A Separate Peace Conflict Essay

Brenda Shoshanna once stated, “All conflict we experience in the world, is a conflict within our own selves.” This quote recognizes how much conflict influences our everyday lives and personality. The wise words were especially true for Gene, the main character in A separate peace, who let his battles with other characters and the society of his time become his own internal battles. In John Knowles’s novel, A separate peace, all the types of conflict are shown through the main character Gene. Internal conflict is easily shown in this novel, as Gene must fight many of his own internal struggles. For example, when a difficult event would occur, Gene would overthink the situation, and question his morals. Eventually, some of the conflicts within

This time was dominated by extreme sternness and a strong belief in doing what is right. Knowles states, “If you broke the rules, then they broke you.” (Knowles, 1998, p. 65). This powerful quote is deep and symbolizes how unforgiving the world was during that time period. The author also states how much society was changing during the time of war and massive confusion. Knowles writes, “It’s like a test, isn’t it, and only the things and the people evolving the right way survive” (Knowles, 1998, p. 116). Gene is aware of the war and the changing society, but he is not fond of how it is changing everything that he knows. He eventually grows to resent the war and new society because it goes against everything that he knew. Knowles writes about how much the war is a subject of conflict for Gene many times throughout the novel, proving what a problem the changing society was for him. In John Knowles’s novel, A separate peace, all the types of conflict were shown through the main character Gene. Gene had countless battles between other characters and the society of his time, which in turn created conflicts within himself. These unfortunate events eventually changed Gene, and he could no longer return to his old self. Conflict is a dangerous subject because it can change not only your own self, but also the things around