To Kill A Mockingbird And A Separate Peace By John Knowles

The ego and superego walk into a bar but leave because the bartender needs to see some id. This joke alludes to one of Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud’s signature theories about the composition of the human psyche. The theory states that the human psyche is composed of three parts: the id, ego, and superego. The id represents one’s natural instincts while the superego represents one’s morality and empathy. The ego attempts to balance the id and superego, trying to compromise the two opposites’ demands. Freudian theories are also prominent in literature, especially when analyzing characters’ personal dynamics and relationships. The novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles provides many opportunities to use Freudian

Trees around a lake is not an uncommon sight. However, in A Separate Peace, there is a particular tree that encompasses more meaning than just vegetation around a body of water. Aptly named the Suicide Tree, Devon schoolboys proved their manliness by jumping into the lake. During the Summer Session, it evolves into something more than a proving ground. The symbol of the Suicide Tree in A Separate Peace by John Knowles means the end of childhood, as evident by textual evidence, and alluded to through literary clues.

In Harper Lee`s astounding novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is the glue that holds the County of Maycomb together. Atticus Finch is a lawyer, widower, father and the pure definition of a fair, patient, and courageous human being, who is willing to step out into the dark, unfair world of racism, discrimination, and prejudice, to lend a hand to any victim in need. No matter what race, gender, culture, or religion you have been blessed with, you can count on the Atticus Finch of Maycomb County to be there. Atticus was revealed by his own words, what the people in this story say about him, and his actions. He is shown as the spark of justice, the sign of patience, and the ray of courage in this blind world that is flooded by the

The war was not only happening in the real world, but also in the Devon School of Prep. The book A Separate Peace by John Knowles is mostly about a boy, Gene, who is receiving his education and learning about how to become a soldier to fight in the second World War. He and his best pal, Finny, are both being forced to mature and grow up before being drafted to fight, but before that even happens Gene’s jealousy gets the best of him which will threaten his friendship. Throughout the novel John Knowles uses a great deal of literary elements to help add imagery, thrill, and amusement to the story. Some of the elements include paradoxes, caricature, and theme.

The boys at the Devon school, in the novel A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, are World War II influenced by making them mature and grow up more quickly than they would have had there not been a war. The war makes some boys stronger and more ready for whatever life would bring, while in others it disables them to the point that they cannot handle the demands of life. This novel shows a “coming-of age” story, especially with three boys. Gene starts out as a naïve and sensitive person but matures into a person more knowledgeable and capable of handling the challenges of life through his crisis experiences with of course, Phineas, Leper and, Brinker.

In his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles demonstrates that, to achieve adulthood, one must lose innocence and acknowledge this loss.

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.

Crafted by author John Knowles in the late 1950’s, A Separate Peace is a heart-wrenching Bildungsroman narrated by a pensive Gene Forrester as he reflects upon trials and tribulations at his alma-mater, the Devon Boarding School. In an attempt to process the tragic loss of his best friend and coping with his own responsibility in his friend’s death, Gene returns to the campus to confront his progressive loss of Finny in both his plummet from the tree by the river to his tumble down the marble staircase. At a glance, Finny and Gene’s relationship appears to be a story of tragedy as Gene must forever carry the loss of his very best friend, but as the novel progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Gene and Finny’s relationship before Finny’s accident was far from being black-and-white. Diving deeper into the text, Gene reveals his true feelings about Finny that fluctuate from Finny being an object of obsession to being a source of resentment. As the story is told from Gene’s point of view, the reader is submerged into the realm of Gene’s odd fascinations with Finny and the manifestations of his feelings of hatred and idolization as he acts out in odd ways, such as mimicking Finny’s facial expressions and clothing and developing conspiracy theories in which Finny is planning Gene’s academic downfall. Gradually, the picture painted of the teenage Gene Forrester of A Separate Peace becomes more and more distorted as Gene’s sanity is called into question. His

A Separate Peace, chapter three starts of with Gene talking about how Finny saved his life when he fell out of the tree. On the other hand, the only reason Gene was in that tree to begin with was because of Finny, “I didn’t need to feel any tremendous rush of gratitude towards Phineas”(Knowles 33). If it were not for Finny there is no way Gene would be anywhere near that tree. Also, if Gene was not so worried about pleasing Finny all of the time, he would not have jumped from the tree in the first place. After all of this happens and as the club now starts to grow, Finny decides he needs to start recruiting other members for the Suicide Society.

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.

Literary criticism is defined as an informed, written analysis and evaluation of a work of literature. An example of a literary criticism is intertextual criticism, which is a comparison of two literary works in terms of symbols, themes, characters, and other criteria. In the fictitious novels To Kill a Mockingbird and A Separate Peace, Harper Lee and John Knowles use intertextual criticism to allow the reader to associate the novel with other works and establish connections. Throughout the stories A Separate Peace and To Kill A Mockingbird, the stories contain several similarities in terms of loss of innocence, using a tree as a symbol of friendship, and using the scapegoat archetype.

Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher and public intellectual once said that, “everybody tends to merge his identity with other people… It’s called being mass man”. Mass man is what one would describe as a person lacking any individuality or uniqueness. This relates to John Knowles’s novel, A Separate Peace through the idea of Gene’s struggle with identity throughout the stories that he tells due to his own lack of individuality. In the novel, Gene Forrester is a student at the Devon School, a boarding school in New Hampshire. At Devon, Gene struggles with the concept of who he is, and who he wants to be. This struggle is greatly influenced by Gene’s best friend, Phineas, “Finny”. Gene looks up to Finny as both a friend and a role

The boys in A Separate Peace had created “The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session”. This was a society in which every member was initiated by jumping off of the branch. The boys in Dead Poets Society had been a part of the “Dead Poets Society”. In the “Dead Poets Society”, the boys all got together and read aloud poems and pieces of literature that they feel are important. These societies are very important to the stories, mostly because this is what led to their deaths. When the boys in A Separate Peace jump off of the limb, this is the start to how Finny breaks his leg, and eventually leads to his death. The faculty and families in Dead Poets Society believe that the society was to blame for Neil’s

Symbols contain a variety of meanings, whether the object is inanimate or alive. The two fictional pieces, Dead Poets Society and A Separate Peace, both contain symbols with similar meanings. They include the tree in A Separate Peace and the cave in Dead Poets Society, the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session (SSSSS) and Dead Poets Society (DPS), as well as two characters, Finny and Neil, who both symbolize liveliness and youth. Although these two works take place in different time frames and contain different plots, they are nevertheless, related to one another. The three symbols listed above are intertwined in a way that connect the two pieces despite their differences.

When a life is lost, it does not mean the end. Death normally is associated with the termination of a person as well as their spirit. To contrary belief, A Separate Peace and To Kill a Mockingbird show how death impacts those close to someone passed and can affect their life permanently. Although both A Separate Peace and To Kill A Mockingbird both feature the element of death, the main character of A Separate Peace, Gene received a sense of peace from death. Whereas, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem learned a valuable lesson after the passing of his neighbor.