A Separate Peace Chapter 11 Analysis

According to the novel, Finny and Gene are best friends. They would both go to places together and share a room at school. As Gene gain his knowledge, he becomes more conscious about his greed and desires for being successful at beating Finny for his athleticism and capability. He also surmised that Finny was keeping him from making good grades by stopping him from accomplishing his academic courses. Gene had came to a realization that he hated Finny and wanted to be better than him. It was all a misunderstanding because Finny never

As Carl Jung once stated, “Man's task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious”. To reach a peaceful reconciliation, one must learn to embrace two distinct elements of their personality, the "Persona" and "Shadow." Likewise, in the bildungsroman, A Separate Peace, author John Knowles depicts the common rivalry between young adolescents, and how they struggle to accept their identity and the relationship between their unconscious self. Gene, a Devon High student, becomes best friends with Finny and grows jealous of his ostensibly flawless friend, causing him to make a life-changing decision. His struggles to reach an inner balance between his “Persona” and “Shadow” lead to the ultimate death of Finny. Gene’s transformation involves the changes of his mask and “Shadow”—from guilt and jealousy to pride and tolerance—which results in the later acceptance of the light and dark parts of himself, allowing him to truly reach adulthood and a state of peace.

“I wanted to see Phineas, and only Phineas. With him there was no conflict except between athletes… This was the only conflict he had ever believed in.” (page 152) When Gene returns from Leper’s house, all he wants to do is see Finny. Gene says that Finny never believed in any conflict, which alludes to when Gene admitted to making him fall out of the tree, and Finny refusing to believe him. Gene wants to forget about what happened, as the event is fresh in his mind after coming back from Leper’s. He still subconsciously trusts Finny to not bring up the subject of what happened at the tree.

John Knowles’ “A Separate Peace” takes place at a boarding school during World War II. Best friends Gene and Finny have been inseparable during their time at the Devon School. This is until reality hits Gene, and he slowly starts to realize that he is inferior to his best friend. Through the unbalanced friendship between two teenagers in “A Separate Peace,” Knowles illustrates that a loss of identity may be present in a relationship if there is an unequal amount of power.

Chapter four starts with the gray dawn and closes with a gray dusk. Also, it begins with Gene describing Finny coming to life as Lazarus and ends with the tragic fall that destroys his life. Finny wakes that morning with characteristic action, proposing a quick swim. But of couse Gene declines because he is thinking about his limits and rules. When he looked at the sun, he knew it was about 6:30, and all he could do was worry about his trigonometry test that would be at 10:00. For Gene, the meaning of the morning emerges not from the beauty of the dawn the beautiful beach, but from his worries and disappointments. Finny has lost their money, and they must now bicycle back to Devon without breakfast and arrive just in time for Gene to fail his

Strengths and weaknesses In a Separate Peace by John Knowles Gene is always on constant battle between himself. Gene is filled with jealousy while Finny is an irreproachable boy at Devon. Throughout the book, you can see Finny is a stronger character than Gene because he is always in a constant battle between himself.

A Separate Peace, chapter three starts of with Gene talking about how Finny saved his life when he fell out of the tree. On the other hand, the only reason Gene was in that tree to begin with was because of Finny, “I didn’t need to feel any tremendous rush of gratitude towards Phineas”(Knowles 33). If it were not for Finny there is no way Gene would be anywhere near that tree. Also, if Gene was not so worried about pleasing Finny all of the time, he would not have jumped from the tree in the first place. After all of this happens and as the club now starts to grow, Finny decides he needs to start recruiting other members for the Suicide Society.

As humans were on Earth their emotions kept the people they liked close and the people they didn’t out. Furthermore getting a human's trust is hard to earn but one wrong move they could lose all trust someone had with them; with losing trust someone could be sent into chaos. This chaos could show the dark side of human nature. As shown in the movie, The Dead Poet's Society and also within the book, The Separate Peace the readers are given an incite to the dark side of human nature.

A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles in 1959, takes place at a boarding school in New England named Devon where 16-year-old Gene and Phineas live their adolescence. Their teenage years are taking place during World War 2, so their youth is spent talking about and waiting to go into war. While they are Devon, it seems the boys can not be attacked by the outside world and they can remain to be children. But soon the fun comes to an end when Phineas falls out of the tree. The tree that Gene and Phineas jumped out of every night, that Gene could even recognize when he came back 15 years later. This time between his fall and the war draft is a time for each boy to face his internal and external enemies. Their enemies are finally defeated after

"Your surroundings may change but your essence and your personality pretty much stay the same" (Dewan). The setting of the novel A Separate Peace is at an all boys school located in New Hampshire. The characters and plot are finely woven into the fabric of this institution. However, would events in this novel turn out differently if the story was set in a public high school, with a diverse environment? The characters and plot of A Separate Peace are not solely driven by their surroundings because the boys would still break the rules, Gene would have internal conflicts, and the war would affect the students.

Literary allegories correlate an author’s body of work to a greater known archetype, usually in pursuit of connecting certain ethics to the reader. A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, is an admirable example of this approach. Knowles applies tales from the biblical book of Genesis into his narrative of two friends attending an elite preparatory school. More specifically, the stories of Cain and Abel, plus Adam and Eve, are in reference. The lessons and morals that are being displayed within these stories are present alongside situational elements undergone by the main characters, Gene and Finny.

In the story called A Separate Peace by John Knowles, a boy called Gene caused the accident of his best friend because of jealousy. Later in the story, Gene starts to feel guilt because he made the life of his friend complicated. Is friend called Phineas, isn’t able to enjoy things that he likes because his best friend caused the fracture of his leg, but he doesn’t know that he isn’t able to enjoy the things that he likes because of Gene. Later in the story, Gene tells Finny that what happened to him is his Gene’s fault. Finny doesn’t blame his friend, and forgives him, but later in the story, he fell down the stairs were him and all of his friends were being interrogated by Brinker to find out if Gene was guilty of what happened to Finny.

It took about a week before the guardians were called to the assembly hall again. This time they were greated by the angels of strengh, protocol, time and faith. They told the boys not to bother sitting since it wouldn't last very long. Finally after a short silence the angel of faith annouced that they were indeed going to live in the human world.

Charles Oduro Mrs. Weber English 9 Honors, Period 1 October. 18. 2017 A Separate Peace - Chapter 9 Summary:

The novel begins with old Gene remembering what happened at Devon fifteen years ago. Gene and Finny go to Devon School during WWII. Even though they are friends , they are very different. Finny is the top well-rounded athlete who can get talk his way out of anything, while Gene is the studious, shy kid. Finny comes off as a jerk and thinks he has to be good at everything. I do not quite understand Finny and Gene’s friendship. Finny creates a secret society and in order to be in it you must jump from a tree limb. I also believe that Finny and Gene are both afraid of denial, change in time passing. The way they see things and the way Gene presents himself isn’t reality. Also, Gene has trouble finding his inner peace throughout the novel.