A Separate Peace Theme Analysis

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Recommended: Literary essay coming of age

Michael Morpurgo once said “Wherever my story takes me, however dark and difficult the theme, there is always some hope and redemption, not because readers like happy endings, but because I am an optimist at heart.” In A Separate Peace by John Knowles; there are a wide variety of themes such as: coming of age, jealousy and identity. This novel is about two main characters one being Gene who is still living and another being Finny who passed away in his earlier years of life. Gene returns to his old prep school Devon where both he and Finny once attended. A Separate Peace brings back old memories from the summer of 1942 to the summer of 1943. During this duration of time World War II is taking place. Gene goes back in his adult years for two reasons; to visit the “fearful sights,” the marble staircase and the tree by the river. The three major symbols throughout this novel are coming of age, jealousy and identity.
To start with, the first major theme in this novel is coming of age. "The more things stay the same, the more they change."(Chapter 1) Gene says this when seeing when he sees the tree for the first time as an adult. His perspective on the tree has changed since he has matured and moved away from Devon. Additionally, another example of this theme is how the boys who attend the prep school have to fully develop into men who are fully disciplined, for the preparation of World War II. During the summer Gene and the rest of the boys at Devon could simply act like boys; but when it came around to autumn they had to mature fast and not by choice. Finally, Gene has a substantial change in his character. During his high school years Gene was first known as a book warm and later on develops into an athlete. Each one of these examp...

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...n brief, this is how the theme of identity is demonstrated throughout the novel.
To conclude, the three major symbols throughout this novel are coming of age, jealousy and identity. The theme of identity was shown by the deep desire that Gene had to become more like Finny. Next, jealousy was displayed in A Separate Peace throughout the friendship of Gene and Finny. Third, coming of age was shown during the preparation for war and also the maturing of the boys who were currently attending Devon prep school. This novel has many common themes that people in the world have today such as jealousy. There are many people all over the world that are jealous of others surrounding them whether it is their own family member or even a close friend. Whether it is real life or a book coming of age, jealousy and identity are themes that everybody faces throughout their lifetime.

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