Essay On A Separate Peace - 1916 Words

A Separate Peace Honors English Essay By Devin E. Price From juvenility to maturity, A Separate Peace combines classic American Literature with a thoughtful plot-line that is developed to affect the readers’ mind and heart. The author, John Knowles of Fairmont, West Virginia, had one clear purpose for writing this book. This purpose was to show the disastrous mental and physical problems which arise as the result of war, specifically the repercussions they have on the home front. A good lesson to learn from this book is that even a war three-thousand miles away can have just as much ramification as a war three miles away. This novel shows the transition of Gene Forrester and his friends from boyhood to manhood during a†¦show more content†¦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 bre ak. 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 of different characters in this book each with different social and physical dispositions. The main character, Gene Forrester, started out as the best friend of Finny. He soon however started to have realizations through a series of events that led him to realize that he really had a deep resentment toward Finny, and wanted only to best Finny. Gene, after Finny’s accident, soon loses all of his bitterness and becomes a bit more reserved. Gene also starts to develop a hostile attitude which leads him to get into several fights. Finny, the so-called best friend of Gene, is a happy, athletic, and confident boy, who makes up in the field what he lacks in the classroom. He falls into a silent depression after his accident which only shows threw his upbeat cover a few times after the accident. However, Finny is different from everyoneShow MoreRelated A Separate Peace Essay753 Words   |  4 Pages A Separate Peace Dealing with enemies has been a problem since the beginning of time. â€Å"I never killed anybody,† Gene had commented later in his life, â€Å"And I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform, I was on active duty all my time at Devon; I killed my enemy there.† In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the value of dealing with enemies is shown by Gene, who was dealing with few human enemies, but his emotions created far greaterRead MoreA Separate Peace Essay 11996 Words   |  4 PagesA Separate Peace Essay Betrayal, one of the most horrible things you could do to anyone your family, a friend anyone. To me it’s one of my all time most hated things a person could do and it’s almost unforgivable. In this book A Separate Peace by John Knowles two boys Phineas and Gene who are best friends at a boarding school in New Hampshire experience some of the worst kinds of Betrayal you could think of. Gene commits a very bad betrayal when he jousts the tree limb they are bothRead MoreFriendship in A Separate Peace Essay806 Words   |  4 PagesFriendship in A Separate Peace A Separate Peace is a story about two youths, Gene and Phineas, growing up at a beautiful boys’ boarding school in New England. Set at the background of the World War II, the friendship between them grows as the peace in Devon School diminishes. Gene and Phineas are like two poles of a magnet, opposite yet bound together. Gene is academic, Finny is athletic; Gene is hard worker, Finny is not; Finny is the extroverted leaderRead More A Separate Peace Essay example1149 Words   |  5 Pages A Separate Peace: by John Knowles nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;During World War II in the struggle for peace among nations comes a smaller, but still significant struggle, in a prep school boy becoming a man and waking up to reality. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;In the book A Separate Peace, the author John Knowles, creates the image of two sixteen-year old boys struggling to keep what little sense of peace they know, even though there is a war going on all around them. Gene Forrester, theRead MoreA Separate Peace Essay Synopsis1019 Words   |  5 PagesIn A Separate Peace†, John Knowles uses the characters come to understand the difference between fantasy and reality, innocence and  experience, and sympathy and hatred. Phineas uses denial to protect himself against the reality of war. One person can need protection to hide from an  experience  thats been haunting their lives like a death in the family. They need this protection to help them move on in life and find peace within themselves again. Some need protection from war in the thought of deathRead MoreA Separate Peace Analysis Essay1697 Words   |  7 PagesWith using a simile to compare him to weather helps readers realize what kind of person Fin ny is and why he is gaining all the attention from people around him. â€Å"Peace had deserted Devon† (Knowles 72). This quote in A Separate Peace foreshadows the future relationship between Gene and Finny. Gene is finally back at school, and the peace of the summer session has finally been shattered by the return of the rigorous traditions of the Devon School. The change of seasons also foreshadows a change inRead MoreA Separate Peace Essay examples1290 Words   |  6 PagesBrittany Schafer September 21, 2012 Period 4 A Separate Peace Final Draft In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, it relates to a complicated friendship of two young boys Gene and Phineas. Gene is jealous of Phineas’ achievements and lets his anger destroy their relationship. The boys at Devon in the summer of 1942 have to deal with the fear World War II brings. Each time the boys feel safe and peaceful, reality sets in and reminds them of the warfare around them. The boy’s mentalRead MoreA Separate Peace, by John Knowles Essay736 Words   |  3 PagesPeople frequently betray others because of the evil in their hearts. In A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses the pureness of the rakish Finny to portray the savage or bad side of the vulpine Gene. He also uses it to prove that peace is exceedingly difficult to acquire until a person accepts the ignorance in their own heart. That means that acceptance is the key to finding peace. Thus, Gene finds his peace when Finny forgives him and when Gene learns to forgive himself as well. Gene assumes thatRead MoreA Separate Peace by John Knowles Essay1256 Words   |  6 PagesThe main character in my book, A Separate Peace, is Gene Forrester. At the beginning of the book, Gene is an innocent boy, going along with everything his roommate, the outgoing and energetic Phineas, says. â€Å"What was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into doing stupid things like this?† (17) During this scene in the book, Gene is questioning his decision to jump out of a very tall tree, which he was convinced to climb by Phineas. As the story continues, Gene starts to believe thatRead MoreA Separate Peace. Chapter analisys Essay1253 Words   |  6 Pages 4. How does the Winter Carnival offer a â€Å"separate peace† for the boys? How does it end? 5. Describe Gene’s visit with Leper and his character now: Chapters 11-13 1. Describe the â€Å"trial.† How does it affect Gene? How does it affect Finny? 2. Gene is asked to take Finny’s things to him the next morning and gets to talk to him. What does he say? What does he find out about Finny and the war? Do they come to some kind of peace in their friendship? How? 3. Gene gives