CHARACTER'S NAME: Phineas, although he'd prefer you call him Finny every time.
BOOK(VERSE): A Separate Peace by John Knowles
POINT IN CANON: BEGINNING OF CHAPTER 8: "I can see I never should have left you alone..." After the incident at the tree, Phineas has returned to school none the wiser, continuing his friendship with Gene Forrester and coping (or rather, not coping) with the effects of his injury.

CHARACTER'S HISTORY: Phineas,

CHARACTER'S APPEARANCE: Phineas,

CHARACTER'S PERSONALITY: Gene's classmate and best friend. Finny is honest, handsome, self-confident, disarming, extremely likable, and the best athlete in the school; in short, he seems perfect in almost every way. He has a talent for engaging others with his spontaneity and sheer joy of living, and, while he frequently gets into trouble, he has the ability to talk his way out of almost any predicament. According to Gene, he is rare among human beings in that he never perceives anyone as an enemy, and never strives to defeat others. While he constantly tests the limits and asserts his own will, he seeks neither to emerge “victorious” in any argument or contest nor to “defeat” competing systems of rule. Blitzball, the game that he invents in which everyone competes furiously but no one wins, perfectly embodies Finny's attitude toward life. Finny's behaviors also suggest that he relishes pure achievement rather than competition. His fatal flaw is that he assumes that everyone is like him -- that everyone shares his enthusiastic and good-natured spirit. This innocence contributes to a moral superiority in Finny; but it also leads to his destruction, the novel suggests, because it renders him unable to anticipate, and cope with, the revelation of betrayal.

PB: Matt Czuchry
LAYOUT: premade_ljs @ LJ