Romanticism In John Knowles A Separate Peace

Every author has a different type of style of writing and this author uses romanticism. John Knowles wrote the book A Separate Peace during WWII at a school named Devon. In the

School, there was a young man named Gene. He was confirmative to many people and always in denial about everything. A Separate Peace shows how Gene starts to envy and imitate Finny which leads to Finny’s death and Gene finding peace from him. Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects him on a personal level throughout the novel. one way Gene is affected is that he becomes jealous of him and thinks that he’s trying to ruin his studies like when he states “Oh for God sake! You don’t know I’m talking about. No, of course not. Not you. Okay, we go. We watch little lily-liver lepellier not jump from the tree, and I ruin

Gene was getting mad at Finny because he thought Finny was trying to distract him from studying by using leper as an excuse. Even though he thought that was the case, Finny explained to him that he wasn’t trying to do that. Another way Gene is affected is at the end of the novel when Finny dies, he feels like a part of him dies and that it’s his own funeral like when Gene says “I did not cry then or ever about Finny. I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family’s strait-laced burial ground outside of Boston. I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you don’t cry in that case”

(Knowles 116).Gene was explaining how he felt like part of him died and that he didn’t have to

Cry. Even though all this was happening to Gene personally, all what affected him also affected his friendship with Finny.

Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affected their relationship by pushing them apart