A Separate Peace Analysis

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A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles is a flashback of the main character, Gene Forrester’s schooling at the Devon School in New England. During this flashback Gene remembers his best friend Finny, who was really athletic and outgoing. Gene and Finny’s friendship was a relationship of jealousy. Gene was jealous of Finny’s talent in athletics, and Finny was envious of Gene’s talent in school. In the end, Gene’s jealousy of Finny takes over and causes him to shake the tree branch that makes Finny fall and break his leg. The break was bad, but it was not until Finny fell down the stairs and broke his leg again, that he had to have surgery. The surgery that Finny would undergo would cause more complications and heartbreaking news for Gene. During the surgery Finny would lose his life due to some bone marrow that escaped into his blood stream and stopped his heart from beating. “As I was moving the bone some of the marrow must have escaped into his blood stream and gone directly to his heart and stopped it” (Knowles 193). Although people do not normally think about bone marrow as being a huge part of the human body, it can cause some major issues if it has to be replaced or escapes into the blood stream.
First of all, bone marrow is most often one of the forgotten parts of the body, but it is necessary in order for the bones in the hips and thighs to function properly. Bone marrow is the soft, fatty tissues that are inside of bones. Inside of the bone marrow there are cells called stem cells. These stem cells transform into red and white blood cells, and also platelets that help with blood clotting. Although stem cells are supposed to transform into blood cells, there can sometimes be problems with the way that the stem cells de...

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... it, which destroys all healthy bone marrow in the body. As a result of this, the patient will have to undergo a process to replace all deteriorated or damaged bone marrow. This process involves taking the stem cells from a donor and transplanting them into the patient’s body, so that the patient will transform these stem cells into bone marrow. Bone marrow can also be a complication for the body if it escapes into the blood stream. If the bone marrow enters the blood stream, it can travel throughout the body, and cause serious complications. This is a condition referred to as fat embolism, and mainly occurs after serious trauma or surgery to lower limbs. There is not a specific diagnosis or treatment for this; it is mostly based on the patient’s condition or symptoms. Bone marrow can be a very dangerous thing if it has any type of complications within the body.

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