Phillips Academy

The interesting title of John Knowles’s popular novel, “A Separate Peace” has a contradictory meaning. Usually the title of the book will give an insight to what the book is about, but not with this classic. Theories of Knowles reasoning behind the book title are that Gene finds peace when Phineas dies, Finny is at peace with Gene when he dies, and Finny denys everything that is happening to give himself peace. After Finny’s death, Gene has his own peace against the world of Finny. Throughout

Peace is the absence of hostilities, such as war, self-doubt and guilt, disagreements with others, internal bitterness, and sickness. In the novel A Separate Peace, WW2 is raging in Europe and in the Pacific with men dying by the thousands each month, yet at the Vermont preparatory school of Devon a peace independent of the War exists where there at is no fear of death, loss of one’s sanity and conscience, and fear of degradation. This is all until a cloud of hostility forms over Devon and over the

In John Knowles novel, A Separate Peace, Gene and Finny are still the protagonists in chapter eleven. Gene and Finny still have a very strong and healthy friendship, especially with cvbgsgsyasyasyaleverything that has happened in the past. When Gene comes back from his emotional time with Leper at his home in Vermont, the only person he wants to see if Phineas, “I wanted to see Phineas, and Phineas only. With him there was no conflict except between athletes” (Knowles 152). Gene had a difficult

Exeter Library located in the middle of the grassland in Northern Philips Exeter Academy. The atmosphere around was very pleasant, where trees and grass surrounded and people sat and enjoyed their time. After visiting to the Exeter Library, I was impressed by the spatial atmosphere in the library deeply, sacred and dramatic. The “Library Spirit” was also Kahn’s main point when he designed Exeter Library. I want to analyze the spirit from five aspects, function, structure, material, geometry, and

Different Ways John Irving Creates Suspense in A Prayer for Owen Meany In John Irving's novel titled, A Prayer for Owen Meany, suspenseful events are of abundance, and there are multiple ways the author creates this suspense. Among these methods of creating suspense, four that stand out are the use of setting, the pace of the story, the involvement of mysteries to be solved, and the ability of the reader to easily identify and sympathize with the protagonist. By placing a character in a gloomy

He describes Devon School in the summer session in 1942. Devon School is rarely mentioned in the book. In A Separate Peace: The War Within the chronology states that in 1943, a year older than the book, he too went to a summer session at Exeter Academy (Bryant, xi). Knowles, too had a tree that he and other boys jumped off of, but he broke his foot and had to be on crutches (Bryant, xi). This book is a rough autobiography of his life. Gene and the author John Knowles will be explained as WWII

“A Separate Peace” by John Knowles Separate Peace What really happened in the tree? Gene and Finny were very good friends; however, whatever happened in the tree the day the Finny "fell" out, is the actual cause of Gene “…My knees bent and I jounced the limb…” page 52. In fact, Finny did not fall out of the tree, but Gene had actually pushed him out. Gene had very good reasons to push him out “Finny had put him up to it, to finish me fro good on the exam.” Page 49. He pushed him out of

One of the most compelling and memorable lines in John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany is the first one. The language he selects strictly sets a daunting and intriguing tone to start of the book. Since the book is centered around Owen and his fate being in the hands of God, the language is very present in calibrating a serious yet sincere expression. The language used is directly linked to Owen’s relationship with God, and the theme of the book, fate. The first word the narrator uses that strikes

A Prayer for Owen Meany analyzes the relationship between various depths of spirituality in comparison to mundane life. The novel by John Irving uses characters such as Owen Meany and John Wheelwright, to juxtapose the contrasting nature of faith and doubt, and fate and free will. John Wheelwright’s and Owen Meany’s differing attributes highlight the use of contrast within A Prayer for Owen Meany. While Owen Meany tends to be a leader, John is a follower where his primary experiences tend to be

Owen’s Armless Figures Several themes are portrayed within the pages of A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving; nevertheless, a more prominent theme that moves the story along is that of symbolism. In the novel, Owen Meany infatuated himself with armless figures all his life from Tabby’s dressmaker, to the armadillo, and finally, Mary Magdalene. Readers cannot help but to try to correlate all these images into a bigger picture. The Watahantowet totem became the first of Owen’s many fascinations