A Separate Peace Literary 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

In a place flooded with war and violence, a school is separated from reality; living within the walls are the boys of the school, shielded from the ugly truths that lie beyond. During this time of adolescence, the boys are forced to grow and mature while the walls that protect them begin to fall. One boy, Gene, lives within this wall and matures into a young man during this time through many events and conflicts he faces. Through these events occurring, he is now able to withstand the violence of the world, war and trauma. This coming of age is demonstrated when Gene causes Finny to fall out of the tree, discovers the reality of war, and Finny dies.

People both today and back then have been traumatized by war’s brutal combat, fallen victim to cruel soldiers, and had war cause sorrow and grief to them. Through characters seeing death, characters that are soldiers, and characters that are not in combat, Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See demonstrates that war affects individuals negatively, even if they are extremely

In this passage, Gene goes to visit his friend Leper, who deserted the army after suffering hallucinations. Gene listens to Lepers stories about his experience and realizes that his friend has become mentally unstable and begins to fear for himself and his friends at school who will join the army once the year is over. Gene also seems to fear for his old friend Leper who left school early in order to join the army, Gene feels that Leper is too unstable to be left alone and is afraid that Leper might harm himself. This passage is Intertextual as I learned from the book “5th Business” that soldiers who come back from war are never the same, both mentally and physically due to the harsh living conditions in the trenches and the constant sight of death. I wonder if Leper suffered from “shell shock”, a common mental disorder of war veterans. This also relates to “About a Boy” as Marcus begins to worry for his mother who becomes mentally unstable and attempts suicide, Will begins to fear that his mother will try again and is convinced that he cant leave her alone.

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,

Over the summer session, Gene becomes close friends with Finny, an adventurous and amazingly trusting person. Gene, on the other hand, is a person who is more self-centered and doesn’t believe in Finny’s remarkable lack of hatred that makes him so unique. He believes that Finny is jealous of his academic prowess just like he is jealous of Finny’s superior athletic ability. Soon Gene realizes that his jealousy has blinded him to Finny’s authentic benevolence. Together they go on many adventures, and one day Finny and Gene decide to climb up a tree and jump into the river. Finny is balancing on a branch, ready to jump, when Gene accidently bounces the branch, causing Finny to fall. Finny broke his leg and was told that he would never be able to play sports again. Gene feels guilty about his role in the incident and tries to convince Finny that it was his fault. Finny laughs it off and doesn’t blame Gene for his role in the incident, showing more of his amiable personality. The summer session then ends, and both the boys go back to their homes. Gene visits Finny’s home, and he tells Finny that he bounced the branch on purpose. Finny doesn’t believe him and so Gene goes back to school. Brinker Hadley, a serious and responsible class politician, asks Gene if he wants to join the army with him. Gene agrees, but Finny’s return to the school causes his and Brinker’s idea to come to nothing.

John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace is about a few boys at a boarding school in New Hampshire. The story is centered around the friendship of two boys, Gene and Finny, at a boarding school in New Hampshire. Although in the beginning of their friendship Gene did not trust Finny, by the time he dies Gene feels as if a part of him has died, showing that he still felt closely bonded to him after all they had been through.

In chapter 11 of A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, Gene is back from Leper’s and wants to see Finny. Gene sees that Finny is in a snowball fight and Gene joins in when Finny hits him with a snowball. Later that night Brinker asks about Leper, Gene decided to tell both Finny and Gene that Leper has gone crazy. Finny admits that there really is war going on if Leper is so affected by it that he has gone crazy. At 10:05 pm that night Brinker and some others want to take Finny and Gene somewhere. They are both confused since it is after hours. Brinker takes them to the Assembly Room where he has taken it upon himself to investigate what really happened in that tree the day of Finny’s accident. Finny and Gene do not want to be in this situation

Life isn’t fair. This common phrase rings true for the characters in A Separate Peace, a novel from 1959. The story takes place in the time of World War Two. Gene and Finny are the best of friends, but the entire book revolves around an accident where Gene causes Finny, or Phineas, to fall off a tree and shatter his leg, changing his life forever. Finny denies anything he finds negative or harmful, including the war, his injury, and Gene’s part in the accident, choosing to remain young and ignorant of since he knows he’ll be happier that way. However, Finny does eventually recognizes the facts of his life. John Knowles uses characterization to shed light on the dangers of naivete through the character Finny. Innocence causes Phineas to become ignorant of what’s happening all around him, which makes it dangerous. This becomes a problem because nobody can run away from the truth forever, and whenever all the facts of war and the accident catch up with him they will hit hard.

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.

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.

The ignorance and innocence of the summer session are quickly fragmented when the seriousness of Gene’s actions are unveiled with Finny’s death.

A Separate Peace, which was written by John Knowles, has many themes. They are interconnected throughout the book. The most clearly portrayed theme is fear. It seems to be connected with the themes of friendship, jealousy, and war. As World War II was occurring, fear had taken over Gene's life through these various themes. When he visited Devon fifteen years after leaving the school, Gene claimed, "I had lived in fear while attending the school and I can now feel fear's echo" (Knowles 10). He felt like he had gained a separate peace after escaping from this fear.

In chapters six and seven of the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, The Devon River symbolizes the familiar; relaxing and playing with Gene in the summer, while the Naguamsett represents the unknown and undiscovered. As Gene recollects,

In the novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the reader looks into the lives of the young boys at the Devon School during World War II. Leper Lepellier is a composed and serene boy who loves nature and the outdoors. He inherited his nickname, Leper, because he is lonely and a social outcast, although he does not seem to mind. The boys at Devon are almost eighteen years old and are deciding whether to enlist in the war or wait to be drafted. One student fails to believe it is real, while others such as Leper have a very different idea of what the war is like in reality. Leper has trouble recognizing the severeness of war, so instead he compares it to the things he is comfortable with, such as nature, animals, and skiing. With that in mind, he enlists in the war, not knowing the effect it could have on his life. Through his depiction of Leper, Knowles conveys the idea that young men, who are not able to adapt to the