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Imagery In John Knowles A Separate Peace

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Imagery In John Knowles A Separate Peace
In times of world conflict, civilians and soldiers alike try to escape the war through whatever means possible. A Separate Peace by John Knowles takes place during World War II in 1943. The main characters all long to maintain their innocence and separate themselves, and their school, from the war. The boys see the school as becoming corrupt by the war and use the Winter Carnival's festivities to create a separate peace. Nevertheless, Knowles's use of war related imagery through the setting, the boys' behavior, and the prizes used in the Carnival suggests that the peace they see is a facade.

Knowles uses the setting to show that the boy's separate peace is an illusion made through the festivities at the Winter Carnival. The word choice used …show more content…
Moreover, the boys behavior showed warlike themes when they kept their possessions hidden and secret. Hidden away, "Several jugs of very hard cider... were the most cautiously guarded treasure". In war soldiers hide their personal treasures, such as photos, and even alcohol as it is forbidden in barracks and war. The boys announced the beginning of the Carnival with the sound of a trumpet. Before the sports began "Chet released from his trumpet the opening". In the beginning of old battles in a war, both sides would sound the beginning of the battle with a playing from several instruments. Also the boys show their savage side when they fight Brinker. Soon a "circle of boys broke wildly over Brinker" and attacked him. The boys attacking Brinker show that they are barbaric and prepared for the war. Another way the façade of innocence is broken is when they drank alcohol. Later in the carnival, "The hard cider began to take charge of us". Drinking is something that corrupts the innocence of a child, what turns them into an adult, ruins the body and the mind. Alcohol influences anger and violence among those that drink it, alcohol is the drug of angst, one that destroys the body and
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