Freudian Concepts of Mind in a Separate Peace by John Knowles

'Where id was, there ego shall be” - Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and the founding father of psychoanalysis, developed a concept that the mind was split into three sections known as the id, ego, and superego. The id is the unconscious mind driven by impulses; it makes decisions without thinking about later consequences. The opposite of the id is one’s superego: it’s known as one’s “conscience” because it is driven by morality. Lastly, there is the ego: the conscious part of the mind that makes decisions by balancing out the id and the superego. In the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene Forrester portrays all these Freudian concepts of mind: the id, when he hurts Finny by jouncing the tree’s limb, the superego, when he feels guilt for his immoral actions, and the ego, when he tries to avoid his consequences by turning the incident into a joke. All three concepts will be analyzed in this essay.

In the novel, Gene’s id makes impulsive and aggressive decisions to “eliminate” his friend Finny, whom Gene sees as a threat. In the novel, Gene and Finny form an illusion of companionship, but in Gene’s mind, there is always a hidden rivalry lingering between them. At first, Gene thinks that these certain feelings towards Finny are completely normal and will diminish over time. However, as time passes, Gene realizes that these feelings of jealousy are not relinquishing, but instead are growing to the point of hatred. It provokes a sense of competition within him, which is what essentially leads Gene’s id to overpower his ego and superego for a slight moment when Gene hurts Finny. When Gene wants to be better at French, Finny disrupts these desires and discourages Gene from studying French when he says: 'Je ne give a damn pas about le Français”. Also, the night before Gene has a trigonometry test, Finny convinces him to escape to the beach against school rules. Due to this, Gene has no time to study for his upcoming test, which results in Gene’s failure. For these reasons, Gene begins to believe Finny is jealous of his academic strength and is purposely doing these actions to ruin Gene’s chances of being valedictorian. This competitive spirit tugs away at Gene and part of him, the id, wishes to destroy Finny before the competition grows. Leading up to the incident on the tree, Gene feels great jealousy towards Finny, and Gene believes Finny secretly feels the same way. However, when the two of them are up in the tree, Gene sees that Finny feels no jealousy or hatred towards him. This leads Gene to become aware that he is the only jealous friend, making him believe that he is truly a “savage.” For a period of time, Gene has been denying his feelings of hatred and jealousy towards Phineas, but when all the feelings came back to him and he saw how terrible he is, Gene’s id soothes its desire by jouncing the tree’s limb so Finny falls: “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbles sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud”. Since Gene feels threatened by Finny, the id turns aggressive in order to hurt Finny so that Gene can satisfy his want of being the best, without regard for the later consequences of his actions.

In A Separate Peace, Gene exhibits Freudian concept of the superego because he strives to be the top of his class, does everything for the sake of his and Finny’s friendship, and attempts to come clean to Finny after the tree incident. Readers can perceive Gene’s superego in the sense that he always tries to be the best of his class academically and tends to follow the school’s rules, unless Finny persuades him not to. In that case, Gene’s superego acts differently: instead of following the school’s set rules, Gene breaks them for the sake of his and Finny’s friendship. Gene is the more submissive of the two teenage boys, so whenever Finny asks him to do something, he automatically listens and follows Finny’s wishes for the sake of their friendship. For example, when Finny asks him to go to the beach with him, which was not allowed by the Devon school, Gene’s superego breaks the rules set by the school, just to satisfy Finny and maintain their friendship. Also, after the tree incident, where Finny breaks his leg due to the fall, Gene visits Finny in Boston. After talking with Finny about their summers, Gene confesses to Finny about the accident: he tells Finny “I was thinking about it.. about you because - I was thinking about you and the accident because I caused it”. Gene’s superego does the right thing, which leads to Gene telling Finny the truth even though Gene is scared as to how Finny would react. However, because Finny trusts that Gene is a good friend, Finny decides to not believe Gene and to deny that possibility. Gene could have had an easy escape, but Gene’s superego influences him to do the right thing; Gene says again, “I deliberately jounced the limb so you would fall off”. Even though it is hard for him, Gene’s superego pushes away all the guilt when he confesses to Finny, even if Finny doesn’t believe the truth to be true.

Lastly, Gene’s ego is represented when he tries to please himself while avoiding consequences. The other boys at Devon school all jokingly accuse Gene and make jokes about how Gene purposely caused Finny to fall off the tree limb. When this happens, Gene’s ego decides to make Gene avoid the consequences by joking and making an obvious false confession: “First I stole all his money. Then I found out he cheated on his entrance tests to Devon and I blackmailed his parents about that, then I made love to his sister in Mr. Ludsbury’s study, then I..”. Gene’s ego is clearly what comes up with the idea of a false confession; Gene manages to get out of any trouble, diminishes the accusations, while amusing himself and others with the joke. Gene’s ego is trying to satisfy his needs and wants but in a more compromised and better way than the id’s suggestions. However, the ego’s actions and solutions in this case are not as morally correct as Gene’s superego might have been.

Sigmund Freud’s concept of the mind being divided into three sections: the id, ego, and superego, are clearly represented by Gene Forrester in the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles. The id appears when Gene jounces Finny off the tree limb after Gene is jealous of Finny’s accomplishments and abilities; the superego, when Gene attempts to confess for his wrong doings, and the ego, when Gene tries to hide his mistakes by making it into a joke. The Freudian concepts of the id, ego, and superego all work together to shape Gene’s mind and character throughout the novel.