Because it is a novel about young boys going through their adolescent years, John Knowles’ A Separate Peace has many characters that develop and undergo major transformations. Perhaps one of the most noticeable changes occurs after Finny falls from the tree and shatters his leg. Before his “accident,” Finny was a graceful, balanced athlete who seemed to glide across the ground. However, his accident caused him to lose his graceful balance, and this loss in turn transformed him, both physically and mentally. Up until the day of Finny’s accident, Gene had thought the two of them had always been competing to see who was better. However, as they are walking to the tree, Gene realizes that “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” (pg 51). Gene could not stand the fact that Finny was better than he and there was nothing he could do to actually “win,” and so out of blind impulse Gene jounced the limb, causing Finny to lose his balance and fall from the tree. “It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make” (pg 52). Because of his accident Finny lost his perfect balance that he was so well known for having, which in a way causes him to lose his identity and sense of self for a while. No longer did he glide along the fields and through the hallways of Devon. Instead, he clumsily hobbled around on crutches. His true self is not seen again until at his Winter Carnival where “Phineas recaptured that magic gift for existing primarily in space, one foot conceding briefly to gravity its rights before spinning him off again into the air” (pg 128). While dancing around on the Prize Table, Finny is finally able to be himself again. He has once again created something that is a blatant disregard for the rules and succeeded in gathering a group of the boys at Devon together to join in the fun with him. Dancing around on the Prize Table, Finny is finally free to be himself again. “It was his wildest demonstration of himself, of himself in the kind of world he loved; it was his choreography of peace” (pg 128). Towards the end of the