Cited: Knowles, John. A Separate Peace. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.
Cited: Knowles, John. A Separate Peace. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.
When reading a book it is very important to read between the lines, to catch the hidden meanings and metaphors that lie within its pages. " A Separate Peace " is no exception as it is filled with metaphors which give the novel a concealed meaning and teach the reader about many things including the immense impact of World War II on people of the era. This essay will identify and explore some of them in order to further understand John Knowles' novel and the message he wanted to get across. Finny's Clothes, The Winter Carnival, Blitzball, and The Tree are all adequate examples of metaphors in this tale as they all have double meanings that bring the reader into a whole new world, one filled with mystery and wonder. Metaphors play an amazingly important role in this novel as they transform it from a plain story into a complex one, where simple things represent a greater, intricate reality.…
“To the soul, there is hardly anything more healing than friendship” (Thomas Moore). In the young adult novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the main character, Gene, reminisces about his friends from high school and his most significant, vivid memories. The experiences Gene endures in high school result from each student’s apprehension of becoming enlisted in the ongoing war. This hidden sense of battle created within each boy gradually destroys their inner-youth. Thus, the theme that one’s loss of innocence is inevitable and devastating becomes clear through the seasonal shift from summer to winter and the effects of war.…
A Separate Peace is a novel that criticizes society, based on a romantic point of view of human nature. Firstly, Gene's aggressive nature is being nurtured by societies preoccupation with competition, inner-enemies, and power. Contrasting to Gene, Finny has a natural goodness about him that has not been corrupted by society. Lastly, the Devon school is a symbol of rivalry and competitiveness of the world, which has produced a devastating war on a much larger scale.…
In A Separate Peace, John Knowles enlightens readers on human existence by displaying how denial allows a person to stray from reality. Numerous cases of denial overwhelm and test characters' assurances of their own presence. Characters such as Gene Forrester and Phineas (Finny) fail to acknowledge denial, so that their naiveté prohibits them from identifying the truth. Eventually, fate causes each to face his own guilt, embarrassment, and disbelief.…
In this nonfiction book based in the years of World War 2, the tragedy that happened to Finny during a summer at Devon set the topic for the story about the novel. During a summer at Devon Finny’s best friend, Gene, who is thoughtful and intelligent and had also developed a love-hate relationship with Finny, made a decision that would end in the death of Finny. They day when Leper, Gene, and Finny were all jumping off a tree at the Devon River there was a serious accident. When Gene and Finny were on a branch in the tree Gene spasmodically decided to shake the branch in order for Finny for all off, although Gene would never admit this to be true. Finny broken his leg and was practically crippled. This “accident” came to be the main aspect of A Separate Peace. Directly after the accident Brinker was interested in what actually happened that day at the river since it was accepted that Finny just fell off. One day when Gene was alone in his form room Brinker and his friends forced Gene down to the butt room, a room where smoking was allowed. Brinker further investigated that day during the summer by interrogating Gene. Gene felt uncomfortable so he fled. As he returned to his room he saw a very familiar face, it belonged to Finny. Finny had returned from resting at his house after the accident. Life went on and Finny continued to be the leader he was born to be, he instigated a snow ball war and school carnival.…
John Knowles A Separate Peace is thought to be a memoir of the author himself, set during the heart of World War Two, and the aftermath of those years. The protagonist, Gene Forrester, a seemingly happy boy, hides fear and paranoia within. His best friend and the antagonist of the story, Finny, is his greatest competition. Throughout their years at school together, they become inseparable. But, as their friendship grows deeper, Gene’s paranoia grows with it. Finny is the schools top athlete and is loved and known by everyone. As the story progresses, Gene becomes something of his side-kick. Although this may be happening, Gene only thinks Finny is trying to get closer to him in order to ruin his athletic and academic career at the school. During the summer of their first year together, they form the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. Initiation into this club involved jumping from a tree limb into a small river. The two boys are the first to do this of everyone at the school. During the summer session, the boys decide to make the jump together. Upon climbing onto the limb Finny tells Gene to jump first. As Finny is about to jump, he loses his balance, but Gene catches him and practically saves his life. During the next summer session, they decide to jump together again. This time, Finny walks out to the end first. He too begins to lose his balance, but this time because Gene purposefully “jounced the limb.” One can see he did this purposefully due to three key reasons. Firstly, their competition between each other and Genes obvious envy towards Finny. Secondly, the way eyewitnesses and Gene himself describe the situation. And lastly, Genes confession to Finny the year after.…
There are many well-known themes in the book A Separate Peace. One of the most themes is a coming of age for the boys who live and learn at Devon school. For some boys at this school, a coming of age means more opportunities, and for some others, means a chance to go from being a boy, to becoming a man. A large contradiction in this book is innocence vs. ignorance. For some boys the innocence will be destroyed in order for a coming of age to take place. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, growing up at Devon school means that each and every boy will be faced with a simple decision, kill off your innocence, or let it destroy you, physically and/or mentally.…
The novel A Separate Peace focuses mainly around a 17 year old named Gene Forrester and his psychological development. The story is set in a boys boarding school in USA during World War II. There are four main boys in the novel and they all undergo major character changes through the story. One of them goes crazy, and the others experience severe attitude changes. Gene is caught right in the center of these changes. He is very close with all of the other three boys, and thus all of the changes affect him very much. Due to all the tension occurring in this novel because of the war and events going on at the school, there is a lot of denial of truth happening. Three of the four boys mentioned earlier deny the truth at sometime in the story. This denying of truth sometimes ends with the person who committed the fault in a bad condition at the end of the book, and sometimes in good condition. So it can be said that there were both positive and negative results for each of the denials of the truth, but these will be explained more in-depth in the following paragraphs.…
First, Gene’s happiness is vanishing to be replaced by war as the war changes familiar sights and environments. Gene is looking across the Far Commons to see the landscape rapidly transforming in front of him. He saw what was once the welcoming school becoming nothing more than a war training zone with “huge green barrels placed at many strategic points (pg. 191)” While Gene admits that he was “often happy at Devon, it seemed to [him] that afternoon were over now...to be replaced by wartime synthetic.” The change of setting is displayed through the visual and sudden change of landscape and represents the idea that during wartime, nothing stays the same.…
| Since Devon students are merely kids, they cannot even begin to imagine what war truly is, for they are innocent. Children live life carelessly and wildly without fears nor understanding of consequences. Boys of sixteen such as Gene, Brinker, Finny and Leper are full of life and think about the present rather than the future.…
The novel A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, is about two young boys attending prep school together in the early 1940’s during World War II. Gene, the main character and the narrator of the novel, is a highly intellectual, sarcastic 16-year-old who struggles throughout the book to discover his true self. Phineas, on the other hand, is athletic, careless and highly admired by his peers, and seems to get away with anything he pleases. Throughout the story the friendship between the boys strengthens, but at many times is tested by the pair’s risky feats and competitiveness.…
As well as many other novels, A Separate Peace includes easily relatable characters. While reading the novel, I discovered that there are certain qualities of both Gene and Finny that I can identify with. After careful consideration, I realized that I most identify with Gene rather than Finny. He and I both are drawn to people with larger than life personalities. I can also relate to his insecure feelings that come with having friendships with those types of personalities. His strength in academics is another trait of his that I can identify with.…
In John Knowles’s novel A Separate Peace, Knowles describes a life-changing sequence of events, as seen by Gene Forrester, which takes place at Devon Boarding School. Gene constantly finds himself struggling to find the truth about his relationship with Finny. Peter Wolfe states that the novel, “cries to be read in the context of original sin,” and Novels for Students references that, “the real struggle is fought in the hearts of the characters, not on the battlefield.” Both the sin and struggle come together when Gene places himself in a competition with Finny, which can only end with one definite winner. Many different factors contribute to the theme of competition including: the physical abilities of each boy, the internal characteristics of each boy, and Gene’s jealousy and envy of Finny.…
On the surface, A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles in 1959, is a tale of two boys and the events that take place between them one school year during World War Two. Behind the simple storyline, however, lies a deeply woven web of symbols, themes, and lessons that are all of great significance and relevance to our lives today. Perhaps one of the most important concepts we can learn from this novel is how we, as a species, create our own enemies due to our jealousy and insecurity. Knowles’ story shows how humans tend to satisfy the need to have someone to compete with by sometimes choosing to dislike the people who deserve it the least.…
World War Two is introduced as a factor in the novel, as Devon is preparing them for being drafted into the war at the end of their senior year.…