Theme Of Fear In A Separate Peace

Identity is “the distinguishing character or personality of an individual” according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. In A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, this idea is a major theme that plays a role in how the characters make decisions throughout the book. Gene, Finny, Leper and Brinker deal with their personal issues of acceptance, perceptions of success, fears and jealousy through their Devon School experience. The issues are coupled with the external pressures of society, war, school and family. These 4 teenagers took an adventure learning their duty and part in the world they live in.

One of the many emotions attached to All the Light We Cannot See is fear. From the very beginning of the novel readers were able to identify this in events such as, Marie’s early years of being blind. As the story continued, fear was a huge factor in the war, and even after the conflicts, fear still took over the remaining characters. Especially in Werner’s younger sister, Jutta, who lived to carry a son and marry a man. Fear was particularly present when Jutta is in a train with her son and a man joins them. Her reaction was “he sits beside her and lights a cigarette. Jutta clutches her bag between her knees; she is certain that he was wounded in the war, that he will try to start a conversation, that het deficient French will betray her.

Fear is one of the most crippling emotions individuals experience as they go through life. However, when most people are experiencing fear unless the basis of the fear is something tangible they often refer to it as everything but fear. The mental state fear induces is actually rather hard to comprehend, thus making it even more difficult to personally identify. When one is suffering from mental fear overtime it can begin to affect them not only just mentally, but physically, spiritually and emotionally. The very interesting part of it all is that the impact is initially very subtle and gradually becomes more overt similar to how Gene’s internal fears which began very undetectable became increasingly more obvious as time elapsed. The Bible clearly tells us in 2

"Your surroundings may change but your essence and your personality pretty much stay the same" (Dewan). The setting of the novel A Separate Peace is at an all boys school located in New Hampshire. The characters and plot are finely woven into the fabric of this institution. However, would events in this novel turn out differently if the story was set in a public high school, with a diverse environment? The characters and plot of A Separate Peace are not solely driven by their surroundings because the boys would still break the rules, Gene would have internal conflicts, and the war would affect the students.

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 story called A Separate Peace by John Knowles, a boy called Gene caused the accident of his best friend because of jealousy. Later in the story, Gene starts to feel guilt because he made the life of his friend complicated. Is friend called Phineas, isn’t able to enjoy things that he likes because his best friend caused the fracture of his leg, but he doesn’t know that he isn’t able to enjoy the things that he likes because of Gene. Later in the story, Gene tells Finny that what happened to him is his Gene’s fault. Finny doesn’t blame his friend, and forgives him, but later in the story, he fell down the stairs were him and all of his friends were being interrogated by Brinker to find out if Gene was guilty of what happened to Finny.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”-Franklin D. Roosevelt. Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. Fear can either be a good thing or a bad thing. In A Separate Peace, one of the major bonding elements in the relationship between Finny and the narrator is fear. They both fear things which help develop their relationship as friends. Fear is a major bonding element in the relationship between Gene and Finny because of the teamwork between them, the forgiveness, and the fear of failure which they both share.

In John Knowles A Separate Peace, the theme Coming of Age is about the characters growing up in different ways through hardships and learning. First of all Gene begins to notice more as he grows up. When Gene returns to devon school and walks the grounds again, he recalls “I had succeeded in a very important undertaking. I must had made my escape from it” (Knowles, 2.) When Gene was younger, he never really thought about the little crucial details. For example he didn't think about how high the tree was, or how slippery the marble stars were. That was just how he grew up. He didn't need to worry about every little thing because there was no need to. As he started to mature, made mistakes and built who he was, he began to notice more about himself

Fear acknowledges a persons weaknesses and weaknesses can control people. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene has difficulties dealing with his weaknesses. Weaknesses can make people quiet, act in a certain way, and feel specific things. Gene has to deal with weaknesses such as feeling inferior to his best friend, being afraid of being himself, and envying his best friend and these weaknesses help him learn more about himself and more about his life. The first weakness Gene demonstrates is he feeling inferior to Finny, his best friend and he learned a life value lesson about self - esteem.

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.

History is said to repeat itself after great amounts of time, but could two major world events that happened just a mere three years from each other be so similar? A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, chronicles the story of two teenage boys, Finny and Gene, at a private school in New England during World War II. Their entire school life is centered around preparing for the war, but rebellious Finny has other ideas for himself and Gene. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck involves two migrant workers during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression who are facing the struggles of dealing with Lennie’s disability. These two books may not seem similar in plot, but thematically they share several aspects. In both novels, it can be seen that tragic events cause certain characters to seek a safe place and satisfaction.

A Separate Peace A Separate Peace by the Author John Knowles discusses a character named Gene Forrester, who returns to his old High School. The novel is written in retrospect as Gene relives his past, remembering how close he and his best friend, Finny, were before Gene killed him. At the end of the novel, 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.” An essay in Time Magazine about A Separate Peace states, “...one of the things the novelist seems to be saying is that the enemy Gene killed and loved, is the one every man must kill: his own youth, the innocence that burns too hotly to be endured,” however that can only be inferred by a brief reading of the novel.

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

Outside of the school, the war begins to pick up. Finny attempts to persuade the boys attending the Devon school that the war is a conspiracy created by the government to keep young people in place. He claims, “So then they tried Prohibition and everybody just got drunker, so then they really got desperate and arranged the Depression. That kept the people who were young in the thirties in their places. But they couldn't use that trick forever, so for us in the forties they’ve cooked up this war fake” (Knowles 115).

Could the landscape of fear really affect anything? Well this article it states a lot of facts that it indeed does. I never really understood what it might by "landscape of fear," until I read this article twice. All the evidence in this article proves that it is hard to disagree that it doesn't affect anything.