A Separate Peace By John Knowles

The boys at the Devon school, in the novel A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, are World War II influenced by making them mature and grow up more quickly than they would have had there not been a war. The war makes some boys stronger and more ready for whatever life would bring, while in others it disables them to the point that they cannot handle the demands of life. This novel shows a “coming-of age” story, especially with three boys. Gene starts out as a naïve and sensitive person but matures into a person more knowledgeable and capable of handling the challenges of life through his crisis experiences with of course, Phineas, Leper and, Brinker.

Although seemingly innocent, the small town of Corrigan, where the novel, Jasper Jones, is set, is home to a vast number of lies and secrets, and holds an immense amount of deception and manipulation within its walls. Secrets are a pivotal part of life and the human experience, and Jasper Jones reflects this in a relevant and thought-provoking manner, presenting the ways in which secrets and deceits can alter a person’s life for the worse, and cause emotional damage and trauma to those involved with the dishonesty.

In the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the protagonist Gene Forrester constantly battles within himself to find the true emotion towards his friend Phineas and to find out who he really is. Gene and Phineas formed an illusion of companionship, but there was always a silent rivalry between them in Gene’s mind. In the beginning, Gene thought his feeling towards Phineas was completely normal and it will go away in time. However, as the time went on and Gene matured he found out that his feeling was much more than little jealousy but it has turned into hate. Gene Forrester develops into a mature adult when he finally accepts his feeling and faces reality.

At the start, Gene is instantly jealousy of Finny, creating a fake friendship that is fueled by competition. This is shown when he wants to do something so he is good at, so he “was becoming the best student in the school: Phineas was without question the best athlete, so in that way we were even” (Knowles 55). This proves that their friendship is fueled by competition because it shows that Gene always wants to be even. This

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.

Gene contemplates his and Finny’s friendship many times in the book, but despite what Gene may have thought, Finny was a good friend to him. He always took Gene’s feelings into account, and through all that happened he had faith in Gene. But Gene never knew this,

In his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles demonstrates that, to achieve adulthood, one must lose innocence and acknowledge this loss.

When Gene is quick to realize that him and Finny will never be of the same power, Knowles shows us that a loss of identity may be present in a relationship if there is an unequal amount of power. Gene realizes that Finny is someone who can do anything and he states that “He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could be any rivalry between us. I was not the same quality as he” (59). Gene’s low self-esteem starts to build up as he explains that no matter how hard he tries, he will never be as good and powerful as Phineas. Finny has everything in his power and is capable of so many things also remaining his own person. However, Gene feels the complete opposite as he understands that to become someone as mighty as Finny, he has to change who he is to even get Finny to notice him as a threat. As a result of this unequal

Although Phineas clearly had a negative relationship with Gene, some people argue that he was an acceptable friend because he was able to forgive Gene for making Phineas fall off the limb. When Gene visited Finny in the hospital after he learned that Gene jounced the limb, at first, Finny felt betrayed, however, after he saw the guilt on Gene’s face, he realized that, “it was just some kind of impulse decision… [Gene] didn’t know what [he] was doing” (Knowles 191). Then Finny knew that he didn’t do it because Gene despised him, he jolted the branch because he had no time to think about what he was

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.

Many times in the novel, Gene struggles with his identity, including when Finny was in the hospital and he decided to put on Finny’s clothes. Gene was thinking, “But when I looked in the mirror it was no remote aristocrat I had become, no character out of daydreams. I was Phineas, Phineas to the life” (62). Gene also says how it gave him a relief when he was wearing Finny’s clothes, and that he would never stumble through the confusions of his own character again. After viewing this quote, it is shown that Gene didn’t really understand who he was. He wanted to look like Finny and be Finny. Also, another time Gene struggled with his identity was when he and Finny were talking on the phone while Finny was still gone from Devon. Finny says “‘Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,’ and I lost a part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas” (85). At this time in the book, Gene was feeling bad about Finny, and when Finny asked him to play sports for him, Gene felt like he was becoming a part of Finny. Because of this event, it’s shown that Gene didn’t exactly know who he was supposed to

In John Knowles, A Separate Peace, the chapter starts off with Finny criticizing Gene’s clothes and talking about how messy he has made their room. The next day Brinker sprints into their room and is about to open his mouth about the war, but realizes Finny is there and decides it is probably best not to talk. Brinker tries to lighten up the mood in the room and joke about Finny’s injury, “‘You can’t get that cast wet, can you?”’(Knowles 107) Finny does not understand why he is trying to make jokes. It is not like he is disabled or anything. Gene tells Finny that he was planning on enlisting before he got here, but now the situation is different. The two continue to make jokes and laugh about the whole thing. Even though it is a little awkward Gene and Finny get through it, and they figure it all out. When they are walking to their first class, Finny notices the cold winter wind, “What I mean is, I love winter, and when you love something, then it loves you back, in whatever way it has to love”’(Knowles 111). Finny is just happy to be back at Devon, however, he most

Friendships cannot last, because of humanity’s nature of being jealous, dishonest, and the fear of being viewed as subpar. In the naturalism novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the main character Gene started out as Finny’s best friend. He admired Finny greatly, and was happy to have such an amazing and special friend. Shortly thereafter, Gene started to display these unfortunate characteristics that ultimately cause him to lose his best friend. Jealousy is one of the factors that demolish relationships.

Would you die with your friend? Would you kill your friend? Gene and Phineas from A Separate Peace by John Knowles had an admirable friendship that relates to M. Morissot and M. Sauvage’s friendship in “Two Friends” by Guy de Maupassant. An ongoing war in both A Separate Peace and “Two Friends” causes conflicts that arose from the hostile environment in the New Hampshire school Devon and in the streets of Paris. Moreover, Gene and Phineas from A Separate Peace contrast to M. Morissot and M. Sauvage from “Two Friends” because Gene’s jealousy consumes his friendship, which eventually contributes to the death of Phineas. On the other hand, M. Morissot and M. Sauvage continue their friendship and die together. Nextly, Gene and Phineas