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The influence literature had on history
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Influence of the War on Characters
Historical events can play an important role in a person's life. In A Separate Peace, the whole atmosphere at the Devon School changed as World War II progressed. The boys either eagerly awaited the draft, enlisted in the area of war they wanted, or did not want to go at all. The students at the school created new activities for enjoyment since the customary past times could not be played due to a lack of materials. When a friend "returns" from the war, the boys at Devon got a real sense of what the war was like. The boys learned that going to war was not all fun and games like they had anticipated. The influence World War II had on the characters in A Separate Peace and on life at the Devon School was clearly depicted through their actions and activities.
The beginning of the novel allows the reader to get a feel of what the Devon School was like during that time period. Students of "war age" were constantly leaving Devon to go to the war, either by choice or by draft. Whether kids wanted to go or not, the anticipation was always present. As winter approached the Devon school, so did the encroaching shadow of the war. The boys were called out to help shovel free a troop train trapped by snow-blocked tracks. The experience "brings the war home" for all of them, and they realized they would have to face a crucial decision very soon. Maturity leapt upon them, whether they're ready for it or not, at the tender age of seventeen. The excitement of the war had gotten to everybody at the school, including the staff, and made it a chaotic place. The boys wer...
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...as different because of his experience.
****I like how you incorporate quotes from the book into your own thoughts in these sentences:
When a friend "returns" from the war, the boys at Devon got a real sense of what the war was like.
The boys were called out to help shovel free a troop train trapped by snow-blocked tracks. The experience "brings the war home" for all of them, and they realized they would have to face a crucial decision very soon.
****You need to be consistent with the tenses. To solve the problem you can do one of two things. You can change the tense of the verb in the quotation and enclose it in brackets to show that you changed the tense. (e.g. "return[ed]" "[brought]") Or you can just change the tense of all your discussion to present tense, which is commonly done when discussing books.
They become part of the regiment proudly known as General Barlow’s Boys. The war turned out to be nothing like they expected. All ...
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.
History of St. John's Wort St. John’s Wort has been in use for about 2400 years and has been utilized for many different purposes throughout history. Some of these less modern uses have been nerve tonic, painkiller, including effectiveness for relieving arthritis pain and menstrual cramping, and relief for gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhea, nausea, and more serious problems like ulcers. Now it is becoming more common as a remedy for depression and anxiety but is simultaneously being tested as a possible type of assistance for AIDS patients because it appears to help the immune system combat viruses.
The story takes place through the eyes of a German infantryman named Paul Baumer. He is nineteen and just joined up with the German army after high school with the persuasion of one of his schoolteachers, Mr. Kantorek. Paul recalls how he would use all class period lecturing the students, peering through his spectacles and saying: "Won't you join up comrades?"(10). Here was a man who loved war. He loved the "glory" of war. He loved it so much as to persuade every boy in his class to join up with the army. He must have thought how proud they would be marching out onto that field in their military attire.
War always seems to have no end. A war between countries can cross the world, whether it is considered a world war or not. No one can be saved from the reaches of a violent war, not even those locked in a safe haven. War looms over all who recognize it. For some, knowing the war will be their future provides a reason for living, but for others the war represents the snatching of their lives without their consent. Every reaction to war in A Separate Peace is different, as in life. In the novel, about boys coming of age during World War II, John Knowles uses character development, negative diction, and setting to argue that war forever changes the way we see the world and forces us to mature rapidly.
"Looking back now across fifteen years, I could see with great clarity the fear I had lived in, which must mean that in the interval I had succeeded in a very important undertaking: I must have made my escape from it" ( Knowles 5). In this novel A Separate Peace, using these words, John Knowles reveals the fear that haunts the students at Devon and when they proceeded with all their training for the war they mature into adults.
After he goes to ride the soldier, he his flung from his back and actually sees the soldier, “a face that lack a lower jaw – from upper teeth to the throat was a great red gap fringed with hanging shreds of flesh and splinters of bone.” (Bierce 44). This is the first glimpse the boy comprehends of the true devastation of war. And at this point the child has his first rational reaction,“terrified at last, ran to a tree near by, got upon the farther side of it and took a more serious view of the situation.” (Bierce 44). The author is using the childes revelation of the violence in war to introduce to his readers the devastation of
When the war breaks out, this tranquil little town seems like the last place on earth that could produce a team of vicious, violent soldiers. Soon we see Jim thrown into a completely contrasting `world', full of violence and fighting, and the strong dissimilarity between his hometown and this new war-stricken country is emphasised. The fact that the original setting is so diversely opposite to that if the war setting, the harsh reality of the horror of war is demonstrated.
The book starts out by talking about how they all went to school together. He introduces all of the characters and describes what they all are like. The characters in this book learn to deal with the cold nights and their growling stomachs. Some of the soldiers would sneak out and get hay to cover up with during the night. (Page 40)
War slowly begins to strip away the ideals these boy-men once cherished. Their respect for authority is torn away by their disillusionment with their schoolteacher, Kantorek who pushed them to join. This is followed by their brief encounter with Corporal Himmelstoss at boot camp. The contemptible tactics that their superior officer Himmelstoss perpetrates in the name of discipline finally shatters their respect for authority. As the boys, fresh from boot camp, march toward the front for the first time, each one looks over his shoulder at the departing transport truck. They realize that they have now cast aside their lives as schoolboys and they feel the numbing reality of their uncertain futures.
The Colonial Period was partially a "golden age" for women, for, although it did possess some qualities of a golden age, it also had aspects that held it back from fully being a time of prosperity for women. As the Colonial period progress changes in population, lifestyles, and opportunities had effects that opened new doors for women as well as held them back from reaching their full potential.
When the war was over, the survivors went home and the world tried to return to normalcy. Unfortunately, settling down in peacetime proved more difficult than expected. During the war, the boys had fought against both the enemy and death in far away lands; the girls had bought into the patriotic fervor and aggressively entered the workforce. During the war, both the boys and the girls of this generation had broken out of society's structure; they found it very difficult to return.
As evidenced by his words, it was not simply a matter of going over there at the age of seventeen to fight for one’s country. Rather, it was a matter of leaving behind the safety and security of the home to which you were accustomed, with little expectation of returning. At a time when these ‘kids’ should have been enjoying, they were burdened with the the trepidation of being drafted.
One of the broader suggested causes was hysteria. Hysteria can arise due to many different situations. One catalyst for hysteria was fear. Fear of things such as Indian attacks (salemwitchtrials.com) kept people up at night. People lived in fear-ruled worlds. Puritans had to be careful, because at any point Indians could attack them. This resulted in the spread of rumors, because survivors of attacks would then go and seek protection in Salem, and they would tell others of their recent horrific experience.
In John Knowle’s A Separate Peace, symbols are used to develop and advance the themes of the novel. One theme is the lack of an awareness of the real world among the students who attend the Devon Academy. The war is a symbol of the "real world", from which the boys exclude themselves. It is as if the boys are in their own little world or bubble secluded from the outside world and everyone else. Along with their friends, Gene and Finny play games and joke about the war instead of taking it seriously and preparing for it. Finny organizes the Winter Carnival, invents the game of Blitz Ball, and encourages his friends to have a snowball fight. When Gene looks back on that day of the Winter Carnival, he says, "---it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace" (Knowles, 832). As he watches the snowball fight, Gene thinks to himself, "There they all were now, the cream of the school, the lights and leaders of the senior class, with their high IQs and expensive shoes, as Brinker had said, pasting each other with snowballs"(843).