seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.

Phineas has always been without this human "ignorance" of the human heart, while Gene has been filled with it, making Finny his enemy when the evil, his petty jealousies, was within him. 

In Chapter 3 of A Separate Peace, Finny persuades Gene to jump from the tree; when Gene loses his balance, Finny's hand quickly shoots out and he grabs Gene's arm, saving him from falling.  Later, Finny persuades Gene to ride their bicycles to the beach.  There they swim in the ocean, but the waves are too strong for them and they are knocked around.  Yet, Finny enjoys himself, even convincing a bartender to give them beers by displaying some forged draft cards.  That night Finny tells Gene,

"...after all you can't come to the shore with just anybody and you can't come by yourself, and at this teen-age period in life the proper person is your best pal."

This show of emotion "nakedly" stops Gene from telling Finny the same thing.  Then, the next morning, Finny declares that he has a great rest.  With renewed energy, Finny tells Gene, "You never waste your time.  That's why I have to do it for you."  Gene feels that Finny tries to prevent him from studying so that he will not be better in academics than Finny:

He minded, despised the possibility that I might be the head of the school.  There was a swift chain of explosions in my brain, one certainty after another blasted--up like a detonation went the idea of any best friend, up went affection and partnership and sticking by someone and relying of someone...in this world--whom I could trust.

...i found a single sustaining thought....You and Phineas are even already.  You are even in enmity.

Feeling that Finny has deliberately set out to wreck his studies, Gene is further angered when Finny announces that Leper will jump from the tree and they must attend.  When Gene objects because he needs to study, Finny tells him to stay, but Gene misinterprets Finny's motives and insists upon coming.  However, as they walk, Gene begins to understand that there is no rivalry between them because he himself "was not of the same quality as he [Finny]."  Gene becomes jealous of Finny.

Once at the tree, Finny suggests that he and Gene do a double jump. They climb the tree and walk out onto the limb. As Gene takes a step Gene's  "knees bent and [he] jounced the limb." Finny falls with a "sickening, unnatural thud."  Then Gene describes himself,

With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear of this forgotten.

Clearly, Gene has betrayed Finny.  He has betrayed his belief in Finny's friendship, his admiration of Finny, and, most of all, his respect for Finny.  Gene becomes bitter from a false sense of betrayal to himself, then acts cruelly from a petty sense of inferiority to Finny.

Concerning Finny's relief when he gets confirmation that Gene is still his roommate, both of the above editors do a great job of answering the question.  I'll just add a slightly different take on it.

When I read this section of the book, I see Finny looking for confirmation that he still has a "hold" on Gene, that he is still able to influence him.  Finny thrives on getting Gene to do things that he wants Gene to do.  Notice that Finny assumes Gene held the room for him, that Gene wouldn't let "them" put anyone else in the room.  Of course, readers know this isn't the case, that Gene didn't have anything to do with it.  Finny is elated because he still has this hold on Gene, even though physically he is crippled. 

This is one more illusion on Finny's part.

Although we see Gene seem dependent on Finny's approval throughout the beginning of the book, the one who every now and then audibly expresses his feelings about the other is Finny.

In the beginning of the novel, Finny actually admits Gene is his best friend. Guys just don't say emotionally complimentary things to each other.

Finny needs a good friend, especially under the circumstances of his injury. He likes to pretend that not much is wrong, but if there is someone he can be a little bit real with, it's Gene. He's not completely transparent with Gene, but he is dependent on Gene for approval.

Even though Finny seems extremely confident and even though he had a dramatic reaction to Gene's visit to his house (after his injury), he still wants and needs Gene to like him.  He still thinks of Gene as his friend, and if Gene continues to be his roommate, it helps Finny convince himself that the tree incident was an accident.

Finny's desire to be roommates with Gene also illustrates the novel's theme of inner peace.  Finny does not want to be at "war" with any of the other boys.  Throughout the novel--even after his injury--he develops activities which are intended to bring the boys together.  Similarly, Finny would not be able to deal with a Devon School where his best friend was his rival or enemy.

While Gene and Finny have similar interests and are close friends during their time at Devon, the two characters have dramatically different personalities. Finny is portrayed as a charismatic, innocent boy, who excels in anything athletic and has a relatively careless personality. Finny is by far the most popular boy at Devon and continually breaks the rules without getting into trouble. Finny's charisma prevents him from being punished and he is depicted as a daredevil, who challenges the boys to jump from the tree branch hanging over the river. Finny is also a compassionate boy, who has sympathy for others and is a genuine friend.

Gene is Finny's foil and is portrayed as a competitive boy with relatively low self-esteem. Despite the fact that Gene admires Finny, he refuses to acknowledge that Finny is his best friend because he harbors feelings of envy and jealousy towards him. Unlike Finny, who is naturally talented, Gene is a dedicated hard-worker. Gene spends countless hours studying to be the top student in their class while Finny could care less about his grades and accepts the fact that he is not a good student. Gene is also more concerned about his outward appearance and how people perceive him while Finny epitomizes self-confidence and independence. Gene is also inherently corrupt, which is why he shakes the branch and makes Finny fall from the tree.

In concurrence with the statement that Gene and Finny do become friends at the end of the novel:  Upon his return to Devon as he traverses the campus, Gene remarks,

Everything at Devon slowly changed and slowly harmonized with what had gone before. So it was logical to hope that since the buildings could achieve this, I could acieve, perhaps unknowingly already had acieved, this growth and harmony myself.

Having made this remark after reflecting that he has a "well-known fear" preserved from his Devon days and that the couple of places he wants to see are "fearful sites," the reader understands that Gene's early relationship with Finny was not a true friendship, but one of rivalry and jealousy on the part of Gene.  For, Gene has feared and distrusted Finny's noble nature that knew no pettiness.  Gene has projected, instead, his own pettiness upon Finny so that he could feel justified in his performing above Finny in his classes.  But, Finny did not care, so Gene could not be victorious in his created rivalry.  In Chapter 2, he contends,

There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little.

When Gene is unable to outdo Finny's athleticism, out of his envy, he becomes sarcastic because he "recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak."  Having spent the summer "in complete selfishness," Gene forgets that Finny has practically saved his life by giving Gene his arm on the limb when he loses his balance.  For, in his act of jealousy and pettiness after Finny keeps silent about breaking a school record, Gene jouses the limb to give himself an advantage because, as he admits right before this action,

He had never been jealous of me for a second.  Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us, I was not of the same quality as he.

However, Gene finds himself "in a pool of guilt," and finds that he must confess to Finny.  When peace deserts Devon, Gene finds himself engaged in his own personal war just as the war goes on outside him.  When Finny asks Gene to play sports in his stead, Gene agrees, saying,

"...I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first:  to become part of Phineas.

After Finny's tragic second fall, Gene apologizes abjectly:  "I'm sorry...I'm sorry, I'm sorry."  He accepts the responsibility for his act as "some ignorance inside me."  Gene extrapolates his thought later saying,

...wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.

This "something "ignorant in the human heart" has never been in Finny, who never hated anyone or was never afraid.  But, Gene has feared and envied him because of Finny's nobility.  Only when Gene learns to recognize the integrity of Finny, only when he realizes that Finny has never been his rival, only when Gene gives of himself to Finny can Gene become his friend as Finny always has been his.

After Finny's funeral in chapter 12, life continues in chapter 13 of A Separate Peace. Gene's class is graduating from Devon and preparing to enter the war effort. Meanwhile, in June, military units move onto the campus to set up sewing machines for the purpose of sewing parachutes together. Brinker and Gene talk about the war and what they are witnessing with great interest. Brinker turns the talk to Leper's failed enlistment and that he would have done better to be stationed here sewing parachutes. Gene feels uncomfortable talking about Leper and says, "Why talk about something you can't do anything about?" (197). This must be Gene's philosophy at this point in his life. He feels powerless to change anything, especially with people over whom he has no control; therefore, why discuss it?

Gene's philosophy seems to carry over to what happened to his best friend, Phineas. He doesn't see any reason to talk about Finny after he's gone because there's nothing more he can do about it. In a way, this is also respectful. Stressing over Finny's death, something that he can't change, allows the memory of his friend to be kept sacred and at peace. Gene elaborates as follows:

"I never talked about Phineas and neither did anyone else; he was, however, present in every moment of every day . . . Finny had a vitality which could not be quenched so suddenly . . . That was why I couldn't say anything or listen to anything about him, because he endured so forcefully that what I had to say would have seemed crazy to anyone else—I could not use the past tense" (202).

For Gene, it seems as though Phineas was bigger than life when he was alive, so talking about him would not do him justice. Only Finny could do himself justice and he is gone now. Furthermore, talking about Finny in the past solidifies the realization that he is gone for good; however, thinking about him in his heart, as though he were always present, keeps his memory going. Gene goes on to say that Phineas taught him how to live in the moment as well. Finny would tackle the present with all the energy of his heart and personality. Gene also realizes that no one else that he ever knew could live in the moment as well as Phineas, so Gene decides to honor him by doing the same.

Gene was jealous of Finny before the incident occurred, and to have Finny do yet another spectacular, praisworthy thing just made Gene more envious.  Finny was super popular with kids and adults alike, got away with things that no one else could, had a natural affinity for sports and all things cool, and Gene envied him for all of these things.  And, to top it all off, he was friends with Gene, which in a way, made Gene feel like he was indebted to him for some reason.  So, after Finny saves his life, he feels even more indebted, Finny has yet one more thing on him that makes him feel worthless, and so he reacts with bitterness not gratitude.

Another reason that Gene isn't grateful is that when he was up on that tree limb, he was afraid and terrified. He was mad that Finny had pressured him to be up there in the first place, and him being up there showed himself and everyone else just what a scaredy cat he was.   It made Gene look like a baby to have to be saved by Finny, and Gene, already insecure, didn't like that.  He states at the beginning of chapter three,

"Yes, he had practically saved my life.  He had also practically lost if for me.  I wouldn't have been on that damn limb except for him."

So, he feels stupid that he had to be rescued, by Finny the super-kid of all people, and feels a bit abashed at his fear and cowardice on the limb.  I hope that those thoughts helped a bit; good luck!

Finny and Gene have a strong connection in A Separate Peace because of their similar circumstances and backgrounds as well as the differences in their personalities that allow them to complement one another. 

"It's you, pal," Finny said to me at last, "just you and me." He and I started back across the fields, preceding the others like two seigneurs.

We were the best of friends at that moment" (Chapter 1).

In many ways, their close friendship sets them apart from the other boys early on in the novel.  Despite their friendship, Finny's bright outlook on life blinds him from seeing Gene's growing jealousy and resentment.  The constant atmosphere of rivalry and competition at Devon strains their relationship, especially on Gene's end.  Even though the two boys spend most of their time together, Knowles characterizes their relationship as having significant gaps in terms of real closeness and understanding.

Psychologists have analyzed what draws us to other people, and have come up with several broad categories that determine our friendships with other people.  A couple of those that apply to Gene and Finny's friendship are complementarity, utility value, and ego-support value.

Complementarity refers to the fact that we like to be friends with people that are different than us, but that work well with our personalities.  I like to think of it as peanut-butter and jelly--totally different toppings, but together, they work really well.  Gene is quiet, studious, serious and calm, whereas Finny is spontaneous, funny, charismatic and excitable.  But together, they balance each other out. Finny helps Gene to get out of his shell, have fun and make friends, and Gene helps Finny to stay grounded and realistic.  It's a good match.

Utility value refers to the fact that we often make friends with people who are useful to us for some reason.  This also applies to Gene and Finny.  Gene helps Finny to study and pass his classes, and Finny helps Gene to get out and relax every once in a while.  They are useful to one another.

Ego-support value refers to how we like friends that boost our egos and give us a lot of support.  Finny makes Gene feel good through complimenting his smarts, and bringing out the best in him, and Gene makes Finny feel good through being there for him in his games and antics.

For these three reasons, and many more, Gene and Finny make a friendship that really works; they complement each other, help each other, and support each other. I hope that those thoughts helped; good luck!

This question is not so easy to answer. If I were to only consider Finny's feelings, I would say that the friendship is mostly unaffected throughout the novel. Then, the friendship is completely destroyed and never fixed, because Finny dies. Finny goes through the entire novel thinking the best about people. He not only thinks the best about people, he wants the best for people. He never once considers that Gene might be jealous of him. And because Finny never considers that, he never thinks that Gene might be trying to "one up" him (on test scores, for example). Finny never, ever thinks about people in that kind of way, so he assumes that everybody else is like that too. The friendship is finally ruined at the end of the novel. The mock trial points out to Finny that Gene's actions on the tree branch were not unintentional. Finny can't handle the emotional overload, runs off, trips, breaks his leg again, and dies from complications.

Gene's friendship with Finny, though, is in one continuous downward spiral throughout the novel. Gene's jealousy motivates him to bounce the branch, which, in a way, ultimately leads to Finny's death. Gene's jealousy motivates him to try and outdo Finny as well. It isn't much of a friendship if all that someone is trying to do is win. To Gene, Finny becomes less and less of a friend and more and more of an opponent to be beaten. That unspoken sense of competition Gene feels is what adds tension to the relationship, and that tension builds until it ultimately snaps and leads to Finny's death.

Assigning blame for Phinny's death depends in large part on the reader's belief in the narrator's voice. Because Gene is the survivor and the narrator, we get a story that is filtered through his lens. It seems that Gene is suffering from survivor guilt so he paints himself in a very negative light. Evaluating the crucial events requires the reader to decide how much Gene's view is distorting the past.

We meet Gene as a teenager who is too serious for his own good. Smart and studious but also vain, he is flattered to be befriended by a boy as cool as Finny. However, he also envies Finny's free spirit.

Finny is a natural risk taker who approaches life as an adventure, but is prone to reckless behavior. He was the driving force behind their society and if not for him, the two would not have been playing on the tree.

Gene took the action that put in motion the sequence leading to Finny's death, but did he force Finny into the tree? Deciding where to locate responsibility for the book's events depends on how the reader weighs each plot component and whether they believe Gene is presenting--or even can present--an accurate representation of events.

Consider these:

Gene is willing to do things for Finny. When Finny is gone, he tells Gene that Gene has to play sports for him. Gene is depressed somewhat by Finny's absence and doesn't really want to, but because Finny says it, later returns and convinces Gene to skip class with him, Gene begins training for the 1944 Olympics. This shows tremendous loyalty, a great virtue of Gene's. Finny gets Gene to do 30 chin-ups and then gets him to regularly train around the track.

Friends encounter struggles and work through them. During the trial of chapter 11, Finny learns Gene really did push him out of the tree and therefore ended his sports career. This is incredibly hurtful, and Finny hurts himself as a result. Although Gene can't fix anything, he wants to. A few days after this second accident, Gene visits Finny and the two make amends. The ability to forgive is a serious virtue of Finny's.

In chapter 10 or 11, Brinker questions Finny's authority on the "war" and essentially puts him in his place. He further hurts Finny by calling him crippled within the next page. This discussion going on between these three guys shows that Gene has sincere empathy for his friend Finny, a virtue to be admired.

Good luck!

In A Separate Peace, Gene functions as the narrator and the protagonist while Finny is an important character (but not the protagonist).

Gene reflects on his feelings and his thoughts throughout the novel and, importantly, offers the context of the story in the first chapter: The story to be told in the novel is his story.

A Separate Peace is structured in a way that puts Gene in the middle between Finny and Brinker, the two characters who can be said to represent childhood and adulthood.

Finny is characterized by play, imagination and innocence while Brinker is characterized by seriousness, organization and drive. Brinker wants to enlist early and Finny wants to pretend there is no war on.

Gene believes that he must choose between these two paths and this choice is one of the underlying conflicts of the novel. All the other conflicts and episodes of the novel also concern Gene, while not all of them concern Finny.

Gene visits Leper and Finny does not. Gene meets Brinker's father while Finny does not. Gene is always present in the story and Finny is not.

All these facts definitely show that Gene is the sole protagonist in the novel and Finny is an important and symbolic character in the text.