In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, one of the main characters, Phineas, refused to face reality having both negative and positive consequences. As students at an upper-class private school, in New England, Devon, Phineas and his best friend Gene were both sheltered from World War II and other current events. But when Phineas returns to school after having shattered his leg, he finds himself alone in an alternate reality. He becomes withdrawn from his friends and from sports and from any real acceptance of the world around him, leading to negative consequences. Phineas refuses to accept the fact that he cannot enlist in the war because of his leg. But more importantly, he can't accept the fact that his leg was broken because Gene pushed him out of a tree. At one point, Phineas hurls himself down a flight of stairs because he refuses to face the fact that Gene effectively shattered all of Phineas' sporting aspirations. After the accident, Phineas becomes more dependant and self-pitying, leading Gene to think; " . . . and I have never since forgotten that dazed look on [Phineas'] face when he thought that on the first day of his return to Devon I was going to desert him." Even though Phineas' hopes for an athletic way of life had been extinguished, his spirit was not. While Phineas contemplates his best friend's actions, he remains an inspiration to his classmates, always spontaneous and exciting, having positive effects on both himself and his classmates. Phineas took a dreary, boring winter day and transformed it into the first annual Devon Winter Carnival, with a small gathering of boys who had nothing better to do on a Sunday in the middle of winter. Somehow, Phineas managed to take mundane activities
             and turn them into the most exciting things the boys had ever done. Phineas lived each day to the fullest. Phineas' attractive and contagious personality gave Gene the impressio...