A Separate Peace By John Knowles Essay

The fictional novel, A Separate Peace was written by John Knowles describes the life at Devon School during WWII. The novel follows two young boys, Gene and Phineas, as they face hardships and struggles throughout their life at Devon during the war. The war dominated life at Devon by creating tough decisions, causing students to act upon a life altering decision, and essentially create a war among each other.

The final set of symbols, peace and war, served as a backdrop for Gene’s adolescence and maturity. The Summer Session was a time of peace, it was fun and relaxed. There were no rules for Gene and Finny to follow. “We reminded them of what peace was like, of lives which were not bound up with destruction," (Knowles ). Unlike the summer session, which was full of peace, the winter session was filled of war. The war came to Devon when Leper enlisted. It hit Gene even closer when he found out that Finny had tried to enlist into the war but no one would accept him. "I also wrote the Coast Guard, the Merchant Marine, I wrote to General de Gualle personally, I also wrote Chiang Kai-shek, and I was about ready to write somebody in Russia,” (Knowles 190). Gene’s

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.

In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Knowles shows the inescapable consequences and effects World War II has on the boys attending Devon School. Some boys, including Gene Forrester and Brinker Hadley, become hostile and paranoid, while others, such as Phineas and Leper Lepellier, are mentally and physically affected. Knowles describes the microcosmic war at Devon between the students and man’s capability of hostility. This rivalry between the boys causes feelings of envy and hatred, which is naturally a part of human nature. However, too much envy and hatred within human nature inevitably causes man to become inhumane.

“I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there” (Knowles 122). The novel “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles takes place at Devon High School, 1942. Knowles describes a friendship based off of ignorance, jealousy, and envy. Gene Forrester a sixteen year old who’s characterized as being intellectual, completive, and conformative. John Knowles depicts how Gene’s envy towards Finny affects their friendship and gain peace within himself.

The novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, shows clear and understandable contrasts in many ways. The juxtaposition of the winter and summer session highlight the growth of the students at Devon as they are soon forced to leave their youth and adolescence. Juxtaposition is the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect. In continuation, the summer session resembles the boy's innocence and how do not understand the war that is happening around them. This session contains a very peaceful and calm setting and the protection of returning teachers. The boys even have the luxury of having cleaning women to do stuff for them at Devon. However, as winter session comes the boys have to become mindful of the war

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.

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that intimidation is suicide…” (Emerson 370). A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, takes place at Devon, a preparatory school in New Hampshire, during the 1940’s. Gene Forrester is a student at Devon and drives much of the story’s plot through his intimidation of his best friend Finny. A Separate Peace not only shows how Gene’s envy and intimidation of Finny affected him and his friendship with Finny, but it also shows Gene’s failure in achieving true peace.

Crafted by author John Knowles in the late 1950’s, A Separate Peace is a heart-wrenching Bildungsroman narrated by a pensive Gene Forrester as he reflects upon trials and tribulations at his alma-mater, the Devon Boarding School. In an attempt to process the tragic loss of his best friend and coping with his own responsibility in his friend’s death, Gene returns to the campus to confront his progressive loss of Finny in both his plummet from the tree by the river to his tumble down the marble staircase. At a glance, Finny and Gene’s relationship appears to be a story of tragedy as Gene must forever carry the loss of his very best friend, but as the novel progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Gene and Finny’s relationship before Finny’s accident was far from being black-and-white. Diving deeper into the text, Gene reveals his true feelings about Finny that fluctuate from Finny being an object of obsession to being a source of resentment. As the story is told from Gene’s point of view, the reader is submerged into the realm of Gene’s odd fascinations with Finny and the manifestations of his feelings of hatred and idolization as he acts out in odd ways, such as mimicking Finny’s facial expressions and clothing and developing conspiracy theories in which Finny is planning Gene’s academic downfall. Gradually, the picture painted of the teenage Gene Forrester of A Separate Peace becomes more and more distorted as Gene’s sanity is called into question. His

Knowles foreshadows the boys’ loss of innocence through the war, and their constant jumps from the tree. While getting ready for the war the boys practice and show off their skills on the tree by the Devon River. These jumps are done for fun yet the boys see them as a routine, something that has

Welcome to a small school called Devon during the summer of 1942.  At the beginning of the second World War, Devon is a quiet place with close friends and great memories, until one event brings the entire school into itÕs own war.  With the star athlete having his leg ÒaccidentallyÓ broken by his best friend, Devon turns against itself into a war zone where nobody is safe.

Who does not remember their school days? The good times, the bad times and all the memories. John Knowles wrote an inspiring novel that shows all that can happen when life is at its worst. In the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene grows up and sees how hard life can be. The novel is a bildungsroman because it is a book about a person coming of age or growing up. A Separate Peace is a bildungsroman because when Gene returns to his school as an adult he remembers all the good times he had, the heartbreak he experienced, and he sees the school differently, .

A Separate Peace by John Knowles takes place in 1942 New Hampshire at Devon Boarding School. The novel discusses the issues that occur to students at Devon being prepared to leave to the war. Gene who is the protaginist of the story is often contradicting himself and is in a battle with himself. Gene’s best friend Finny is often going through trouble that Gene blames on himself. The idea that gene kills his own innocence is not likely considering his lack of worldly experience, his tendency to martyrdom and the impact that the war has on his charecter.

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.