The Devon School

aged man now going back to visit his old school. Gene is thoughtful, competitive, and intellectual. He tells us his story of his school experience using flashbacks showing what happened and how he felt in those moments. He’s competitive and controlled by his strong emotions. He sees the world in a hateful way and that’s all the world is, a fearful and hateful place. He fears that nothing has or will change, that he hasn’t changed since his years at Devon. He had a love hate relationship with Finny

The novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a story of a man that returns to his high school after 15 years. Knowles starts the chapter by introducing the narrator, Gene, and the location, the Devon School. Next, he brings in the setting by describing the weather and month as a “ wet, self-pitying November day.” Gene contrasts how he sees the school when he goes back as to when he was a student there. Gene also talks about his best friend Finny and he tells about his personality being outgoing

Separate Peace by John Knowles tells the story of a complicated friendship between two teenage boys who attend Devon Academy during World War II. The narrator, Gene Forrester, starts the story by visiting his old school fifteen years after he graduates and goes to various “fearful sites” of his past. Stopping at a tree, he begins to narrate the rest of the novel describing his time at Devon. In his narration, he tells the story of his friendship with Phineas “Finny” and how the war affected them. The

the young men preparing for war. This is seen with Gene visiting the school after the war, Phineas’ difficulty to adjust to the setting after his injury, and the numerous places that the characters go in which they escape the reality of the war. The book begins by revealing the narrator, an aged Gene, visiting the Devon school, setting the location and general mood of the story. As Gene returns back to the grounds of Devon school, he notices that almost nothing had changed: Now here it was, after

While presenting itself as an institution of the upmost moral character, the Devon School is really the breeding ground for broken students. As a result it is this very framework, the war and the prestige of a distinguished academy, which caused these students to break. The youth at this school were forced to put up with emotional struggle after struggle, and that reflects the harsh setting of this story. Moving on, there were a multitude

but somehow they make their friendships work out. Gene is the narrator and tells his story by coming back to the Devon school fifteen years later by having a flashback of the memories as told in the novel. To list a few of their opposites are that they have is their academics because Gene thinks he needs to study and follow every rule there is for achieving your goals and finishing school while Finny doesn't need to study because he thinks he will do better without studying. Breaking rules was never

Example in the beginning of the novel, Gene as an adult starts to narrate the story and towards the end of the novel Finny’s funeral is shown, 15 years after Gene comes back to Devon High and oddly sees the school being newer and starts the novel with flashbacks of what happened in the story. Gene states “I went back to Devon School not long ago, and found it looking oddly newer than when I was a student there 15 years before.” (Knowles 1), More over when Finny dies he is given a funeral. When Dr. Stanpole

In a place flooded with war and violence, a school is separated from reality; living within the walls are the boys of the school, shielded from the ugly truths that lie beyond. During this time of adolescence, the boys are forced to grow and mature while the walls that protect them begin to fall. One boy, Gene, lives within this wall and matures into a young man during this time through many events and conflicts he faces. Through these events occurring, he is now able to withstand the violence of

After a while at Devon school Gene develops a love- hate relationship for Finny. Once he sees that Finny is more popular and academically superior and that Gene’s friends are more Finny’s friends then his. Finny and Gene met at school and have been best friends since they’ve gotten to the school, but Gene starts to look at Finny as more of a competition then as a best friend. Finny is extremely outgoing, Phineas realizes his place during Devon’s Summer Semester. At Devon school they have a substitute

In the 1950s, 15 years after his graduation from Devon, an all boys school in New Hampshire, Gene Forrester returns. While walking through the campus, Gene thinks of his experiences at Devon during World War II, especially during the summer of 1942, when he was a 16 year old boy. While passing by a tree at the river, Gene thinks of his best friend and roommate, Phineas,who was nicknamed Finny, the best athlete in the school. Gene flashes back to when Finny jumps from a high limb of the tree into