Summary Of The Novel 'A Separate Peace' By John Knowles

In life, humans go through a point in their life where they struggle or have to fight for something; Whether it be fighting for money, food, shelter,a special someone or life. In John Knowles's novel, A Separate Peace, he quotes for Gene, “...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.” As you continue to read on, although it was caused by Finny...unintentionally. You’ll realize that Gene’s enemy was his insecurities, his feelings, …. maybe even himself.

This change is shown in “A Separate Peace” when the residing feelings of happiness fade to confusion and tragedy. As the summer session comes to an end, Finny falls from a tree and shatters his leg. Gene witnesses this and affirms “Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank…” (Knowles 52). This abnormal mistake in Finny’s behavior was caused by Gene’s recently developed feelings of resentment towards his friend. Gene thinks “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies” (Knowles 45). Gene purposely jounced the limb Finny was standing on due to his rash feelings of animosity. These feelings are conveniently aligned with the season shift by the author to add character development and change, as well as symbolism and depth in his writing. Gene’s shift from a trusting, willing friend to a skeptical, apprehensive enemy shows how the season of fall changes the characters in this novel. In final analysis, autumn brings about a negative change in the boy's psyche and forces them to face unpleasant realities and come to terms with their friendship.

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

Friendships cannot last, because of humanity’s nature of being jealous, dishonest, and the fear of being viewed as subpar. In the naturalism novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the main character Gene started out as Finny’s best friend. He admired Finny greatly, and was happy to have such an amazing and special friend. Shortly thereafter, Gene started to display these unfortunate characteristics that ultimately cause him to lose his best friend. Jealousy is one of the factors that demolish relationships.

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.

In A Separate Peace, John Knowles expresses that friendships and friends influence a person growing up either in a positive way or negative way, Knowles shows that through Gene’s relationship with Finny and others, dialogue between Gene and Finny, and Gene’s actions towards others. Finny and Gene’s relationship with each other has a good or bad effect on both of their journeys of growing up. When Finny and Gene are talking through the phone about if Gene should manage the crew team or not and Gene tries to say no to it and Finny starts to say “Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,” and I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas” (Knowles 85). When Finny says that to Gene, Gene starts to realize that in their relationship with each other they are both dependent on each other in many different ways. The codependency that lures inside both of them fulfills them both by allowing Gene to throw away his old identity and allowing Finny to to have some athletic glory.

It is often we read of the war stories, emotions, and struggles of soldiers serving their country in World War II. In contrast, John Knowles’ A Separate Peace offers the perspective of 16 year old Gene Forrester, a student at a preparatory private school during the years of World War II. Unique in the way of a pure display of emotion, A Separate Peace begins with Gene traveling back to his high school to admire its new appearance, then dawning on the events that occurred there just 15 years earlier. In his return to his high school campus, we learn of Gene’s gloomy, pessimistic personality. “Today with their failing ivy and stripped, moaning trees the

In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene Forrester, the main character, struggles with copious moral dilemmas while living at a boarding school, named Devon. The author portrays Gene as an introverted intellectual, who is shielded from the reality of World War II. As a result of this “separate peace”, he mainly struggles with his self-integrity and, consequently, feels much envy and jealousy towards his classmates at Devon. By examining Gene’s antagonistic behavior towards his peers, it is evident that personal insecurities can interfere with the integrity of every relationship.

The novel Separate Peace written by John Knowles shows a friendship between two boys who attend Devon School, in New Hampshire, named Finny and Gene. Finny and Gene meet through attending Devon School, and are roommates there. They have quite a complicated friendship. Gene is a boy who didn’t break rules, not into sports very much, always aced his tests, and all around an extremely smart guy. Finny on the other hand was rebellious, daredevil, very athletic, plays by his own rules kind-of-guy.

The title of this story is A Separate Peace and the author is John Knowles. The story takes place in 1942 in New Hampshire at a boarding school. At Devon school their students are getting prepared to go to war. This story is very good but it is kinda sad. The author is trying to show us a sad, jealousy story.

Friendships are one of the most important relationships a person makes in their lifetime. But what if the friend you trusted the most betrays you? What if that betrayal cripples you for life? Do you forgive them? Do you hold a grudge? What if you buried the truth deep inside because you knew if you faced it life could never continue as it was before? Maybe you create a fantasy: that your best friend had absolutely nothing to do with your terminal injury.Most importantly, you can’t stop wondering what compelled him to make a decision that would change your life forever. However, your friend can’t deny the truth. In A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses the two main characters’ inner wars to illustrate how our mental state affects how we interact

In the novel, “A Separate Peace”, written by John Knowles, The school of Devon is portrayed as a secluded and sheltered area where they are aware of the events occurring outside of the school such as World War II, yet it has no direct effect on them. Seasons also seem to have a huge impact, the seasons mirror the events and tone of the novel.

War is defined as a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state. In A Separate Peace, the author John Knowles uses a variety of examples of war and peace. The book is a flashback of a kid that went to the Devon school during World War 1. The students were safe in the school until they are 18 then they would have the chance to enlist or get drafted. In the novel John Knowles illustrates that war and peace can keep people safe or cause tragedy in people's lives. Some literary devices that John shows in the novel are Conflict, Point of view, and imagery.

In A Separate Peace, many wars are being fought. Although the students at Devon are shielded from most of the negative effects of WWII, their isolated world is eventually affected by the war. For example. Leper leaves to fight in the war, maids were no longer available, and the boys had to do manual labor to free the train tracks in town. Another war being fought is the internal war Gene experiences regarding Finny. Gene is jealous of Finny because of his many friends, natural athletic talent, and his ability to talk himself out of any situation. Gene is so jealous of Finny that he begins to think that Finny is trying to sabotage him. For example, when Finny drags Gene to the beach, Gene thinks that Finny is trying to sabotage his chances

Gene: The narrator & main character of the book. As an adolescent Gene was very successful with his studies. He always made A’s. Although he wasn’t extremely athletic, this among other things caused him envy of Finny. Gene is around 5’8 and brunette.