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Nature of friendship
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Nature of friendship
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Friendship and Tragedy in John Knowles' A Separate Peace
Some friendships last forever and others do not but in the novel, A Separate Peace (1959) by John Knowles, displays a different kind of friendship. The reader throughout this novel was very entertained. This novel takes place at the Devon Preparatory School in the years of 1942-1943.
This story begins when Gene Forrester comes back to the Devon School fifteen years after his graduation to relive a tragic story. He walks up to a tree and the story then begins in the summer of 1942. When Gene arrives at the school he meets a very intriguing person by the name of Phineas also known as Finny, they end up starting the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session, where they meet every night at the big tree by the river. Later, in the story Finny and Gene decide to skip school and when they get back Gene has to take a test and fails, which he blames it on Finny. Then one night at the tree Finny is on the limb of the tree that jump from into the water Gene causes the limb to move causing Finny to fall. This fall breaks his leg. Finny is out of a school for awhile and when he returns to school there is a mock trial held in order to determine if Gene caused this on purpose. Finny is astonished by this a leave the courtroom he falls down stairs re-breaking his leg. Finny dies in the operation to reset his leg. Gene finishes out his senior year and leaves and the school is turned into an Army base. Throughout this novel both Gene and Phineas display the theme of friendship. Sometimes friendship is valued most through tragedy.
From the very beginning of the novel Finny was displayed as a character that everyone wants to be around. He is a very athletic boy who excels at every...
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... the night before Finny and Gene had a conversation just like they did in the early stages of their friendship. The artist of this novel states, "We started to laugh again, with a half-guilty exchange of glances, in the way that two people who had gone on a gigantic binge when they were last together would laugh" (147). This shows how they spent there last night together. Later Finny died in the operating room when they were trying to reset his leg.
John Knowles had the reader interested throughout this whole novel. This novel showed how friendship is sometimes valued most through tragedy. Tragedy occurs when even a person does not mean to cause harm. A person will never truly value their friendship except through tragedy. Gene and Finny had created their "separate peace." Creating peace between them helped them get through their tough times when tragedy struck.
In John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, characters Gene and Phineas begin their journeys to adulthood in a war torn environment. The dynamic formed between a world full of struggle and the crucial age of development in high school proves to be an excellent setting to examine the abilities of both Gene and Phineas to “come of age.” Being a Bildungsroman, the theme of coping with war and death is highlighted via the imagery that surrounds both Gene’s epiphany moment at the marble stairs, and its introduction at the beginning of the novel. Additionally, Knowles employs a flashback to set a nostalgic and somewhat reflective mood, which further extends this meaning. In Knowles’ “coming of age” novel A Separate Peace, the use of imagery surrounding the marble stairs, and a reminiscent flashback aid Gene is discovering that war and death can never be understood.
The quote, “Ignorance is bliss,” by Thomas Gray is a seemingly adequate description of the lives of Gene, Finny, and Leper until they are all roughly jolted out of their fantasy world and brought back to reality. In A Separate Peace, John Knowles does an acceptable job of showing how disillusionment can greatly impact and, thus, change the lives of people. The book showcases the cycle of disillusionment and the ramifications it implies. Throughout the book, we see Gene, Leper, and Finny’s views on the world change. This all culminates in Gene being elevated to a higher level of understanding of the world and seeing the truth about Devon and the war. The illusions created by Finny and Leper are also taken on by Gene, and he, in turn, shares in their disillusionment. Overall, disillusionment is a part of life and often serves as a tool to help many people grow and learn from the past.
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 A Separate Peace by John Knowles, two boys named Gene and Finny attend a New England boarding school, where they learn to overcome challenging obstacles and make life-changing decisions as they come of age. The boys live in a microcosm of World War II, with loyalty and deception constantly thrown around. Gene is an introverted, hard working intellectual and his friend, Phineas, is an outgoing, daring athlete. When jealousy and competition start to come in play, tensions begin to rise. Through Gene and Finny’s perspective on jealousy and the competition between the friends, John Knowles illustrates their rivalry as the barrier dividing the boys and their friendship.
Every person feels rivalry or competition towards others at some point in their lives. This rivalry greatly affects our ability to understand others, and this eventually results in paranoia and hostility. It is a part of human nature, that people coldly drive ahead for their gain alone. Man's inhumanity towards man is a way for people to protect themselves from having pain inflicted on them by others, and achieving their goals and desires without the interference of others. This concept of man's inhumanity to man is developed in A Separate Peace as the primary conflict in the novel centres on the main character, Gene, and his inner-battles with feelings of jealousy, paranoia, and inability to understand his relationship with his best friend Phineas. Competition is further demonstrated by the occurrence of World War II. It is shown that, "There were few relationships among us (the students) at Devon not based on rivalry." (p. 37) It is this rivalry and competition between the boys at Devon that ripped their friendships apart.
In conclusion, caffeine in coffee and the consumption Americans drink daily can be an issue for human health, sleep pattern, and physical dependency leading to caffeine withdrawal symptoms from quitting immediately. Caffeine addictions would diminish your health and probably put your life in risk of death and a higher percentage of falling into depression, and other diseases. Lovers of a wide variety of beverages containing caffeine after all the information provided in many studies and research
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. . . .
The novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, is the coming of age story of Gene Forrester. This novel is a flashback to the year 1943, when Gene is attending Devon School during his senior year and the summer before it. "Gene's youth and inexperience make him ill-equipped to deal with situations that require maturity" (Overview: A Separate Peace 2). However, Gene is a follower of Finny and therefore gains experiences that provoke his development into adulthood. Some of these experiences include: breaking Finny's leg, training for the 1944 Olympics, and killing Finny. Through these three experiences Gene is forced to grow out of his childish-self and become a man.
The dawning of the nineteen century brought with it a change in the political and social climate, the world was ready to usher in a new era of artistic thought. This new awareness was called “Romanticism” and saw its height during the Industrial Revolution. At this time, the Romantic era centered on the ideas of emotion, fantasy and hope. The end of the French Revolution became an important force in propelling a new train of thought. For the first time people were now regarded as individuals, oppression was sympathized and the banner of equality was flying high.
Most people aren’t aware that caffeine can act as a stimulant to the central nervous system. So once someone consumes a caffeinated beverage they may begin to notice a slight change in the way their body begins to feel. Caffeine can be found in many different places such as energy drinks, coffee, candy and also in other common beverages and over the counter medications. Caffeine can have major side effects on those who consume it on a regular routine, but caffeine can also have side effects on those who rarely even consume caffeine . “These side effects include sleep deprivation, nausea, cramping, anxiety, fatigue, and headaches (Braun 73).” Not only does drinking a couple of caffeinated beverages come with its list of side effects, caffeine consumption has also been proven to show drastic changes in the kidneys. “Also, caffeine has been known to weaken the detrusor muscles in the bladder, which provokes the need to urinate (Chambers 42).” So once a person has been consuming caffeine past a certain period of time it begins to become difficult for them to regulate their trips to the bathroom. The list of harm caffeine does on the human body could continue forever, but I will review some of the most relevant categories. Caffeine can have harmful effects on the human body that people are not aware of, therefore I believe that people should be informed what exactly caffeine is and how it affects them directly in terms of where caffeine can be found, the effects it has on the brain and the heart and also the pregnancy effects. Also, people should be provided with a general knowledge of how caffeine can play a part in someone’s life, and some steps to help slow down the consumption of caffeine.
What happen to the caffeine when it is ingested, and what are its consequences? In addressing these questions, there have been many contributors spent much time to prove that caffeine has been shown to behave as an adenosine antagonist to stimulate motor activity, mood and behavior. This antagonist behavior is the basis for an increase in cholinergic and dopaminergic behavior after caffeine intake. Beside of that, the acute administration of caffeine has been reported by several laboratories to elevate brain level of serotonin (5-HT) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA). This increase of serotonin may be associated with the improvement in good mood. Recent studies also show the higher caffeine intake to a lower suicide risk. In this paper, I will investigate the caffeine at a biochemical level and relate its effects on physiological behavior of human with information from the recent research.
Consumption of 1000–1500 mg per day is associated with a condition known as caffeinism. Caffeinism usually combines caffeine dependency with a wide range of unpleasant physical and mental conditions including nervousness, irritability, restlessness, insomnia, headaches, and heart palpitations after caffeine use. Caffeine blocks the neurotransmitter adenosine, which acts as an inhibitor of the other neurotransmitters. “When adenosine flows normally through the brain, it slows down the brain and body… When adenosine is blocked, the brain and body become more alert and active (Marcovitz 33).” Caffeine from coffee or other beverages is absorbed by the small intestine within 45 minutes of ingestion and then distributed throughout all tissues of the body. Peak blood concentration is reached within one hour. The biological half-life of caffeine the time required for the body to eliminate one-half of the total amount of caffeine varies widely among individuals according to such factors as age, liver function, pregnancy, some concurrent medications, and the level of enzymes in the liver needed for caffeine metabolism. It can also be significantly altered by drugs or hormonal states. In healthy adults, caffeine's half-life has been measured with a ra...
I am going to start with the pros of caffeine. When most people think of caffeine, they think of quick energy, and reduced drowsiness. This is in fact is true, and you may have realized that from using it before.The science behind this has two factors, which both involve your brain. To decrease drowsiness,it blocks your adenosine receptors. Adenosine is the chemical that tells your body that it is tired, which is our body’s way of trying to get us to rest. When we block the receptors, your body stops saying that it is tired, and you feel like you have an energy boost. Another thing that caffeine does is produce dopamine. Dopamine is the chemical that makes you feel happy. The caffeine increases the levels of dopamine being created, and gives your mood a boost too. Caffeine has also been shown to temporarily create other benefits too,such as someones ability to learn, improved reflexes, being able to think clearer and better memory. Regular coffee drinkers were also 80% less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, which is...
The use of cell phones, in all ways, while operating a vehicle is already illegal in twelve states across the country. If one is caught using their phone while driving, drivers may be faced with a ticket and a fi...
Resulting in part from the libertarian and egalitarian ideals of the French Revolution, the romantic movements had in common only a revolt against the prescribed rules of classicism. The basic aims of romanticism were various: a return to nature and to belief in the goodness of humanity; the rediscovery of the artist as a supremely individual creator; the development of nationalistic pride; and the exaltation of the senses and emotions over reason and intellect.