A Separate Peace By John Knowles: A Character Analysis

“And you told me about Leper, that he’s gone crazy. That’s the word, we might as well admit it. Leper’s gone crazy. When I heard that about Leper, then I knew that the war was real, this war and all wars. If a war can drive somebody crazy, then it’s real alright” (Knowles 163). This excerpt from John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace is the realization from a young student about his classmate, Elwin “Leper” Lepellier. Leper’s sobriquet demonstrates he is unusual and an outcast amongst his class at The Devon School. Leper, a timid, naive, and innocent 17 year old, shocks his peers when he is the first to enlist in the war. He soon returns after escaping from training, mentally broken and an altered character. Thus, Leper suffers from post-traumatic

The war is a symbol of how things aren’t always what they seem. Recruiting posters and propaganda advertising the army convince many boys into thinking the war is an exciting adventure in which young men interact. Leper enlists in the army after being impressed by a film shown by a recruiter from the U.S. ski troops. "The ski movie had decided him. ‘I always thought the war would come for me when it wanted me…I never thought I’d be going to it. I’m really glad I saw that movie in time, you bet I am’" (826) Leper is amazed by these men and how they, with their recognizable and friendly faces, give a clean response to

Another boy in the story who was matured by the war was Leper; "Across the hall...where Leper Lepellier had dreamed his way through July and August amid sunshine and dust motes and windows through which the ivy had reached tentatively into the room,... (Knowles 74)" When he sees the movies about the ski troops, he thinks that it looks fun and he surprises everyone by enlisting. Leper does not really know what he is getting himself into when he enlists. He thinks that it looks like a fun ski trip; he can serve his country and ski around the world at the same time; "So

Carl Jung, the very first pioneer who discovered human collective unconsciousness, including archetypes, once said, “An archetype is something like an old watercourse along which the water of life flowed for a time, digging a deep channel for itself. The longer it flowed the deeper the channel, and the more likely it is that sooner or later the water will return.” An archetype is the universal patterns and behaviors that represent a typical human experience that is passed down from generations to generations, creating its originality. In “A Separate Peace”, John Knowles uses many archetypes to enrich the personality of his characters, especially Gene and Finny based on common human experiences. By embodying the archetypes of the Fall from Innocence, the Unhealable, and the Crossroads in “A Separate Peace,” John Knowles was successful in establishing the theme for the novel which implies that the guilt which is begotten from one’s deceitful actions would remain as an irrecoverable wound overtime.

Just as Finny concocts a false portrayal of the war and obscures Genes perception of their conflict, the army displays an inaccurate impression of war which as a result traumatizes Leper Leppelier. It is after the Christmas holidays that the United States ski troops show an enlistment video to the boys at the Devon school. For Leper,

Leper, who seemed to be the most untouched by the war, is the first to enlist, showing that the war has reached into the deepest part of Devon and dragged the most unlikely candidate out into war, bringing the fear of adulthood right to the boys, showing how potent the war is. Although Leper thinks he is ready to enlist, deep inside he is scared and truly is not ready for war or adulthood. This quote represent all the boys in Devon who are not yet ready to enter adulthood, but are pushed into it because of

In life, humans go through a point in their life where they struggle or have to fight for something; Whether it be fighting for money, food, shelter,a special someone or life. In John Knowles's novel, A Separate Peace, he quotes for Gene, “...my war ended before I even put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.” As you continue to read on, although it was caused by Finny...unintentionally. You’ll realize that Gene’s enemy was his insecurities, his feelings, …. maybe even himself.

Being “envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide”. John Knowles wrote A Separate Peace, based on the German term bildungsroman. Gene is smart, intelligent, and a really great person to be around. He has a great personality up until, he starts to emulate Finny. A Separate Peace demonstrates how Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him, their friendship, and Gene ends up finding peace.

War is a destructive force whose nature is to destroy all things and change lives forever. It is a whirlpool that sucks everything in and is fueled by hatred and violence. Whether one is directly involved in the battlefield or waiting to see the outcome, war has the capacity to affect all people. It can harden one beyond their years and force them to grow, seeing conflicting sides of good and evil. A Separate Peace by John Knowles narrates the story of young boys growing up with World War II as the backdrop. The war impacts them dramatically and is constantly thought about as they are coming of the age since they will soon be enlisted. However, not only are they living during an era of war but are also struggling with the war inside of themselves as they search for the truth within. Knowles depicts the ability of war to affect teenage boys in Devon, an English preparatory school, and transform them from carefree boys to troubled young men in search of their own separate peace.

It is obvious from the opening chapter that this novel will center on the war and the effects it has on a young group of soldiers, none of them more than twenty years of age. They are all friends and former classmates of Paul Baumer, the narrator and protagonist of the book; they have enlisted in the German infantry because their teacher, Kantorek, had painted for them a glorious picture of fighting and saving the homeland from destruction during World War I. In this first chapter, Baumer and his friends are away from the front lines, relaxing a bit after two weeks of fierce fighting. As each of the young men is introduced, it is apparent that they are tired, hungry, angry, and disillusioned over the war.

As Leper is exposed to the uneasy environment of his soldier training and the extreme violence it was leading up to, it strikes him that without his support system of peers at Devon, he would surely lose his sanity. After he is discharged from basic training and returns to his home in Vermont, Leper’s first plan of action is to get back in touch with peers from Devon. He is desperate to communicate with them immediately to remind himself how at-ease he was before joining the war effort. He sends Gene a pleading note reading, “I HAVE ESCAPED AND NEED HELP. I AM AT CHRISTMAS LOCATION. YOU UNDERSTAND. NO NEED TO RISK ADDRESS HERE. MY SAFETY DEPENDS ON YOU COMING AT ONCE. (signed) YOUR BEST FRIEND, ELWIN LEPER LEPELLIER” (137). By stressing that

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

In the novel, “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles, the seasons develop actions and characters in the story. The story takes place at an all-boys boarding school in New Hampshire during World War II based off of the author’s previous experiences at a boarding school. The two main characters, Finny and Gene, experience character development alongside different seasons. In written works, seasons are commonly used to symbolically represent a change in the character’s personalities. The nature or setting of the story is used to specifically evolve Finny and Gene in seasons such as the summer, autumn, and winter. Each season change also generates an entirely different mood.

World War II was a very life changing event that demonstrated how much friendships and everyday people could change due to war. One particular novel set during the era of this war proves this point well. In the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene, Finny, and Leper have their own distinct symbols. Gene symbolizes envy and jealousy, Finny embodies kindness and hope, and Leper symbolizes the detrimental effects of war.

In the novel a Separate Peace we find our two main characters, Finny and Gene at a boarding school in New England in the thick of World War 1. This book tells the story of transitioning into a age of adolescence full of darkness and jealousy.As they are transitioning into adolescence they are confronted with lots of new relationships, yet the way this relationships develop along the plot of the book is the real reason this book is interesting. These boys are different in so many ways (rules, spontaneity, sports, academics, beliefs, jealousy, backgrounds), and yet they are drawn together in a special bond.