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A Separate Peace

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A Separate Peace
October 22, 1943
Gene Forrester
Time capsule letter
Devon High School

Dear ,
What do you remember from Devon? Do you remember your growth, your maturity, and your fraternity? Hopefully you will now remember the easy times of peace and your trials from Devon.
The tree: the shrunken giant, my worst nightmare, and best tutor. It taught me many things about life, and that is to respect its teachings. Its broken branch, dead and weak, represents the tree as a whole. No longer high and mighty, but dead and dying.
The Devon Winter Carnival, the peak of my athleticism, holds many memories such as the ski jump as shown in the picture and my “training” from the course Finny had me run. Where he would lean up against the trunk of the elm tree and advise me like a coach or something
The pin belonged to Brinker’s father from his service World War I and he must have dropped it while he was rambling about our duty to our country. That day I learned to respect Brinker, now that I could understand why he was the way he was. And the used cigar from the butt room reminds of when I first misunderstood Brinker from when he interrogated me, trying to pry the truth from the depths of my mind. But in actuality I wasn’t quite sure of the truth. The Devon River and the Naguamsett River, two polar opposites, so filthy and so pristine; the Naguamsett symbolizing my old self with his head stuck in the mud and the Devon representing the gaining of my new insight.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor must have been in the news for months, this resulting in our declaration of war against the fascists. Which brought upon the blitz of propaganda posters and advertisements for enlistment.
Finny’s broken leg would result as a climax in my life and the end of his. It’s funny now that I think about it; the x-ray of his shattered leg is probably my favorite photo of Finny. Finny and I had many memories, some of which I wish I could forget. He was at times very foolish but my insight

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