John Knowles a Separate Peace Essay

Sort By:
Page 17 of 50 - About 500 essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Strengths and weaknesses In a Separate Peace by John Knowles Gene is always on constant battle between himself. Gene is filled with jealousy while Finny is an irreproachable boy at Devon. Throughout the book, you can see Finny is a stronger character than Gene because he is always in a constant battle between himself. Throughout the novel, you can see that Gene in a constant jealousy between Finny. Gene, he has the strengths of academics but he lacks the personality of goodwill and tries to be someone

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Finding Your Inner Peace Emerson once said, “Envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide” (370-372). The novel A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, is set at a boy’s preparatory school in rural New Hampshire during summer and winter sessions. Gene is an envious person, who follows Phineas, but also is very intelligent, yet not smart enough to have a mind of his own. Gene unfolds the painful story of his growth in the prep school during World War II. A Separate Peace depicts how Gene’s envy and

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    A separate peace is the first fictional novel written by John Knowles and is known to be his best work. There are many themes that are shown in this novel. One of the themes deal with friendship. In the novel a separate peace Gene and Finny's friendship is known to be falling apart because of jealousy, rivalry, and one-sided trust. One example of Gene and finny's friendship falling apart is because of jealousy. In chapter 2 finny was about to get into trouble for wearing a pink shirt and his tie

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, we learn about the characters inside the book and their identities, their friendship, jealousy and envy for each other, the conflicts they face and the changes they undergo as a person. All of the characters experience many mental and physical changes, and these changes teach us about the themes of the novel. Although, these progressions in their demeanors shows us about the themes of the novel. All of these themes revolve and intertwine with a quote

    • 1821 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Twenty-two years, for twenty-two years my Dad lived in a drug-filled separate peace. I can conceptualize the stench of marijuana too well for a mere fourteen-year-old girl. Over half his life he was evasive of reality, expecting for his life to magically heal itself. In John Knowles’s, A Separate Peace, I see a similar trait in the main character, Gene. Gene claims that as Leper was talking about the war, he ran and, “left Leper telling his story into the wind (...) I didn’t care because it had nothing

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Friendship means to value friends with a sense of mutual respect, trust, and support to each other. Two people could call themselves truly great friends with actually knowing what friendship means. In A Separate Peace Gene starts out by going back to Devon school, where he had gone before he went into the war. The story later starts back in a summer session and the story introduces Phineas. Throughout the entire story, the relationship between Finny and Gene never stays the same and goes through

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Better Essays

    Everyone can relate to guilt, competition, rivalry, envy, and jealousy. These themes played an extremely important role in the novel “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles. Knowles used many different themes to portray the story of a preparatory school during World War II. The use of themes by Knowles made the story easily relatable to anyone in at least one way. This novel is comparable to other novels such as “Night” by Elie Wiesel. Even though the lives of the boys at the school during that time is

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Decent Essays

    amount of veneration, respect, and regard usually for another person. Although this is a very positive aspect of a person, too much admiration can result in jealousy. In A Separate Peace, Gene admires Finny deeply, which causes many controversies within their friendship since Gene becomes blatantly jealous of Finny. John Knowles uses characterization of Gene Forrester to portray how he becomes jealous of Finny which brings forth the theme that in a close friendship, admiration may lead to jealousy

    • 985 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    jealous conscience within Gene. As the story progresses, the jealousy builds and causes Gene to injure his best friend. In A Separate Peace, John Knowles discusses how the theme of jealousy and guilt impact the relationship between Gene and Finny, through symbolism, direct characterization, and repetition. “‘Will you do me the pleasure of jumping out of the tree first?’ ” (Knowles 31). Finny asks Gene to jump from the tree. This happens because earlier Gene said he would love to jump first. Although

    • 1696 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the reader looks into the lives of the young boys at the Devon School during World War II. Leper Lepellier is a composed and serene boy who loves nature and the outdoors. He inherited his nickname, Leper, because he is lonely and a social outcast, although he does not seem to mind. The boys at Devon are almost eighteen years old and are deciding whether to enlist in the war or wait to be drafted. One student fails to believe it is real, while others

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays