THE TRUTH by John Keats

In the book, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, a boy, named Gene, narrates life in summer of 1942 at the Devon School. One of his companions is Phineas, a boy who can be described as the cool kid. At the end of chapter three, Phineas says that Gene is his pal and that someone’s pal is the “proper” person in teen-age years. Gene was going to say that Phineas was his pal and “round off what he had said”, but was stopped by “that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth.” The truth is that Gene does not feel that his pal, Phineas, is the “proper” person for him.
A small episode at the beginning of the summer shows how Gene inflicts pressure on himself, because of Phineas. In this event, Phineas, Gene, and some friends go to a tall tree from which they can jump from into a river. However, not one child their age has ever jumped off the tree, because it was scary. Phineas gets the idea to jump off the tree and is the first person his age to jump off the tree. Right after Phineas jumps, Gene starts to climb the tree immediately without Phineas pressuring him. However, Gene tells the reader that the tree gave him a “sensation of alarm.” This shows that Gene did not want to jump off the tree. Gene inflicts pressure on himself, because of Phineas and jumps off the tree.
Later, Phineas and Gene would jump off the tree every day to initiate a meeting of the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session group. Gene says that he “hated it” and that every time he was about to jump he would get a “flash of disbelief.” However, not once, did Phineas ever inflict major peer pressure on Gene nor did Gene not jump, for he would have “lost face with Phineas”, which was “unthinkable.” This shows that Phineas is not the “proper” person for Gene, because Phineas popularity makes Gene do things he does not want to.