A Separate Peace; Chapter Summaries

1544 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Symbolism in a separate peace

A Separate Peace; Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1: The narrator (Gene) returns to the Devon School in New Hampshire, that he graduated from 15 years earlier. He goes to a certain tree and switches back to the past. Phineas dares everyone to jump from a branch in the tree into the river. Phineas, and Gene both jump. On the way back Phineas and Gene play fight so that they are late for dinner.

Chapter 2:Mr. Prud'homme, a master, stops by the boys' room to scold them for missing dinner again for the ninth time in two weeks. Phineas explains that they were late because they were jumping out of the tree to toughen up for the war.
Mr Prud'homme, accepts the explanation because, he, and everyone else, feel sorry for the boys that will soon have to go to war.

Chapter 3: The boys join The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. The club meets every night. Phineas and Gene open each night by jumping out of the tree. They make a new kind of war game called blitzball, in which everyone is everyone elses enemy. Phineas breaks the schools swimming record, but tells Gene not to tell anyone, he just wanted to do it for himself. Gene and Phineas of campus to the ocean to swim. They have a drink at the bar, the spend the night on the beach, and Phineas tells Gene he is his best pal. Gene is not sure if he feels the same.

Chapter 4: Gene and Finny (Phineas) wake up and head back to Devon. Gene fails his trigonometry examination for the first time. Finny tells Gene that he studies too much. Gene thinks Finny is jealous. Gene wants to earn the
Scholastic Achievement Citation to get even with Finny. Gene knows that Finny must be best and that he cannot be best if Gene becomes even with him through his studies. Gene decides that he and Finny are locked in a complete enmity rather than friendship. Finny announces Leper's intention to jump from the tree and coazes Gene away from his studies. Gene and Finny are going to jump together,
Finny falls to the ground, then Gene jumps into the river.

Chapter 5: Finny has a shattered leg. Gene bears private guilt. He puts on
Finny's clothes and the sensation excites him. Dr. Stanpole, the school physician, informs Gene that Finny wants to see him. Finny recalls the fall, and expresses that he thought Gene wanted him to fall. Gene is about to confess when
Dr. Stanpole interupts. Finny is taken to his home near Boston and Gene returns

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    First, I believe that Gene and Finny were not sincerely friends throughout the novel due to their relationship being driven by competitiveness. Along with the competitive atmosphere came jealously, envy and enmity. Gene created a rivalry between him and Finny. Since Finny was

    Read More

  • Gene's Shadow In John Knowles A Separate Peace

    1246 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gene begins to realize Finny is not above him, and rather thinks to himself, “You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record but so what? He hated you for getting an A in every course. . . .

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Simon's 'Lord Of The Flies'

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...eing savages must be jolly good fun,” and tries to convince Ralph and Piggy to go to “the feast.” I think that this shows how much Jack has influenced the boys, even making them think that being savages is a good thing. I wonder if this is the mindset the other boys have?

    Read More

  • Gene's Coming of Age in A Separate Peace

    751 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gene jounces a limb of the tree he and Finny were standing on, causing Finny to fall and break his leg. Gene's jealousy of Finny's perfection causes him to have childish feelings of resentment and hatred. After Finny's leg was broken, Gene realized "that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between" (Knowles 51) him and Finny. Gene looked at himself and became conscious of what a terrible, self-absorbed friend he had been. Understanding there was no competition caused him to discard the majority of his feelings of jealousy. Getting rid of these feelings made him grow-up because he was no longer spending countless hours believing a childish game was being played between Finny and him. Gene began to understand more of Finny's goodness and love towards all, making him strive to be more like Finny.

    Read More

  • Speech on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Act Five Scene 3

    705 Words  | 2 Pages

    decides to gate crash it the party in hope to see the girl he loves

    Read More

  • Gene’s Transformation throughout "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

    582 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning of the novel, Gene, is a clueless individual. He sees the worst in people and lets his evil side take over not only his mind but also his body. During the tree scene, Gene convinces himself that Finny isn’t his friend, tricking himself into thinking that Finny is a conniving foil that wants to sabotage his academic merit. Gene is furthermore deluded that every time Finny invites Gene somewhere it’s to keep him from studying and doing well. Finny has a reputation for being the the best athlete in school, and Gene attempts to counterbalance Finny’s power by being the best student. After a while of joining Finny’s activities, Gene thinks that Finny is intentionally trying to make him fail out of school. He starts to dislike Finny and his activities, and Gene starts interrupt...

    Read More

  • Rivalry In A Separate Peace

    1545 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the early pages of the novel, Finny confesses that Gene is his best friend. This is considered a courageous act as the students at Devon rarely show any emotion. And rather than coming back with similar affection, Gene holds back and says nothing. Gene simply cannot handle the fact that Finny is so compassionate, so athletic, so ingenuitive, so perfect. As he put it, "Phineas could get away with anything." (p. 18) In order to protect himself from accepting Finny's compassion and risking emotional suffering, Gene creates a silent rivalry with Finny, and convinced himself that Finny is deliberately attempting to ruin his schoolwork. Gene decides he and Finny are jealous of each other, and reduces their friendship to cold trickery and hostility. Gene becomes disgusted with himself after weeks of the silent rivalry. He finally discovers the truth, that Finny only wants the best for Gene, and had no hidden evil intentions. This creates a conflict for Gene as he is not able to deal with Finny's purity and his own dark emotions. On this very day Finny wants to jump off of the tree branch into the Devon river at the same time as Gene, a "double jump" (p. 51), he says, as a way of bonding. It was this decision, caused by Finny's affection for Gene and outgoing ways that resulted in drastic change for the rest of his life.

    Read More

  • Martin Van Buren Research Paper

    641 Words  | 2 Pages

    Van Buren was a Democrat and was against two other opponents. William Henry Harrison and Hugh Lawson White, who were both from the Whig party. During the election, Van Buren had gotten 170 electoral votes. Harrison only got 73 and White got 26, making Van Buren win by a landslide.

    Read More

  • The Fall of Innocence in A Separate Peace

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    After Phineas, also known as Finny, falls from the tree, he slowy begins to change. He begins to lose his innocence, It can be seen in the beginning of the novel that Finny acts very innocent. For example, Finny's game of Blitzball shows his spontaneous style of play, and his innocent child like personality. However after Finny's tragic fall from the tree, he begins to seem less innocent and childish. He begins to reveal secrets to Gene, such as when he tells Gene about trying to enlist in the war. “I've been writing to the Army and the Navy and the Marines and the Canadians and everybody else all winter..”(Knowles 190). War is not an event for innocent little boys. When readers find out that Finny had been trying to enlist in the war all winter it shows that after the fall Finny becomes less and less innocent. He no longer begins to play his childish games, and no longer tries to preform his crazy stunts. Though he is hurt, he does not seem to want to watch or help participate in any of these activies. On the day Finny fell from that tree, he did not just plument down into the river beneath him, but also fell from innocence.

    Read More

  • Piggy Diction

    1027 Words  | 3 Pages

    -Piggy is still hanging on to the slim amount of civilization left, as he forces Ralph to blow the conch even though there are only four boys left, proven when he says, “It’s all we got.” This shows that although ineffective, calling an assembly with order and talking in turn still comforts Piggy, and ultimately shows that he is still civilized.

    Read More

  • Absolutism Essay

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ing and the nobles had a right called capitaineries to all game in region, which meant that nothing could be done to harm the game even if the crops were destroyed. The system was very corrupt but the king did not change it for it meant that the peasants were more oppressed, thus less inclined to revolt.

    Read More

  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    Charlie engages with Sam and Patrick’s group of friends and begins experiencing a new life. During the course of the school year, Charlie has his first date and first kiss, he deals with bullying and begins to experiment wi...

    Read More

  • Good and Evil

    659 Words  | 2 Pages

    Too niave and innocent, Ralph found himself inside the dancing circle, and unintentionally took part in the violent killing of his friend Simon. It was then when he truely realized how dangerous Jack and his hunters were.

    Read More

  • Comparison Of Jesse And Angus Tuck's Dream

    449 Words  | 1 Pages

    Angus Tuck was having a wonderful dream. He explained that this dream was when he and his family were all in Heaven, and had never heard of Treegap. When the rowboat gets stuck, Angus decides to tell Winnie about life being a wheel. He gets to the point of telling Winnie that on that wheel, everything flows smoothly, like it’s supposed to. But that when his family drank

    Read More

  • Heart Of Darkness Analysis

    1008 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the article "Queer Complicity in the Belgian Congo: Autobiography and Racial Fetishism in Jef Geeraerts's (post)colonial Novels" Thomas Hendriks explains that in Africa’s interior white men and women are considered supernatural and godly.

    Read More

More about A Separate Peace; Chapter Summaries

Open Document