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A Separate Peace Analysis

Decent Essays

The novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles is about learning and it reveals that people have to have the bad to see the good. This thematic statement connects to both the book and the world that we live in today. Many people want everything to be perfect and beautiful but the hard truth is that it will never completely be that way. Life isn’t going to be the way every stroke was placed on the perfect painting of life that everyone has in there head which was handcrafted from their wildest dreams. Their may be some slippery patches but good will follow close behind.

Learning is a strong aspect in the novel. The characters learn who they really are and choose their own path. Gene, in the beginning was a character of self doubt, jealousy and greed. He never took a step back to realize that he had traits that others wished they had. Nothing was ever good enough for him, not even his best friend. He had to learn who he should be just like his companion Finny did. Finny chose to be a man of forgiveness, loyalty and strength even before the clock ran out of time. He truly did succeed in shaping Gene to be a good person. And Finny learned about himself as he held Gene’s hand along the rocky road. Gene started to learn about himself when he said in the novel on page 59, “Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he. I couldn’t stand this.” Gene was finally realizing that he was not going to be the best at every single thing he does, but that he has someone who can be the tour guide for him in his own life and who can show him who he really should be. This exact situation happens in our modern day lives. We see the things and characteristics that others have and we never take a step back to take in and learn that we are each different and we all have strengths and we all have weaknesses. Everyone shouldn’t be greedy for the ear to ear smile we “don’t have” or the blond hair that we can’t have. But what we can get, that we may not have is the ability to be accepting or forgiving. We can learn to acquire these traits as we learn from example and try these traits on.

A Separate Peace also showcases the saying of “people have to have the bad in

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