Summary Of John Knowles 'A Separate 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.

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.

Gene’s envy and intimidation of Finny caused great internal turmoil with himself throughout the story. He went through and identity crisis because he was unsure of who he was and who he wanted to be. In the story, Gene said, “I went along, as I always did, with any new invention of Finny’s” (Knowles 117). He always went along with everything Finny proposed or did; this gave him little to no time to discover who he really was. This lack of personal discovery lead him to doubt who he was. This internal conflict within Gene also affected his personal actions. Before Finny’s fall, Gene said, “I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb” (Knowles

A classic for generations, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, is an acceptable novella for teenage students to read in their times of angst. Containing large amounts of symbolism and hidden themes, A Separate Peace is the perfect novel for one to discuss the underlying ideas that are included within.

A Separate Peace by John knowles is a novel based upon true events and settings which had occurred in the halls of the school of Devon, in 1942. The characters are enclosed in an all boys private boarding school during the events of World War II, in which Knowles portrays the struggle of friendship and the effects of war. Knowles is able to do so through his main characters- which results in the destruction of the protagonists innocence. Gene Forrester and the essay for Time magazine agree of the idea that Genes innocence was killed. However, their views on who the enemy is differ; Gene refers to the enemy as Finny, who is the cause of destruction for his innocence; while Time magazine refers to the enemy as innocence itself, considering Finny’s

First, Finny continuously insists that “there isn’t any war” and even asks Gene, “Do you really think the United States of America is in a state of war?”; he furthers his argument by claiming that believers in the war such as Gene “are still under the influence of some medicinal drug” (Knowles 115). Finny displays innocence by denying the existence of one of the most devastating wars in world history. At the beach together, Finny expresses his happiness around Gene by telling Gene, “at this teen-age period in life the proper person is your best pal…which is what you are,” even though “something [holds Gene}back” from saying the same about Finny (Knowles 48). Finny’s optimism forces him to acknowledge his friendship with Gene even when he cannot decide if Gene feels the same way. Finally, as soon as Finny even considers the idea of Gene pushing him off of the tree, he insists that “it was a crazy idea, [he] must have been delirious” and then he immediately apologizes to Finny, “I’m sorry about that feeling I had” (Knowles 66). The mere thought of Gene hurting Finny goes against Finny’s optimistic ideals, thus explaining his rejection of this thought and his immediate apology. Of course, Finny inevitably confronts these ideas that he first considers fallacies, and the result of

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.

Right after Finny incident, Gene tries out Finny’s clothes. This symbolizes his desire to be like Finny and becoming part of Finny’s identity. Once he put the clothes on there is a sign of relief for him further expressing his feelings. “I spent as much time as I could alone in our room, trying to empty my mind of every thought, to forget where I was, even who I was… But when I looked in the mirror it was no remote aristocrat I had become, no character out of daydreams. I was Phineas, Phineas to the life”(Knowles 62). Since Gene will not accept his own character he plans to take someone else’s which is Finny. He believes that Finny is superior to him so if he becomes Finny he will also be superior. Another conflict in their friendship is when Gene begins to believe that Finny is actually out to disrupt his studies because Finny wants to see him fail. Gene believes that Finny is not his friend but his enemy out to destroy him. Lost in conflict, he expresses his anger through the incident at the tree. Finny proposes the idea of jumping off the limb together with Gene. While Finny is in front, Gene intentionally jounces the limb so that Finny would lose his balance and fall. “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step forward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest”(Knowles 59-60). After

A Separate Peace takes place in the middle of World War II, at a boarding school in New England for boys. The author John Knowles uses this setting and its characters as a form of comparison to the war going on half a world away, both physically and metaphorically. At the school, John Knowles stages this metaphorical war inside the mind of the protagonist, Gene Forrester, who engages in a different war throughout the course of the novel. When the novel concludes Gene says “My war ended before I even put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there”(196) as he reflects on his time at Devon. At first glance Gene could appear to be referencing the event in which he caused the death of his best friend, Finny.

After 15 years, Gene Forrester is revisiting Devon Prep School. The marble floors seem harder than before, and the tree where his best friend’s life changed forever seemed smaller than he remembered. However the school seems almost preserved by war. Flashback to his junior year of highschool. The year is 1942 and it’s summer in New Hampshire. The leaves are about to start changing colors, and the summer session is coming to an end. A Separate Peace by John Knowles follows Gene and his classmates through their final two years of highschool. The boys face issues that every teen faces no matter what year it is, but war only adds to their woes. A Separate Peace is about more than the second World War and its effects on

Furthermore, Gene feels as if Finny wants to contest his every move. In many of the following chapters, the reader can see Gene’s inner feelings toward Finny. As the book progresses, we see the alternatives Gene takes towards improving his friendship with Finny as opposed to trying to be better than Finny. Finny does not wish to injure Gene in any way and Finny is constantly there for Gene through the entirety he endures. However, Gene

In the beginning of the novel, when Gene comes back to Devon he revisits his museum which contains the most important moments from his past. In the museum of Gene there might be “exhibits” for events such as blitzball, the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session, Phineas falling out of the tree, Gene visiting Phineas’s house in Boston, Phineas’s return to Devon, the investigation of Phineas’s accident, Phineas falling down the stairs, Phineas dying, Leper going crazy, Gene training for the Olympics, Gene leaving after graduation, and Gene not crying at Phineas’s memorial service. It is important for him to revisit these memories because he needs to forgive himself for his past deeds and remember the good times he had at Devon. He needs

In the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles. The main characters views and beliefs change get impacted heavily forever. As a matter of fact the characters are so dynamic that some of the characters almost become different human beings. This change of character is s heavily influenced by the Second World War.

What kind of person is Finny really? A Separate Peace by John Knowles is the story about a boarding school where two boys try to maintain a friendship, but jealousy gets in the way. Finnys act of acceptance throughout the story lets him live without him having to go the war.

Throughout life, there is always a person who one strives to beat, be better than or rise above. Little does each of them know that in the end the two actually make each other stronger. In John Knowles' novel, A Separate Peace (1959), he addresses just this. The novel, told from Gene Forrester's point of view, is based on a friendship and rivalry between him and his friend, Finny, during World War II. The two sixteen year olds attend Devon School, a private all boys' school, in New Hampshire. Finny, a very athletically talented youngster, continually but unintentionally causes Gene to feel inferior and insignificant, producing inevitable anger and jealousy inside Gene. During their