Throughout the novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles establishes a universal truth of human qualities using allegorical characters, Gene and Finny. Their final year in Devon was fortunate, but also devastating from the fear of enlisting to World War 2. Knowles developed Gene and Finny’s journey in school as an extended metaphor, comparing it to the gradual loss of innocence and the idea of ignorance creating the emotional, non-physical war. In the beginning of the year, Devon was full of innocence and it was a time of enjoyment for the students there. However, as the reality of war became more understandable for the students in Devon, their innocence began to fall off; thus, Gene becoming more matured. Despite the fact that Gene gradually matured, Finny kept displaying his innocence and selfishness until the end when he dies. During this year, Gene convinced himself that he has to excel Finny in every activity such as education, but because he assumed that Finny was trying to bring him down, he jounces the branch and shattered Finny’s leg. After this cruel accident, created by Gene’s jealousy and insecurity, they both tried to become a part of each other and in fact strengthening their friendship. Through John Knowles use of characterization and development of the allegorical characters Gene and Finny, he establishes the universal truth of losing innocence and the reality that enemies are created by the reflection of jealousy and ignorance in human heart.
In the chapters when Gene started to develop jealousy towards Finny, Gene represented the evil qualities of human being. Because of his envy and insecurity, he was only able to see the negative characteristics of Finny. Everything Finny performed, he took it personally as if F...
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...ause it seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart” (Knowles 201). This excerpt describes the ultimate idea of creating enemies, not in war but in human heart.
The characters in the novel A Separate Peace identifies the collapse of innocence and the creation of inner enemies by evil qualities of human being. Knowles establishes these universal truth through his development of characters Gene, and Finny. Although Gene’s jealousy and anger lead to a calamity in Finny’s life, they were able to overcome the incident and their friendship grew to a level that merely, you could call it “united.” A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles is a didactic novel that demonstrates the creation of enemies by ignorance in human heart and the loss of youthful innocence.
In the novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the narrator, Gene Forrester struggles to earn and preserve a separate peace. The story takes place in a remote boarding school named Devon, in New Hampshire. While Gene and Finny are in school, World War II is taking place. The author clearly explains an important story about the jealousy between Gene and his best friend, Phineas. Gene suspects that Finny is trying to sabotage his grades, and Gene allows his jealousy to control his actions. Therefore, Gene misinterprets their relationship by thinking that they shared enmity towards each other, and this caused Gene to enter a world of jealousy and hatred, which ultimately leads to Finny’s death. By examining this jealousy, John Knowles
feels that he has to get revenge. This anger leads to Gene jouncing Finny out of the tree.
The theme “rite of passage” was used in the novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. This moving from innocence to adulthood was contained within three sets of interconnected symbols: summer and winter, the Devon and Naguamsett Rivers, and peace and war. These symbols served as a backdrop upon which the novel was developed. The loss if Gene Forrester’s innocence was examined through these motifs.
In the novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, Gene and Finny have boarding school experiences during World War II. Finny helps Gene mature throughout the story. Finny is an archetypal Jesus because of he preaches his ideas to his peers, his death is similar to Jesus’s, and his charismatic personality.
Gene and Phineas have a strong connection, their friendship is like a brotherhood. The brotherhood is similar to the brothers Cain and Abel, Gene is Cain and Phineas is Abel. Gene and Finny are the best friends; they share many adventures and feelings. When Gene almost fell off the tree, Finny grabbed his arm quickly to save him. Gene knew he would get severely get injured but Finny saved him. Gene and Phineas both look out for each other when one is feeling down the other keeps him up. Phineas would never let Gene down or fall but Gene is slightly different.
Have you ever read a book where one of the main characters was so envious of another? Well, here you have it. In John Knowles “A Separate Peace”, Gene is all for the jealous rage and resentful ways. Throughout the book, Mr. Knowles places the boys in a boarding school and sets the tale so that the reader knows all the focus is set upon Finny and Gene’s relationship. Speaking of relationships and Gene’s way, the storyline takes a turn and Finny actually ends up being almost physically pushed out of a tree. I say that shows a large characteristic of Gene. He is without a doubt, resentful towards Finny.
The role of Gene Forrester, the narrator of the novel, starts with the first line of the book. “I went back to the Devon School not long ago, and found it looking oldly newer than when I was a student there fifteen years before.” (9) The plot of A Separate Peace is him retelling those months at Devon, so his role began with him returning fifteen years later and seeing the school grounds, bringing back memories.
This story, A Separate Peace, exhibits interesting main characters which establish the frequent struggles of personal identity in adolescence. Gene's story is set in a boarding school called Devon during World War II and "The War" which he speaks of, gives overcast and grim feelings for his classes' future like an impending doom they cannot escape. Finny is a rebellious, charming, and very athletic boy. His charisma comes from his ability to make up rules and ideas on the spot and being able to get out of any trouble, which is magnetic to the other boys at Devon. Most of the teachers admired Phineas because he was the poster boy of boys not yet affected by the war, as mentioned by Gene when he says, "But there was another reason.
Throughout the novel, A Separate Peace, the author John Knowles conveys many messages of symbolism. The symbolism can be found in an array of ways, ranging from internal war, to the theme of human aggression, and a variety of religious principles. The main characters, Gene and Phineas, and their story could be paralleled to the biblical story of Adam and Eve. The similarities can be seen in the way in which in both of the stories, everyone is living in perfect harmony and peace until something comes along to disrupt it. Also in how the main characters do something out of jealousy, greed, and selfishness; and in addition, how Finny's fall out of a tree relates to the “Fall of Mankind.”
When Gene comes to terms with the accident causing Finny’s injury and leading to his death, Gene finds his separate peace. As Gene walks around the Devon School fifteen years after being a student, he says, “I never killed anybody 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 school; I killed my enemy there” (204). Here Gene’s recognized confession demonstrates that he has removed himself from his innocence, thus allowing him to acknowledge accountability for Finny’s injury and reach his separate peace. Gene also takes away with him an understanding of how Finny never faces an enemy and completely loses his image of innocence. After his confession, Gene points out, “Only Phineas never was afraid, only Phineas never hated anyone. Other people experienced this fearful shock somewhere, this sighting of the enemy, and so began an obsessive labor of defense, began to parry the menace they saw facing them by developing a particular frame of mind” (204). This valuable comprehension impacts Gene and his separate peace, because he knows one who has no hatred is not afraid of any enemy. Although symbolizing an image of peace, Finny finds his separate peace once he accepts the presences of the time period’s events, specifically World War II. At the hospital, Finny was looking over the things that Gene had packed in his suitcase, because he broke his leg once again. While doing so, Finny tells Gene, “I wish to God there wasn’t any war. . . I don’t know if I can take this with a war on. . . What good are you in a war with a busted leg!” (189-190). Continuing to look through his suitcase, Finny goes on to Gene and says, “I’ve been writing to the Army and the Navy and the Marines and the Canadians and everybody else all winter. . .They all gave me the same answer
The purpose of Knowles’ novel is to exaggerate the life of two young boys to the extreme in order to reveal the unfortunate things that can occur in a relationship when these themes are not taken seriously. As stated in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, "It (A Separate Peace) can be viewed, for example, as a tale of Original Sin, with the Devon School as an Eden enclosing the great Tree of Knowledge through which humankind falls far from innocence but is redeemed by the suffering of a totally innocent one. It may also be approached as a reworking of the classic tale of the need to accept the potential evil within everyone and thus make peace with one’s self." BIBLIOGRAPHY "A Separate Peace." Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Vol. 78, No. 1, pp.
In the book A Separate Peace there are many conflicts such as Gene pushing Finny out of a tree and Finny’s leg becoming permanently “maimed.” The book had many conflicts and there was a conflict throughout the whole book which was there was a war going on. Since there was a war going on the boys at Devon had to deal with the pressure of the war. This conflict created a conflict within the boys. The conflict that shows the most growth of a character is man vs. man and it’s when Gene pushed Finny out of the tree.
A Separate Peace is about two boys that go to a boarding school. Gene is a very intelligent and strange student. Meanwhile, Phineas is a very athletic and popular student. A Separate Peace is about many different wars, the war Gene fights in himself, the internal war that the boys fight at Devon school, and the war overseas.
Gene sets himself up to become the inferior in his relationship with Finny because of his distrusting nature, but his yielding to Finny’s power motivates him to no longer be the lackey but rather the leader. In Gene’s quest for dominance, his initial steps are passive; he seeks to portray Finny as an antagonist and look better in comparison. Gene’s plan escalates as he takes away power from Finny physically. This proceeds into an obsession with him, convincing Gene that the only way to gain power is to become Finny. Knowles uses Gene’s escalation of his plot for power to warn readers to be wary of those seeking power. Through Gene, he advises the reader that individuals who seek power will stop at nothing to achieve their goal.
John Knowles, the author of the book a separate peace uses a highly descriptive paragraphs and a child narrative to give the reader the perspective of a teenage student as he explores the true meaning of friendship, the loss of innocence, self-realization.