Fear In John Knowles A Separate Peace

The book, "A Separate Peace," by John Knowles can be interpreted more than one way. You can take it literally, or look into the symbolic meaning of the landmarks of the Devon school, including the two "fearful sites" Gene visited in the beginning. As stated in the book by Gene, everything in the time period revolved around the war. This includes the great symbolism used, so mainly the tree, the Devon River, and the Naguamsett River. The Devon and Naguamsett Rivers both run through the campus of Devon. They are exact opposites (pg. 40).

Carl Jung, the very first pioneer who discovered human collective unconsciousness, including archetypes, once said, “An archetype is something like an old watercourse along which the water of life flowed for a time, digging a deep channel for itself. The longer it flowed the deeper the channel, and the more likely it is that sooner or later the water will return.” An archetype is the universal patterns and behaviors that represent a typical human experience that is passed down from generations to generations, creating its originality. In “A Separate Peace”, John Knowles uses many archetypes to enrich the personality of his characters, especially Gene and Finny based on common human experiences. By embodying the archetypes of the Fall from Innocence, the Unhealable, and the Crossroads in “A Separate Peace,” John Knowles was successful in establishing the theme for the novel which implies that the guilt which is begotten from one’s deceitful actions would remain as an irrecoverable wound overtime.

The methods Finny use in order to cope with his fear distorts the way Gene perceives the conflicts surrounding him. A prime example of this is during a time where Finny is in denial of the war as well as Gene being guilty of hurting him. Gene recounts the impact Finny had on him and notices that:

A Separate Peace by John Knowles is generally surrounded around war. War can build some people up and then bury others six feet under the ground. One theme of this book is that war can take a toll on people in every type of way possible.

In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, a recurring theme is emotions. Set during World War Two, in a boarding school in America, teenage boys face the threat of going to war. Emotions are always high and often distorted by fear and uncertainty.

The novel, A Separate Peace, can be portrayed in various ways. It was written by John Knowles and originally published in 1959. It’s genre can be defined as realistic fiction and/or naturalism. Although, it is most commonly viewed as a coming-of-age story, it can also be perceived as a novel about the emotional effects of jealousy and loathing or simply about good and evil. None of these perceptions are wrong, actually, they are all correct, it’s completely in the judgment of the reader.

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, .

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.

“It is better to have an enemy who honestly says they hate you, than a friend who is petting you down secretly”-Unknown. While this is true, is a person who puts you down secretly even considered a friend? Not according to Webster’s New World Dictionary and Thesaurus’s definition of friend, “a supporter or an ally” and Dictionary.com’s definition of friendship, “a state of mutual trust and support between allies”. In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, Gene, the narrator puts his “friend” Finny down so is their relationship really classified as friendship? No, Gene and Finny are not friends because Gene purposely made Finny fall out of the tree, their relationship is considered rivalry, and Gene doesn’t support Finny.

In high schools all around the world there are students that might have a lot of friends or just a few, and it is the same with friendships too. Those friends and friendships could turn out to be negative or positive, depending on their impact on a student growing up. Like how a student could get peer pressured by his friends into doing drugs or underage drinking and then grow up being an alcoholic or a drug addict. A good situation could start out with a student that is challenged by his friends to do better in school and grows up to be a successful pro sports player or a successful business man who is very wealthy. Friends do have a great impact on who you turn out to be.

In A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses the universality of jealousy and envy to develop a theme based upon man’s inhumanity to man.

In the novel, A Separate Peace, John Knowles wrote about two boys that had anunforgettable friendship. The boys names were Gene and Finny, they both went to Devon schooland met in the same room. Gene, was hardworking, insecure, and proud; however, Finny isathletic, charming, and earnest. Yet, the two boys became friends the second they met. The boysshowed they had a friendship because of how they acted towards each other, Finny would alwayspush Gene, Gene hurt Finny, and they would always argue.First, Finny would always push Gene to do things he would not do. Gene liked schoolwhere as Finny liked sports. So, Finny wanted Gene to get into sports and he pushed him to getinto it. He shows he does this when Gene first moved to Devon, Finny gets Gene to playBlitzball.

In the novel A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, the Devon School students have to face fear everyday at Devon School. Everyday the boys are faced with fear from either having the possibility to get drafted to serve in World War 2 to not fitting in with their peers.

Fueled by jealousy, he tries to make himself and Phineas “equals”. In the beginning, Gene describes Finny with nothing but adoration. However, he does use foreshadowing to show Gene’s underlying jealousy for his best friend from early on. Phineas tells Gene that he is his best friend, to which, Gene is unable to respond, “stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, that contains the truth.” The point-of-view and foreshadowing that Knowles uses help to develop this theme that is prominent to

Throughout the plot of the story the positions of characters change along with their personalities and states of mind. One of these examples is Phineas after his fall from the tree in that he changed his point of view towards himself and life in general. At the time it seemed that the fall was the worst event to ever happen to him, but in the wide scheme of life it was the best event that could have happened to him. An event changes the course of life and causes a person’s mind to change regarding perceptions of life. In John Knowles, A Separate Peace, Phineas begins with a self- focused attitude towards life, following his fall from the tree the event causes him to change his perception towards life and