Biblical Allusions In A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace is a World War II setting book written by the author, John Knowles. A Separate Peace is an example of a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age  novel. One of the main characters, Gene Forrester, is a perfect example of someone who is coming-of-age. As the  novel progresses, Gene  is transformed and impacted by many different experiences during his time at Devon High School.  In the book, A Separate Peace, Gene  becomes mature from his experiences from Finny’s death and Training for the Olympics; He also loses his innocence, and this teaches the reader about growing up and the idea of losing innocence.

John Knowles A Separate Peace is a novel about two friends going through time in World War II. Finny is challenged constantly. He is always busy either working towards an athletic goal or trying to maintain his grades. Finny faces various journeys like jumping of the tree or establishing the SSC (Secret Suicide Club). Finny also acts a little like Christ by “being in agony, being good with others, being very forgiving, and being self-sacrificing” (Foster 119) Finny is most obviously the Christ figure of the book; he forgave those who betrayed him, Died in early life, and Finny is a leader just like Christ.

“But I no longer needed this vivid false identity . . . I felt, a sense of my own real authority and worth, I had many new experiences and I was growing up “(156). Gene’s self-identity battle ends and he finds his real self. Gene’s developing maturity is also shown when he tells the truth about Leper. His growing resentment against having to mislead people helps Gene become a better person. When Brinker asks about Leper, Gene wants to lie and tell him he is fine but his resentment is stronger than him. Instead Gene comes out and tells the truth that Leper has gone crazy. By pushing Finny out of the tree, crippling him for life and watching him die; Gene kills a part of his own character, his essential purity. Throughout the whole novel Gene strives to be Finny, but by the end he forms a character of his own. Gene looks into his own heart and realizes the evil. “. . . it seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart” (201). He grasps that the creation of personal problems creates wars. Gene comes to acknowledge Finny’s uniqueness and his idealism and greatly admires his view of the world. He allows Finny’s influence to change him and eliminates the self-ignorance. At Finny’s funeral Gene feels that he buries a part of himself, his innocence. “I could not escape a feeling

When gene and finny jump out of the tree together it displays both friendship and loyalty because it shows that they both trust each other and are really close because they jumped out of a tree together

Gene and Finny are faced with many situations where either good or evil will take over their decision. When Finny falls of the tree Gene “took a step toward him, and then [his] knees bent and [he] jounced the limb” (Knowles 60). Gene purposefully makes Finny fall even if neither of them realizes or accepts it at first. When Gene makes the decision to cause Finny to fall, he lets evil win. He lets it take him over to benefit himself in the long run. On the other side of it, when Gene tries to tell Finny that he did intentionally hurt him he said “of course you didn’t do it. You damn fool. Sit down, you damn fool” (Knowles 70). Finny does not want to accept the fact that his friend would do such a thing to him. He pushes out the evil that could have let him lash out at his friend and let the good in him refuse to believe it. Lastly, when Gene was fighting with Quackenbush all of a sudden Gene “hit him hard across the face” (Knowles 790). Gene lets the evil take over him and hit Quackenbush in the

Gene feels insignificant when with Phineas, and rages much like a child who wants to be the center of attention. Without thought, and just based on his anger, Gene jounces a limb on the tree that the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session jumps off at every meaning. This makes Phineas tumble to the ground and shatters his leg, while Gene effortlessly jumps off the limb with no fear. Knowles shows here that because Gene destroyed his enemy, he restored the child’s self-image of being the center of the world. But, he claims after the accident that it was not his fault, again like a kid, and blames it on his knees. This fall of the tree mirrors the Fall of Man in the bible. In this analogy, Eden or Phineas are pushed by Sin or Gene in order to crush the innocence of mankind. After this fall, Gene has more experience but habitually retreats back to conformity. Although, Gene does go admit his guilt and apologize to Finny on page 66. “I’m sorry about that feeling I had...” shows a true milestone in the maturity of Gene and his growth as a person. But this soon leads to an angry realization causing Finny an indirect injury. In the friends’ last conversation, Gene and Finny freely discuss the fall and Gene uses this experience as insight into the world, in order to fight his internal enemies of doubt and a lack of

A Separate Peace by John Knowles about a boy named Gene, who returns to his boarding school after graduating to remember the memories from his time there. The book takes place during the early years of World War II, which greatly affects the lives of the main characters. Knowles utilizes many symbols with religious undertones throughout A Separate Peace including Finny’s fall from the tree, Gene’s fall into the Naguamsett, and Finny’s unexpected death.

First, Finny’s innocence was destroyed by jealousy. His best friend, Gene, was jealous of Finny because he thought that Finny was trying to ruin any academic success Gene was capable of achieving. Gene did not like the fact that Finny was better at athletics than he was, and that Finny always got away with everything. Jealousy led Gene to jounce the limb of the tree that had caused Finny to fall.

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 novel A Separate Peace, the novel gives the reader a central question the work raises to think about, and the extent to which it offers answers. Today, jealousy can get the best of us and guilt can sometimes distract you from things. The questions “What causes jealousy between friends?” and “How should we deal with guilt?” is what the work is trying to bring out.

The coming-of-age novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, is based on the author’s high school years at his prestigious school, the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. The novel is set in the fictional Devon School during World War II. It explores the prep school idyll of two adolescent boys, Gene and Phineas. The novel's main character, Gene Forrester, who is also the narrator of the story, was based on the young Knowles himself, while Finny’s character was modeled after another student from Exeter, David Hackett. In A Separate Peace, John Knowles, uses Phineas’ masculinity to determine the relationship between him and Gene, and to learn the limitations of his masculinity.

A Separate Peace, a novel written by John Knowles, represents a microcosm of World War 2 through the schoolboys’ experiences. The fear and violence of the war have the overwhelming effect on the boys, especially on Finny and Gene. The microcosm presents collective issues, such as betrayal and misunderstanding. However, these issues are a part of the social framework of man’s inhumanity towards man, which can damage a relationship between friends forever.

Upon finishing the tragic, yet alluring tale that is A Separate Peace by Jonathan Knowles, I had to sit down and process the ending for about a half hour. To be quite honest, I had a hard time comprehending some of the small details. Thorough research led me to an understanding of how the title relates to the novel itself. Throughout the novel, Knowles conveys a sense of tragedy and naturalism within the portrayal of Gene’s flashback. Event after event, the coming of age storyline produces more evidence of the protagonist achieving his ultimate goal: a separate peace.

The book A Separate Peace by John Knowles tackles a variety of complex ideas and realities of this harsh world. The main story line built around Gene a young boy in a boarding school during the time of World War II thats where the harsh realties come in. OnA Separate Peace the main theme in this book is the growth of Gene and the identity he builds for and around himself with his peers and the authority figures he interacts with. Through out the novel you can see Gene’s envy and jealously for his “best friend” Phinias and how the envy manifests itself into creating his identity in solely being Phinias’s best friend because Gene himself can not be Phinias.

In A Separate Peace, the author John Knowles tells a story of a group of teenagers attending Devon school. He emphasizes the importance of the group finding themselves before they are drafted into the Second World War. The events in this novel serve to illustrate the complexity of self-identity during a time of uncertainty. Some believe that people during a time of war are more certain of themselves individually.