In John Knowles historic novel, A Separate Peace, Knowles reveals a major change in a major character named Phineas. Phineas, also known as Finny, had a physical and a emotional major change. Finny was an athlete. He was the best athlete at Devon. He was the football stud, and he broke the swimming record without any training. He just decided to go for a swim and he beat it. During this time period of his life, he had confidence, vigor, and swagger. He walked around the campus with a walk that was like no other walk anybody had on campus. You could tell that he was an athlete, but one event caused a major change in his physical and emotional abilities. One evening, Finny and Gene decided to go jump out of a tree. That night, Gene made Finny fall out of the tree, and he ended up breaking his leg. When Finny came back to Devon, he was on crutches. He could not walk the same way he originally walked. He also could not play sports. His life was basically taken away from him. Finny also had to ask Gene for help whenever he could not do something. This hurt Finny emotionally, because he never had to ask someone for help. This took away his confidence, vigor, and his swagger. Finny changed physically and emotionally.