Symbolism In John Knowles 'A Separate Peace'

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Many authors use hidden meaning in their stories. Generally, they do this to relate to their life or to get a deeper meaning across through their writing. An example of a story with a hidden meaning is Moby-Dick. In Moby-Dick the whale is white and symbolizes mystery because of the men living in the wild and dark sea. A Separate Peace is about how the main character, Gene, looks back on his years in Devon School. It takes place during World War II and the boys struggle with the difficulties that come along with the war. Gene thinks of his friend, and roommate, Phineas, and remembers their memories together. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Devon is a mental institution because of evidence supporting that Finny is not real, Leper is unbalanced, …show more content…

When the war was going on, Gene and the other boys at Devon started to help out by shoveling the train tracks and doing chores. Leper on the other hand, was skiing and looking for a beaver dam. When Leper told this to Gene he thought, “Leper stands out for me as the person who was most often and most emphatically taken by surprise by this and every other shift in our life at Devon” (Knowles 93). Leper is very affected by change and is always surprised by it. When the war was happening Leper was not affected by it and did not even notice it was happening. This proves that Leper is crazy, so that is why he is at Devon, the mental institution. When Leper enlisted into the war everyone thought that Leper was very successful and was doing great in the war. Everyone but Finny thought that. At the Winter Carnival Gene got a telegram from Leper saying that he escaped and was at the “Christmas Location” which is Leper’s house. Gene left to go find Leper and to see what he escaped from. When Gene got there Leper told him he escaped because, “they were going to give [him] a discharge, a Section Eight discharge” (Knowles 144). A Section Eight discharge is is a phrase from the military that means to be discharged for being “mentally unfit for service” in other words, too crazy to be in the war. Leper is mental and that he is staying in a mental institution, which is Devon. When Gene visited Leper, …show more content…

Finny is not real because he does not have a last name, he is literally too good to be true, and Gene felt like when Finny died it was his own funeral, meaning that Gene made up Finny in his mind. Leper is unbalanced because he is very affected by change, was going to get a Section Eight discharge, and he saw insane things in the war that are impossible. Gene has mental problems, which are Paranoid Personality Disorder and Pathological Jealousy. He has these mental problems because he thought that Finny was trying to take advantage of him, he denied that his jealousy of Finny is a bad thing, and went through Finnyś belongings. Devon school is a mental hospital because all of the kids are mentally challenged and need help. John Knowles uses hidden meanings in his book because he wanted to relate Devon to his own school and show that his school made him, or the other children mentally challenged. He is trying to show that his school was chaotic just like Devon, without saying it

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