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A separate peace essay character development
A separate peace essay character development
A separate peace essay character development
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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. At the Devon School, the climate of war creates an even greater impedance in the way of Gene and Phineas’ development, as now both characters must attempt to understand death. For Gene at such a young age, death has never been a part of his life until Phineas dies. Phineas has always been fated to die, but Gene is not able to comprehend this until Finny falls down the marble stairs at the First Academy Building. On revisiting the marble stairs, Gene recognizes their “exceptional hardness” (Knowles 11). The hardness that Gene speaks of is representative of the hardness of coping with war and death during such a crucial developmental time. This imagery is utilized by Knowles in A Separate Peace to define that until Gene recognizes the incomprehensible nature of war and death, he will never escape the liminal state. By watching Phineas fall down the marble stairs, Gene is enlightened to the fact that war is real, death cannot be avoided, and both can never be
Gene understands that Finny is unable to make a transition into adulthood when he says, “You’d get things so scrambled up nobody would know who to fight anymore. You’d make a mess, a terrible mess, Finny, out of the war” (191). Finny is unable to make an enemy out of anyone therefore preventing him from finding any real internal war to fight. Gene is already experiencing a mental and emotional battle from Finny’s fall allowing him to enter adulthood. Childhood can not thrive forever, adults cannot carry the careless characteristics of a small boy, and this is why Phineas can never made it to adulthood; he can never fully reveal an internal fight with true emotion behind it. Gene is shattered to the doctor say, “‘This is something I think boys of your generation are going to see a lot of,’ he said quietly, ‘and I will have to tell you about it now. Your friend is dead.’ He was incomprehensible” (193). Nevertheless, this marks the end of Gene’s war and grants him entrance into adulthood. Phineas’ death is the true mark that one can not be a child forever, they must find a fight inside their head that requires emotional and intellectual strength to become an
Maturity in A Separate Peace and Quiet on the Western Front. The evolution from a child to adult is a long and complex process. There is another transitional step that goes in the middle of these two periods. In warlike terms, such as those used in the settings of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and John Knowles's A Separate Peace, that step could be classified as being a soldier.
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 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, the main character, Gene, transforms from a clueless individual, to one who understands events by the middle of the novel, when he starts to gain knowledge. By the end of the novel, Gene is a wise individual who has obtained his knowledge with age.
The novel, through all its chapters, has advanced considerably on the theme of war and rivalry and Coming-of-Age. Through various instances in the book, we get to learn the impacts of war. The story has used this fact to symbolize various notions. Knowles has made us understand the rivalry that existed between Gene and Finny. The kind of conflicts and enmity between them ends up with Finny’s tragic fall. It is clear that Coming-of-Age, individual’s life change greatly. Gene hence is left guilty and ashamed of his actions. It is evident that one must fight the forces of childhood innocence and face the harsh realities of adulthood. A Separate Peace, therefore, is a novel based on the tremendous transitions witnessed as one advance in adult
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.
“Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud, It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear forgotten.” (Knowles 59-60). Gene Forrester, one of the main characters in John Knowles' novel A Separate Peace, describes his best friend Phineas' fall from a “tremendous tree, an irate steely black steeple beside a river,”(Knowles 6) at their all boys boarding school, Devon. Gene is an introverted young boy who is very academically gifted. Finny, however, is an extremely extroverted childish young boy who is very athleticaly gifted. Finny's fall eventually leads to terrible things, such as death and guilt. Throughout the novel Knowles uses Phineas' fall from the tree to symbolize his loss of innocence, to show Gene's guilt, and to develop Phinea's death.
The concept of man’s inhumanity to man is developed in John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace. The primary conflict in this novel centers on the main character, Gene, and his battling of jealousy, paranoia, and inability to understand his relationship with his best friend Phineas. Yet the larger battle of man’s inhumanity to man is portrayed by the backdrop of World War II.
All through A Separate Peace, Finny is characterized as an overwhelmingly charismatic and sports-oriented young man; therefore, it comes as no surprise that Gene is insanely jealous of this. An example of this jealousy is communicated on page twenty-seven when Finny is about to get into trouble with the substitute headmaster; Gene even goes as far as to think, “This time he wasn’t going to get away with it. I could feel myself becoming unexpectedly excited at that.” Up until this point in the story, Phineas has been able to talk himself out of every situation, and this undoubtedly drives Gene mad with jealousy because he knows that he does not have the same ability; consequently, when Finny seems to get himself into a tricky situation that seems impossible to evade, Gene sits back and watches the show. At Devon, Finny is not only known for weaving a tale, but also for his achievements on the field; on the other hand, Gene is known for his intelligence, but he is still jealous of all the awards Finny has for athletics. On page fifty-one, when Gene and Finny are speaking about Gene’s lofty goal of becoming valedictorian, Gene, in seemingly mocking way, starts to ponder Finny’s achievements, “After all, he should talk. He had won and been proud to win the
Gene suffers the crippling effects of seeking one’s identity in another while the backdrop of the war moves on around the boys at Devon. In John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace, Knowles explores the struggle of finding one’s identity in the war-time era. The students are expected enlist in the war effort as soon as they are able to avoid the draft. The pressure of the war and Gene’s insecurity lead him down an unsavory and tragic path in the novel. Unlike his best friend Gene can never fully grasp his true nature.
Throughout the historic fiction novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles conveys that ignorance leads to a skewed perception of reality and one’s self through his development of Phineas’ character. During a discussion with Gene about the ongoing war, Phineas asks Gene, “I don’t really believe we bombed Central Europe, do you?” (29). The incredulity of Phineas’ question implies that he is unable to acknowledge the reality of World War II, distorting his perception even further. Phineas’ inability to accept war, which is rooted in vicious savagery, further emphasizes his naiveté. When Gene first faces the tree by the river, the possible consequences of falling off the tree concern him, but he observes that Phineas “of course saw nothing the slightest
When the present generation is asked about World War II, minds wander toward Hitler, the Nazis, and possibly one of the many movies “based” on true events. This generation is completely unattached to the naive soldiers who fought against the notorious Hitler and Nazis. The horrors that young persons experienced during this time are completely unimaginable, except when told through a realistic story highlighting the emotional trauma young boys endured during that time through the novel A Separate Peace. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, highlights the multiple meanings of “separate peace” as both a title and theme. These areas are symbolized by the setting, characters, and plot elements within the story, showing the true trauma of growing up in a war-torn
John Knowles’s novel A Separate Peace follows a group of private school students during a turning point in their lives. After having been secluded from the chaos around the world, their sudden involvement in Finny’s injury and the war effort force them to adopt different perspectives. The more they learn from these new viewpoints, the more they mature and understand how little effect their childhood problems have on the world around them. A Separate Peace shows that in order to grow as a person it is necessary to view life from a different perspective.
An effective novel immerses the reader into a memorable journey, the reader connects with the characters, the reader connects with the theme, the reader learns morals from the novel, the reader is astonished by the symbolism and styles, and the reader is fully immersed in an unforgettable experience. A novel connects to its reader and relates to life through effective use of themes and literary styles. Each novel is unique in the theme depicted and the styles used. However, for a novel to be a part of the English curriculum, the reader must relate to the theme and the various styles throughout the novel. John Knowles’s, A Separate Peace, should remain in the AP curriculum as it demonstrates a mature style and a relevant theme that in order