A Separate Peace Honors English Essay By Devin E. Price From juvenility to maturity, A Separate Peace combines classic American Literature with a thoughtful plot–line that is developed to affect the readers' mind and heart. The author, John Knowles of Fairmont, West Virginia, had one clear purpose for writing this book. This purpose was to show the disastrous mental and physical problems which arise as the result of war, specifically the repercussions they have on the home front. A good lesson to learn from this book is that even a war three–thousand miles away can have just as much ramification as a war three miles away. This novel shows the transition of Gene Forrester and his friends from boyhood to manhood during a...show more content...
While presenting itself as an institution of the upmost moral character, the Devon School is really the breeding ground for broken students. As a result it is this very framework, the war and the prestige of a distinguished academy, which caused these students to break. The youth at this school were forced to put up with emotional struggle after struggle, and that reflects the harsh setting of this story. Moving on, there were a multitude of different characters in this book each with different social and physical dispositions. The main character, Gene Forrester, started out as the best friend of Finny. He soon however started to have realizations through a series of events that led him to realize that he really had a deep resentment toward Finny, and wanted only to best Finny. Gene, after Finny's accident, soon loses all of his bitterness and becomes a bit more reserved. Gene also starts to develop a hostile attitude which leads him to get into several fights. Finny, the so–called best friend of Gene, is a happy, athletic, and confident boy, who makes up in the field what he lacks in the classroom. He falls into a silent depression after his accident which only shows threw his upbeat cover a few times after the accident. However, Finny is different from everyone
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The novel "A Separate Peace" can be interpreted in many ways as it highlights several interesting topics. I'll be discussing my own personal interpretation of the book. The themes I'll be covering are many common ones, coming–of–age, good and evil, and envy and hate. One of the things it can be seen as is a coming–of–age novel. If you just look at their age and the way Finny and Gene present themselves they seem to be mostly mature. However, as seen in the book, Gene features almost child–like tantrums. On page 55 Gene says "I wanted to break out crying from stabs of hopeless job, or intolerable promise–". In contrast, Finny is more emotionally stable. He always tries to see the bigger picture and consider everyone else point of view. Gene...show more content...
At the start Gene only envys Finny. In page 25 he saying " I couldn't help envying him that, which was perfectly normal.". And Gene is correct, it is perfectly normal to envy people, even your best friend. But even something as innocent as envy can turn into something more sinister, hate. There are sing of Gene hating Finny, as seen in page 53 "You did hate him for that swimming record, but so what?". Another sign of Gene hating Finny is when he becomes paranoid and angry when he believes Finny was trying to sabotage his grades. But none of that compares to when he purposely jounces the limb causing Finny to fall off. However, this theory is not set in stone. Later on in the story Gene begins to feel guilty for what he did and sincerely apologizes. But this is only my view on it.
The novel "A Separate Peace" can be interpreted differently by each person you ask. You could even ask the author of this novel and his view could be completely different from your own. The novel highlighted several important topics, coming–of–age, good and evil, and envy and hate. It also shed light on the positive and negatives of friendships, especially competitive ones. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope more speculation on what the book means continue to pop up in the near
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A Separate Peace: by John Knowles
During World War II in the struggle for peace among nations comes a smaller, but still significant struggle, in a prep school boy becoming a man and waking up to reality.
In the book A Separate Peace, the author John Knowles, creates the image of twosixteen–year old boys struggling to keep what little sense of peace they know, even though there is a war going on all around them. GeneForrester, the narrator of the story also struggles with an inner conflict of his secret resentment of his best friend Phineas (Finny). Phineas struggles with the disbelief that he can never be of any use to the war efforts with a "busted leg."...show more content...
Finny does not believe a word of this disturbing revelation and sends Gene away. When Finny does return to Devon, he never brings up Gene's off–the–wall confession. Months pass and suddenly the accident is brought up again by a boy named Brinker who believes that there is more to the story than what is being said. (No one else in the school new for a fact that Gene shook the branch on purpose to make Finny fall, they just had empty accusations.) So Brinker set up a sort–of mock court one night and took Gene and Finny there. Finny was seated in the middle of the Assembly Hall and asked to tell what happened. Since Gene's confession, Finny refuses to believe it is true and imagines that Gene wasn't even in the tree with him, therefore, he would not be able to place Gene as the guilty one. As the story unravels of what really happens, Finny gets fed up and leaves the building saying, "I just don't care. Never mind." And then all the boys hear him fall down a flight of stairs, re–breaking his leg. This time though, Finny isn't so lucky and while the doctor is setting the break, some of the bone marrow gets into his bloodstream and immediately stops his heart. When Gene hears of this he does not cry, nor does he ever cry over Finny's death, because when Finny died it was like he died with Finny. At the end of the school year, Gene enlists in the war and joined the
During the 1940's in America, times were hard. It was a time of war. In this period of history, people found themselves looking for peace and innocence. John Knowles's A Separate Peace illustrates a boarding school, one of the only places left to find peace, where the main characters, Gene and Phineas, face their own internal wars with each other. Starting out their friendship seems strong and everlasting but as the novel progresses, like all friendships, the fire between them seems to dwindle. Although they share the goal of excelling, Phineas and Gene clearly differ in athletics, academics, and personality. Gene and Phineas are not like every other teenager during this "gypsy summer" (Knowles 79). They share a bond like no other boys...show more content...
Phineas is the natural athlete destined for greatness (Eckhardt 1). On the reverse side of things, Gene is the intellectual (Eckhardt 1) while Phineas "was a very poor student" (Knowles 55). In the way Phineas is a natural at sports, Gene is naturally a good student. The more Phineas pushes himself at sports, the harder Gene studies. Gene informs us of his academic position, "I was more and more certainly becoming the best students in school," (Knowles 55). As the summer progresses, Gene spends less time playing Phineas's games and more time studying. As a student, Gene is far more dedicated and successful than Finny (Adney 1). Phineas tells Gene, "You work to hard" (Knowles 51). Finny likes to put off school if possible. At the beginning on the novel Finny says to Gene, "Let's go to the beach" (Knowles 45). Gene goes with Phineas even though he knows "going there risked expulsion" and "destroyed the studying I was going to do for an important test the next morning" (Knowles 46). Gene prides himself in his academics. Gene's test after the beach trip "was the first test I had ever flunked" (Knowles 50); Gene explains to us, "But Finny gave me little time to worry about that" (Knowles 51). This shows Phineas does not
A Separate Peace
Dealing with enemies has been a problem since the beginning of time. "I never killed anybody," Gene had commented later in his life, "And I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform, I was on active duty all my time at Devon; I killed my enemy there." In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the value of dealing withenemies is shown by Gene, who was dealing with few human enemies, but his emotions created far greater rivals than any human could ever posses.
One of the enemies that Gene created for himself was jealousy. Gene was jealous of everything about Finny. The openness which Finny possessed was one of these things which Gene envied. One incident of...show more content...
The real war, however, started when he got the idea that because Finny had low grades, he wanted to lower Gene's grades as well, so he could remain "better than" Gene. Gene believed that Finny was trying to wreck his studies with games and going to the beach, and their Secret Suicide Society. Another time Gene's anger shows is when Finny wanted Gene to come jump off the tree into the river with him, as they had been doing, and he claimed that Leper would be jumping too. Gene burst out angrily at the idea because he was studying, and he thought Finny was trying to wreck his grades, so he said no. Finny responded with no offense taken. Gene not being able to say "no" to Finny changed his mind and went to the tree anyway. Gene was now enraged on the inside because he realized that Finny was not trying to wreck his studies, and really was "perfect." Still feeling angry by Finny's "perfection," Gene jounced the limb when they were about to jump, causing Finny to fall and break his leg. This shows that Gene's anger, mixed with this jealousy, drove him to cause physical pain to someone who was dear to him.
Another enemy of Gene's is Finny's modesty. Early in the story, Finny demonstrated his modesty by when asked for his height he replied "Five feet eight and a half inches." Gene replied that he himself was "five feet nine inches." Finny pointed out that they were the same height and that Gene shouldn't be ashamed to
Struggles at Devon
A Separate Peace took place at an all boys military school during WWII. Every young man who was eighteen or older was eligible to be drafted into the military and fight for their country. The boys in the novel were enrolled in a military school to prepare them if they got drafted. That way, the boys would know how to protect others and themselves, giving America a better chance to win thewar. In A Separate Peaceby John Knowles, WWII is used to represent loss of innocence and internal wars.
Loss of innocence is a major theme in the novel due to WWII. These boys had to give up their innocence and childhood to go to a military to school teaching them how to fight and protect themselves in battle. As young boys, they were given guns and other weapons to learn how to use in case they were ever drafted into...show more content...
Gene's internal enemy was Finny because he was always jealous that Finny was better than him at sports without trying to. Gene wanted to get even with Finny, so he told himself that he needed to be the best in his class academically, so he spent all of his time studying. Gene felt that when Finny asked him to do something fun, Finny was trying to distract him from studying when in reality he was just trying to have fun in despite of the war. Finny had to deal with internal struggle also. He could not understand how his best friend would have purposely jolted the tree branch, making him fall off causing injury that ruined his sports career. Finny did not want to believe Gene did it because he thought that Gene was a better friend than that and would never do anything to hurt him. Once Finny figured out it actually was Gene, he stormed out of the meeting, falling down the stairs and re–broke his leg. Gene's betrayal resulted in Finny not speaking to Gene for some time. Throughout the book, there were several internal wars within different
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A Separate Peace Essay
In the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the protagonist, Gene Forrester "battled" within himself to find "a separate peace" and in this process directed his emotions at Phineas, his roommate. Forrester and Phineas formed the illusion of a great companionship, but there was a "silent rivalry" between them in Forrester's mind. Self deceptions in Forrester led him to believe that Phineas was "out to get him" (Forrester).
Subconsciously Forrester jounced the limb of the tree and forced Phineas to fall and break his leg. Phineas found out the truth of his "accident" with the help of Leper Lepellier and Brinker Hadley, who were friends that attendedDevon High School. Gene Forrester's conflict between his ...show more content...
But while he was a very poor student I was a pretty good athlete, and when everything was thrown into the scales they would in the end tilt definitely toward me (Forrester,)" (47). The "rivalry" inside Forrester led him to believe that Phineas had these feelings of resentment toward him (Forrester,) and was also competing to be the "best".
Self deceptions inside of Gene Forrester led him to believe that Phineas was "out to get him". Forrester realized that, "Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies" (45), when Phineas said, "I'd kill myself out of jealous envy" (44) (if Forrester was valedictorian). Having believed Phineas, Forrester came to another realization that Phineas had created blitzball and the Super Suicide Society to distract him (Forrester) from being "the best". Phineas did not know that Forrester needed to study in order to get good grades; "I didn't know you needed to study," (50) he said when Forrester wanted to stay and study rather than go to the Super Suicide Society meeting. Phineas thought that academics came naturally to Forrester as athletics came to him (Phineas). Forrester took Phineas trying to be a friend as him trying to distract for his (Forrester's) academics.
The Super Suicide Society meeting was held for Leper Lepellier to jump from the "forbidden" tree. To open the meeting Phineas and Forrester tried a double jump. "Holding firmly to the trunk, I (Forrester) took a step Get
War is defined as a state of armed conflict within a nation or state or between nations or states. How can war be reduced to a mere conflict without explaining the vivid night terrors from the soldiers that must now live a life of psychological torment or the accumulating pressure placed on young adolescents to partake in the bloody event of the murder of human lives; furthermore, what does the definition of war imply about the societal views on the glorification of war? A Separate Peace prominently explores how war majorly affects not only the soldiers that are in the center of the war, but the civilians that live under the nation. The psychological toll that the younger generation faces is evidently shown through the causes and effects of the young men at a boys' boarding school whose decisions are influenced by the war, such as Leper whose actions triggers an array of character development across several characters and reveals the philosophical significance of war. Leper's role in A Separate...show more content...
The confirmation of Leper's enlistment and the traumatic repercussions of war that he receives evinces to the adolescents at Devon how tangible the war is. "It was one of the few ironic remarks Phineas ever made, and with it he quietly brought to a close all his special inventions which had carried us through the war," the narrator elucidates (Knowles 158). The purpose of Leper's character is strongly indicated when the perceptions of Phineas and Brinker begin to echo each other. When Leper acquires the position before him, Brinker, who indulges in the dignity of claiming the first enlistment, unravels his true identity and begins to openly express his indifference towards war. The students at Devon identify Brinker as perspicacious and Get more content
In the novel "A Separate Peace", by John Knowles, Gene the protagonist transforms from a clueless individual to one who understands events as he gains knowledge and experience. The story takes place in the 1944 summer session at Devon School in New Hampshire during World War II. The two characters, smart and careful Gene and his athletic and carefree Finny, have a strong friendship in which Gene tricks himself into thinking as a deep rivalry. Gene's opposing feeling against Finny thoughtlessly causes him to fall from the tree and shatter his legs. The two regains their close friendship as the story goes on; however, Finny dies as he break his legs the second time, and the marrow from the break gets into his blood. Throughout the story, Gene...show more content...
While Gene is first moving from the south to go to Devon, he thinks that he might have to act like someone else to fit in. However spending time with his daredevil roommate Finny, he soon realizes that he could just be himself. In the story, Gene tries to counterbalance against Finny, who is his closest friend and at the same time the school's athlete star. Friendship is a combination of admiration, respect, jealousy, and can sometimes blur one's identity. Gene lets his evil side of him take over both physically and mentally causing him to trick himself that Finny is a conniving foil that wants to sabotage his academic merits. As the number of Finny's invitation to activities increase, Gene starts to think that Finny is intentionally trying to make Gene fail out of school. Gene starts to dislike how Finny often interrupts and invites him to the tree jumping. "Holding firmly to the trunk I took a step towards him and my knees bent and I jounced the limb," (Knowles, 60) In Chapter 4, with anger and jealousy built up within Gene, he loses his battle against his inner–self and thoughtlessly causes Finny to fall off the tree and shatter his legs. Gene was unable to confess to Finny and admit to himself that he had caused the accident. However, Gene overcomes the obstacles, and he expresses regret and confesses to Finny that he was the one that shook the branch of the tree that caused Finny to
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"Phineas was always being watched, like the weather" (Knowles 36–37). John Knowles uses a simile to show how many times Phineas is observed by the school. The author compares Phineas to the weather because the weather is always being watched to know how to dress, what activities to do, etc. This is significant because Finny is always being watched and questioned about his actions not only from the teachers but his friends. With using a simile to compare him to weather helps readers realize what kind of person Finny is and why he is gaining all the attention from people around him. "Peace had deserted Devon" (Knowles 72). This quote in A Separate Peace foreshadows the future relationship between Gene and Finny. Gene is finally back at...show more content...
"The tree was tremendous, an irate, steely black steeple beside the river" (Knowles 14). The metaphor in A Separate Peace is a tree. Gene flashes back to the years he attended Devon School which was fifteen years ago, describing how he has seen the tree as a child. He directly compares it to an irate, steely black steeple, because Finny broke his leg all because of Gene while standing on this tree. Therefore. This comparison between a tree and steeple gives a tree dangerous and traumatic impression due to the usage of metaphor. "...the forces reassembled for it scattered the easygoing summer spirit like so many fallen leaves. (Knowles 72). The mood in A Separate Peace is a transition from ecstatic and indulgent to serious and grievous. The summer part of the book at Devon school is a time of fun and freedom, and the boys do not care about authority. The first part of the book shows the inconvenience of the boys, jumping from a tall tree into the water and disobeying to the teachers. Finny's accident is going to make the reality come back: a war. However, Finny doesn't want to believe in it, and he still wants to play, not going into the adult world. It shows the reader the coming of age for the two boys. "I wouldn't have been...I wouldn't have... I didn't need..." (Knowles 33). The point of view in A Separate Peace is written in the first person of Gene Forrester. Gene tells his own story in retrospect while visiting Devon as an adult. The point
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Separate
Peace" by John KnowlesSeparate Peace What really happened in the tree? Gene and Finny were very good friends; however, whatever happened in the tree the day the Finny "fell" out, is the actual cause of Gene "...My knees bent and I jounced the limb..." page 52. In fact, Finny did not fall out of the tree, but Gene had actually pushed him out. Gene had very good reasons to push him out "Finny had put him up to it, to finish me fro good on the exam." Page 49. He pushed him out of jealousy for two things. For athleticism, and for his popularity, and also for his ability to talk his way out of anything.. First, Finny was a very athletic person; however, Gene is just a normal average day person. Gene couldn't stand...show more content... Finny was able to talk people into doing anything, just by how he acted. Moreover, he was able to invent a new sport because of his athleticism. Another example of finny being better and saying, "I can do it and you can't". Gene knew as a fact that he could not invent a new sport and get enough attention for it. Gene could not do many things that Finny was able to do, such as talk his way out of anything. During summer school, Finny was able to talk his way out of getting in trouble a couple times. When he and Gene had skipped dinner to go to the tree, they were caught when they were walking back. All he did was talk to the teacher right there, and nothing ever came up about again. Another time was when Finny was at the headmaster's house for tea, he was wearing a tie as a belt, but the odd part was that it was the school tie. Again, Phineas explained to the headmaster, that wearing the school tie as a belt, contributed to the war effort. All he had to do was explain it, and he never got in trouble again. Gene probably wished he had the ability to do that; however, he knew that only Finny could do it, and with such ease.
When Gene and Finny road to the beach, it was Finny's idea in the first place. They spent the night on the beach and when they got back Gene fails his triginometry test. Later Gene claims that Finny did it on purpose to lower his grade and make Finny look good. They never really told what Finny's intentions really
I guess that you could say I am fortunate to be able to attend Devon. The teachers make sure that you work hard and they keep you on your toes. During a time of war, Devon has done a good job of preparing students for the fighting. On the other hand, Devon has both ups and downs. Right now, we are in the Summer Session, and the teachers and supervisors here have relaxed their policies. I guess this is also a good thing as it gives us a time where we can relax for a bit before the Winter Session begins. My roommate and best friend, Phineas, has done the best to have fun this summer and forget about all of our schoolwork. I am very fortunate to have Phineas as a roommate. Although we have not known each other for that long, Finny and I have...show more content...
The years I have been at this school have gone very quickly. They have been filled with both fun and drama. I cannot say that I am completely sad or happy to be leaving the Devon School. I have had my share of good times with fellow classmates, such as Finny of course. However, there have definitely been some things that have happened here that I am glad to be leaving behind me. I hope to forget the whole situation with Finny falling off the tree and how it was ultimately my fault. Experiencing Finny's death was an odd experience. Throughout my time at Devon, Phineas had become a major part of me; a part of me died the day that he passed away. His funeral was an odd sensation. It was unnatural in the way that part of me was gone that day, too. Finny helped to lighten everybody's spirits at Devon and took our minds off of the war that was at hand. He was care–free and had no enemies, but very few were able to follow his example. Unlike Phineas, I created foolish rivalries at Devon which had awful
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September 21, 2012 Period 4
A Separate Peace Final Draft
In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, it relates to a complicated friendship of two young boys Gene and Phineas. Gene is jealous of Phineas' achievements and lets his anger destroy their relationship. The boys at Devon in the summer of 1942 have to deal with the fear WorldWar II brings. Each time the boys feel safe and peaceful, reality sets in and reminds them of the warfare around them. The boy's mental stability is tested by the struggles of school and the causes of their actions. John Knowles' A Separate Peacedisplays how fear, warfare, and friendship can affect a person's innocence and youth. Fear has affected Gene and made him paranoid with...show more content...
Gene asks Finny what he think caused him to fall out of the tree to find out if Finny knows it was Gene. When Gene visits Finny and tells him he was at fault, he regrets telling him, "It struck me then that I was injuring him again. It occurred to me that this could be an even deeper injury than what I had done before. I would have to back out of it, I would have to disown it." (62) Gene cannot handle the stress of telling Finny the truth that he is afraid he might black out. Throughout the novel, the war has caused great worry, wonder, and fear for the sixteen–year–old boys at Devon who could enlist anytime. When the Boys open a Winter Carnival, it helps them believe that the war does not exist and gets their mind off the war. Gene is caught up yet again in Finny's upbeat world by helping run this carnival. The boys' happiness is interrupted at the end of the carnival when a telegram is sent by Leper informing the boys he has escaped. The boys not only deal with military warfare, but personal wars and feelings of hostility and resentment. Gene learns that one mans only enemy was himself, "...this enemy they thought they saw across the frontier, this enemy who never attacked that way– if he never attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy." (196) Gene struggles
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People are colliding into battles continuously around the globe. It's not always a physical brawl between two armed forces but it also occur mentally and emotionally. On page 139 of A Separate Peace, a quote was mentioned by Gene, "...because it seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and theirs special stupidities but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart..." This quote can relate to the novel, a personal experience and another literary work. According to the novel, Finny and Gene are best friends. They would both go to places together and share a room at school. As Gene gain his knowledge, he becomes more conscious about his greed and desires for being successful at beating Finny for his athleticism and capability. He also surmised that Finny was keeping him from making good grades by stopping him from accomplishing his academic courses. Gene had came to a realization that he hated Finny and wanted to be better than him. It was all a misunderstanding because Finny never...show more content... The father in the story asked his princess how much she loves him. She answered saying, "I love you like salt." The father then got angry and sent her out the castle. Her and her family didn't see each other until her wedding. After the wedding took place, the princess gave the servants food cooked with salt but cooked her mother, father and sisters' food with sugar for several days. At the end of the week, they were all tired of then sweet food that they can no longer eat it. She finally cooked them dinner with salt instead of sugar and her father realized that people cannot eat their food without salt. The father misunderstood about his daughter's answer about loving him. He got angry and sent his princess because of his poor self–esteem. He was expecting his daughter to say "I love you very much" just like his other daughters but he misinterpret the different
Peace is very complex. It could happen when your young, or when your older and more experienced. Peace can come from bright times or dark time, such as death. In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles Gene finds peace in a very odd way. He has a quite "separate peace" from everyone else. Staring off as one piece, braking off into a separate piece, and finally finding a separate peace, Gene discovers he is himself, and not Finny. Without peace, people become discombobulated. Before the casualty, Gene believes that he is Finny. They are one piece that cannot be separated. If one of them fails to do something, it is the job of the other to succeed. We see this when Gene puts on Finny's cloths when he is gone. "I never forgot, and that evening I put on his cordovan shoes, his pants, and I looked for and finally found his pink shirt, neatly laundered in a drawer.... But when I looked in the mirror it was no remote aristocrat I had become, no character out of daydreams. I was
Phineas" (Knowles 62). In addition to looking the part, he plays the part. When Finny breaks his leg and can no longer be himself and play sports, Gene takes this role. Finny even starts to train him for the 1944 Olympics, in exchange Gene tutors him. To add on to all of this, the even leap from the tree together, as one. This causes...show more content...
Finny dies and Gene is left alone and a separate piece from Finny. However he is still thriving to disconnect a few connecting strings that still remain linking the two. Gene never cries for Finny. It could be because he fells dead himself. "I did not cry then or ever about Finny. I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family's strait–laced burial ground outside of Boston. I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case" (194). This lonesomeness is a new concept for Gene and he is now faced with the challenge of finding Get