Theme Of War In A Separate Peace

John Knowles’s, A Separate Peace conveys an understanding of teenage conflicts during World War II. Numerous influential characters that amplify the struggles faced with during wartime are introduced throughout the naturalistic plot. Enclosed in this cluster of personas, each social stereotype is represented. Phineas, commonly referred to as Finny, portrays the cliche best friend: dependable, understanding, exhilarating, and drives others towards change. Gene Forrester, the protagonist, depicts the conventional image of a self-conscious adolescent male: permeating jealousy, uncertainty, and self-hatred. Stereotypical roles continue to gradually function to achieve an author’s purpose, as delineated in Knowles’s novel.

These notions come almost immediately when Finny urges Gene to jump out of the tree. Gene thinks to himself, “Was he getting some kind of control over me?” (p.17). This demonstrates his paranoia as a simple invitation for a ‘fun’ activity is misconstrued as a mind game. Gene thinks that Finny is establishing power over him, but in reality Finny is just being a friend. This mindset changes towards the cessation of the novel as Gene gains his own tranquility. He begins to realize who he was as a person, good or bad, and accepts his characteristics for what they are. This change is evident after Finny tragically dies during surgery, leaving Gene at peace he’s never felt before. When questioning why he feels this way, Gene ponders, “I killed my enemy there” (p.204). He understands that since Finny is gone, he can finally be free from the envy and competitiveness that held him in the relationship. Gene also understands that he was the only one who truly felt this way, as Finny was exactly who he acted like. Finny’s actions were never malicious and Gene begins to comprehend that Finny’s charismatic attitude was genuine, he never put on a show. These two traits contrast greatly, but the author

Gene helping Finny with schoolwork is helpful, but Finny does not show appreciation towards Gene. This shows lack of admiration on Finny’s part. It’s not just Finny showing lack of admiration it’s a combination of both of them not understanding each other. Finny always includes Gene in activities, for example: skiing, hanging out with friends, going to the boardwalk and being part of a club. He never realizes what kind of friend Finny was to be to him. Sadly, they can never get anywhere in there friendship cause they fight about everything. Both characters are separate from each other and can never find common ground. Their intentions start out decent until they actually got to know each other. They both have qualities that each character want’s except they both seem to want what they can’t have. Jealousy is what leads to resentment and lack of

John Knowles employs Gene’s private thoughts of the competition between him and Finny to emphasize Gene’s paranoia. In the beginning of the novel, Gene enjoys the summer with Finny without any thoughts of the rivalry he later begins to think of. Gene obsesses over winning against Finny and thinks that Finny also feels the same way. Gene begins to believe that Finny

Essentially, Gene’s conflict begins as he develops feelings of envy towards Finny’s outgoing personality and appealing charisma, which causes him to hide behind a persona in the one-sided rivalry he has with Finny. When Gene flunks a test for the first time, he finds an excuse to justify his failure, concluding that Finny purposely interrupted his studies by inviting him to the beach. Gene reasons, “Sure, he wanted to share everything with me, especially his procession of D’s in every subject.

Only gradually does he admit to the existence of war, in which Gene is unhesitant to follow in pursuit. This is because Gene regards Finny as a virtuous boy whom he has faith in and wishes to resemble. Fifteen years after the events of the war and the narrator still lives in the atmosphere which his deceased friend created for him. It is without question that Finny was the main contributor in altering the way Gene used to perceive conflicts in his life, and having such a profound influence on Gene, how he perceives them even 15 years later.

Once Gene decides to spend time with Finny rather than doing his schoolwork, the shift from disciplined to more carefree diction determines Gene’s conflict, creating a more resentful tone. This tone directly corresponds with the conflicting diction as Gene says “Finny kept me entertained. He told long, wild stories” (46). By using words such as “entertained… wild… joking... musical”, Knowles is combining a carefree tone with a disciplined one that Gene first experiences. As mentioned earlier, when he states the decision he made “destroyed the studying I was going to do for an important test” (46), it mirrors the emotional state Gene is facing as well as the contrasting diction. Gene agrees to go to the beach yet he cannot come to terms with the repercussions of the adventure they are taking. He says it “blasted the reasonable amount of order I wanted to maintain in my life” (46). Gene himself is conflicted, which creates a resentful tone as he is unsure if the choice he made is the right one because it will affect his studying. Gene struggles with his constant “need to study” (57), until Finny requests Gene’s presence on different adventures. When they arrive at the beach, Gene describes a wave as “immeasurably bigger than I am, rushing at me... and took control of me” (46). The wave he experiences symbolizes Finny’s impact on Gene

Gene contemplates his and Finny’s friendship many times in the book, but despite what Gene may have thought, Finny was a good friend to him. He always took Gene’s feelings into account, and through all that happened he had faith in Gene. But Gene never knew this,

John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, reveals the many dangers and hardships of adolescence. The main characters, Gene, and Finny, spend their summer together at a boarding school called Devon. The two boys, do everything together, until Gene, the main character, develops a resentful hatred toward his friend Finny. Gene becomes extremely jealous and envious of Finny, which fuels this resentment, and eventually turns deadly. Knowles presents a look at the darker side of adolescence, showing jealousy’s disastrous effects. Gene’s envious thoughts and jealous nature, create an internal enemy, that he must fight. A liberal humanistic critique reveals that Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, has a self contained meaning, expresses the

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

John Knowles’ “A Separate Peace” takes place at a boarding school during World War II. Best friends Gene and Finny have been inseparable during their time at the Devon School. This is until reality hits Gene, and he slowly starts to realize that he is inferior to his best friend. Through the unbalanced friendship between two teenagers in “A Separate Peace,” Knowles illustrates that a loss of identity may be present in a relationship if there is an unequal amount of power.

“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

There are many different themes that make up the novel a separate peace, but some that stand out are friendship, loyalty, and jealousy. some examples of those three themes are when finny broke the swimming record and told gene not to tell anyone, it shows loyalty because gene listened to finny and didn't tell anyone about him breaking the record and it also shows friendship, it hints to jealousy though because throughout the story gene thinks that finny is trying to look like he is better than him at sports and it shows that gene is jealous.

Finny is very outgoing and rebellious while Gene is smart and plays by the rules. Gene also wishes that he was more like Finny. “To keep silent about this amazing happening deepened this shock for me. It made Finny seem too unusual for not friendship, but too unusual for rivalry, and there were few relationships among us at Devon not based on rivalry.” (63) Gene has a desire to be like Finny and have a more rebellious attitude instead of his caring attitude but he just cant. Gene is always Jealous of Finny and spends too much time worrying about him. The beliefs of Finny and Gene are very different but that is one way Gene are very different but that is one way Gene doesn't want to be like

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