What Are The Similarities Between A Separate Peace And Dead Poets Society

Gene pushes Finny out of the tree due to jealousy. This shows just how much jealousy Gene has. He is willing to hurt someone because of one tiny thing after another. All Finny has done so far is be himself. Gene overreacts and seriously injures his “best

Finny's death causes the greatest maturity growth in Gene's character. After Finny dies, he realized how his own hatred caused the death of his best friend. "He came to understand Finny's innocence and purity which causes Gene to see flaws within himself and forces him to grow up" (Alton 1). Being able to admit your own flaws is critical in maturing. When Gene finally sees his impact of immature behavior, he realizes how much he needs to mature. Even though Finny is physically gone, his spirit remains with Gene and essentially makes him the adult that he grows up to be. Finny's death is a crucial part of Gene's coming of age. When Finny dies, Gene's immature behaviors also die. Because Gene's hatred was gone, he entered war as a man.

A Separate Peace is a short novel about a group of high school boys that live during world war two but this story has deeper more complex meaning then that can be seen from the surface. In disguise of a “coming of age” story this novel contains very familiar biblical connections. These connections include the trial of Jesus, the fall of man from perfection, and the story of Cain and Abel. Knowles novel A Separate Peace contains biblical allegories, that become evident under a close examination.

In the beginning of the novel, Gene, is a clueless individual. He sees the worst in people and lets his evil side take over not only his mind but also his body. During the tree scene, Gene convinces himself that Finny isn’t his friend, tricking himself into thinking that Finny is a conniving foil that wants to sabotage his academic merit. Gene is furthermore deluded that every time Finny invites Gene somewhere it’s to keep him from studying and

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that intimidation is suicide…” (Emerson 370). A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, takes place at Devon, a preparatory school in New Hampshire, during the 1940’s. Gene Forrester is a student at Devon and drives much of the story’s plot through his intimidation of his best friend Finny. A Separate Peace not only shows how Gene’s envy and intimidation of Finny affected him and his friendship with Finny, but it also shows Gene’s failure in achieving true peace.

Joseph Campbell’s treatise on the 12 stages of the making of a hero, introduced in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, formulates his classic archetype of the monomyth in describing the journey and transformation that a character must endure to emerge in triumphant fulfillment of an odyssey or quest. These journeys are deftly manifested in two works of different mediums, John Knowles’ A Separate Peace and Dead Poets’ Society, a film by Peter Weir (hereafter referred to as ASP and DPS, respectively). Both these works, though offered in different formats, closely follow Campbell’s template for the hero’s transformation. Using the universal themes of coming of age, the fall from innocence and ultimately a measure of redemption, these two tales

A Separate Peace by John Knowles is generally surrounded around war. War can build some people up and then bury others six feet under the ground. One theme of this book is that war can take a toll on people in every type of way possible.

“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

Gene was attempting to be top of his class academically, but he was continuously being distracted by Finny. Oneday Gene decided to ask Finny if he would be upset if Gene was top of their class. Finny responded by saying, “‘I’d kill myself out of jealous envy’” (Knowles 52). Although Phineas said that in a joking manner, it is clearly that he really would be jealous if Gene was top of their class. Finny loved to be first, and he didn’t like when people threatened his position. After pondering on Finny’s comment, Gene realized, that he may have, “deliberately set out to wreck [his] studies” (Knowles 53). Finny clearly had extreme envy of Gene for better academically. It is unhealthy for friends to be jealous of each other, especially when taken to that extreme. Finny was being unsupportive and selfish, just so that he could be better than Gene.

Gene affects himself though envy and imitation. Gene begins to lose his identity and start conforming to Finny. The author states that “Naturally Finny was going to be the first to try, and just as naturally he was going to inveigle others, us, into trying it with him” (Knowles 4). This quote explains how Finny has a way of getting Gene

A Separate Peace, which was written by John Knowles, has many themes. They are interconnected throughout the book. The most clearly portrayed theme is fear. It seems to be connected with the themes of friendship, jealousy, and war. As World War II was occurring, fear had taken over Gene's life through these various themes. When he visited Devon fifteen years after leaving the school, Gene claimed, "I had lived in fear while attending the school and I can now feel fear's echo" (Knowles 10). He felt like he had gained a separate peace after escaping from this fear.

Second, the injury puts Finny in the hospital, separating the two, which cause Gene to suffer depression. As Finny is badly wounded, he has to leave his boarding school, Devon, for a long period of time. He spends his time in the hospital, away from Gene. FurthermoreThis makes Gene regret his decision even more. Not only are Gene and Finny physically separated, but also emotionally separated. Essentially, Gene loses his

His whole life neil has followed his father's wills even if he disagrees with them. For example his father did not want him on the debate team so Neil quit even though he did not want too. Disappointing his father is a constant fear to Neil, an option he wishes to avoid at all cost. His father reminds him that he has given his life to focus on Neils future, they are not a wealthy family however all their money goes to Neils education. Neil feels compelled to listen to his father who has made sacrifices on account of Neil's well being ,however, it may contradict his true feelings. Neil’s dreams and ambitions are forbidden to him from his father because he believes it is not in Neils best interest.

In dead poets society the school setting is displayed as a strict and unfriendly place where student’s individuality is oppressed. The school immediately gives the impression of being highly traditionalistic from the first scene. It opens with the start of a new school year and new boys are being initiated into the school through a ceremony involving the lighting of a candle. The candle’s flame represents traditionalistic conformist views being passed down to the new students from a previous student, showing that new knowledge is not considered of value by the school. After this ceremony Mr Nolan is scene making a speech about why tradition is important to the school. We see in this scene that the conformity has a strong, suffocating grasp on this

The Perrys apparently are not a particularly rich family, and the parents sacrificed a lot to have their son go to a prestigious prep school, of which Neil is almost constantly reminded when meeting with his father. Anything that stands in the way of Neil becoming a doctor is unacceptable to his father. Even seeing his son perform wonderfully in a Shakespearean play does not change his mind, as he prepares to withdraw Neil from Hilton and send him to a military academy to ensure his medical career. Neil, who never finds in himself the ability to confront his father to defend his own interests and beliefs, commits suicide.