Peace Versus War in A Separate Peace
Peace versus war is an important topic in the novel, A Separate Peace. This theme is plays a strong role in the plot of the story because it helps the reader understand the themes of the book. Because of the use of this theme, the reader is able to better grasp the concepts John Knowles is trying to get across. Peace versus war is evident in the novel through characters, symbols, and the setting. John Knowles is known for his story about internal and external struggles, and his life has helped him understand the themes he writes about.
John Knowles was born on September 16, 1926, in Fairmont, West Virginia. When he was around fifteen years old, “Knowles left the hills of West Virginia to attend the Phillips Exeter Academy... on which Devon School in A Separate Peace is based”(Bloom 1). His experiences at the school helped him come up with a plot for his novel. After he finished his
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schooling at the Academy, Knowles spent eight months in the U.S. Army Air Force before enrolling in Yale University. After graduating, he worked as a drama critic and reporter before becoming a freelance writer. He published a number of short stories including a short story “Phineas” which contained the basis for A Separate Peace (1). Knowles published A Separate Peace in 1959, receiving overwhelmingly favorable reviews. His novel received multiple awards and was even nominated for the National Book Award. After the success of his novel, he began to write full time.however, none of his other works were as popular as A Separate Peace. After the success of that novel, “Knowles’s subsequent novels were unfavorably compared to his first book, which he often called ‘my albatross’” (Smith 3). A film version of the novel was released by Paramount Pictures in 1972, after which he wrote a companion novel called Peace Breaks Out in 1981. Knowles later moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he died in 2001. Characters The characters in the novel help portray the the idea of peace versus war in the novel. The character, Gene, has conflicting feeling about his best friend, Finny. Gene develops a love-hate relationship with Finny,whom he alternately adores and envies. Gene knows that Finny is “a vibrant, honest, likeable boy who easily attracts friends and demonstrates repeatedly his philosophy of non-competitiveness”(Werlock 1). Gene is very jealous of his best friend and wants to be like him. Gene also starts to resent Finny’s natural athletic ability and effortless charm. At this point in the novel, it is clear of the upcoming storm in their friendship. As Gene begins to become conscious with his resentment against Finny, he thinks,”The thought was, You[Gene] and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone...We were even after all, even in enmity. The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all.”(Knowles 48). Gene has internal war with himself about his true feelings about his best friend. Gene decides that Finny is trying to ruin his chances of succeeding academically at school (Werlock). Gene starts to hate his best friend and does everything he can to be better then him. At this point in the novel, Gene and Finny create a club called “Suicide Society of the Summer Session,” which has an initiation of jumping off a tree branch into the river below. When Finny is about to jump off the tree, an unknown impulse causes Gene to shake the branch which causes Finny to fall and break his leg. Gene says, “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”(Knowles 59). The last line of this quote puts into perspective the pedestal Gene puts Finny on and how he thinks he is without fault. In the end, Finny’s injury ruins his chances of fighting in World War II and having athletic glory. Finny’s life will never be the same. When Finny leaves the school for recovery, Gene is left with his own internal struggles, attempting to deal with the knowledge of and motivation of his actions towards his best friend. The peace of Gene and Finny’s friendship is broken at this moment because Gene put his jealously into action. Gene’s desire to be above Finny is now a reality since Gene has a physical advantage over him now. When Finny returns to the school, he is bitter. He is angry about his physical impediments and wants to be an athlete again. After they return for their senior year, “Gene devotes himself to Finny and, at Finny’s suggestion, begins athletic training for the 1944 Olympics”(Werlock 2). This shows that Finny is truly upset about his injuries and wants to live through his best friend. He wants to be able to still live his life to the fullest, even though his friend took it from him. Gene decides to let Finny live through him by using him to become the athlete he can’t be anymore because of his injuries. Finny says to Gene, “Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,”(Knowles 77). This shows that Gene wants to become Finny at some level in regards to his own identity (Werlock). Gene’s internal struggles about his true self identity are evident at this point in the novel. This struggle between Gene not knowing himself shows the true war of friendship. The war for Gene is an internal one because he is fighting with himself in regards to his feelings on his best friend. Another way peace is broken in the novel is when “Leper, the only student to enlist, goes mad during boot camp,when...he meets the inverted disorder that is war”(Werlock). Leper realizes that military life is too much for him and suffers from hallucinations. This is another strong example of war in the novel because Leper’s thoughts show that Knowles is trying to make the point that war isn’t a heroic thing. War is evident in everyday lives and is not limited to a physical war. Leper’s own personal life is affected by it and he is not able to live as the person he once was. The peace of Leper’s life is over after he enlists and he will never be the same again. Symbols Symbols also contribute to the theme of peace versus war in the novel. A major symbol in the novel is Finny’s fall from the tree. When he falls, Finny loses many parts of his life, including his own athletic ability and his innocence. Finny’s fall is also a symbolic one since after his fall the winter session at the school arrives. So, too, does Finny’s fall shows that Gene’s jealousy causes war because he is left with the guilt that he hurt his best friend. Finny,however, still continued to trust Gene after the fall, saying,”Naturally I don't believe books and I don't believe teachers, but I do believe-it's important for me to believe you [Gene]. Christ, I've got to believe you, at least. I know you better than anybody"(Knowles 154). Finny has full trust about Gene which causes him even more internal strife because he knows truly he caused Finny to fall. Gene’s harsh feelings about Finny’s role in his life are meet with an internal war. Because of this internal war after Finny’s fall, the peace of their friendship is lost and new war has started. Finny’s fall also represents evil being unleashed. The lives of the boys at Devon School all go downhill at this point in the novel. For example, Finny loses everything he had and Gene loses himself. When Finny falls out of the tree, their friendship is broken and as his leg heals, their friendship heals as well. When Gene is looking back at the tree in his visit back to the school, he says,“This was the tree, and it seemed to me standing there to resemble those men, the giants of your childhood, whom you encounter years later and find that they are not merely smaller in relation to your growth, but they are absolutely smaller, shrunken by age”(Knowles 18). This quote shows that Gene thought so highly of Finny in their friendship but realized he should not have later in life. Another symbol that shows peace versus war in the novel are the summer and winter sessions at Devon. The summer session at the school is a time where the students are allowed to have fun and be more carefree. It represents the innocence of the characters before they move into adulthood. They are still kids at this point and have not grown up to face the real world. The summer session shows the peace in the novel because Gene and Finny are good friends and there is not much conflict between them yet. Knowles shows the peace of the summer session when he says: Outside there was a rustling early summer movement of the wind; the seniors, allowed out later than we were, came fairly quietly back as the bell sounded ten stately times. Boys ambled past our door toward the bathroom, and there was a period of steadily pouring shower water. Then lights began to snap out all over the school. We undressed, and I put on some pajamas,but Phineas, who heard they were unmilitary,didn’t; there was a silence in which it was understood we were saying some prayers, and then that summer school day came to an end.(20) This quote represents the peace of the summer session and the carefree attitude of the school. Gene and Finny have no worries and just worry about being friends. The peace of the summer session comes to an end with Finny’s actual and symbolic fall, which ushers in the winter session. Opposingly, the winter session is dark, disciplined, and filled with war: an actual war and the war at Devon’s campus itself. It symbolizes the burdens the students face of adulthood and wartime. As the students move into the winter sessions, the war between the characters is on full force. Gene even says at one point,"Winter's occupation seems to have conquered, overrun and destroyed everything, so that now there is no longer any resistance movement left in nature...and now winter itself, an old, corrupt, tired conqueror, loosens its grip on the desolation... it begins itself to withdraw from the ruined countryside”(Knowles 120). Together,the two sessions represent the shift from carefree youth to somber maturity. Also, Finny, unwilling or perhaps unable to face adulthood, dies and never enters into the adulthood of the second session brings. Setting The last important way the idea of peace versus war is present in the novel in through the setting. The book takes place during World War II, which helps portray the idea through conflict in and out of the school. The war in the world shows that conflict is present everywhere and is a fundamental aspect of human life. The setting of World War II symbolizes peace versus war in the novel by the arrival of adulthood over innocent youth. The novel suggests that everyone has their own enemy to fight in their lives. Mr. Hadley says in the novel that,”Your war memories will be with you forever...People will get their respect for you from that-partly from that, don't get me wrong-but if you can say that you were up front where there was some real shooting going on, then that will mean a whole lot to you in years to come" (Knowles 191). He is saying that war remains with a person for a lifetime, so the conflict between friends can never be forgotten. For example, Finny sees too much good in people which causes him to not even have an enemy. Gene thinks that Finny lacks the ability to even have an enemy in his life and he lacks even the most basic concept of human understanding of hostility. It is significant to the novel that the war begins to approach upon the lives of the students with only after Finny’s fall from the tree. Gene says,”In the same way the war, beginning almost humorously with announcements about [no more] maids and days spent at apple-picking, commenced its invasion of the school”(Knowles 73). This quote shows that the war in the school takes place after Finny’s fall. The war inside and out of the school is prevalent because the school begins to fall apart after Finny’s peace is broken. The friendship and trust between Finny and Gene is gone. The peace is broken because of the conflict in and outside of the school. Finny’s immunity to an enemy plays an important role of peace in the novel. Finny tends to find the good in people which causes many people to like him. Gene, however, notices Finny’s disability to have an enemy often. He says to him,”They’d get you some place at the front and there’d be a lull in fighting, and the next thing anyone knew you’d be over with the Germans or the Japs, asking if they’d like to field a baseball team against our side...You’d make a mess, a terrible mess Finny, out of the war”(Knowles 173). Unlike Finny, Gene realizes that war are made from ignorance of the human heart. Their disagreement about the war facing the world causes even more war inside the school itself. The setting of Devon school also helps show peace and war throughout the novel. In the novel, Devon is almost portrayed as a place of peace where no evil can get it. Towards the end of the novel, the war slowly creeps unto the campus and is even more present in the boys lives. For example,”It wasn't the cider which made me surpass myself, 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 128). Gene realizes that the peace of Devon school is corrupted by the war between him and the world around. Gene ,unlike Finny, is able to appreciate the he has a sort of safe haven within the walls of Devon school. The boys are able to be physically separated from the war, but this barrier is an impermanent one. Conclusion Overall, the novel A Separate Peace deals with the idea of peace versus war.
The characters have many conflicts that result in a war among them. They also have times of peace and friendship where all is well at Devon School. The novel also has symbolism of Finny’s fall and the summer and winter sessions which all represent the idea as well. Finny’s fall represents a fall from innocence into the war of adulthood. The summer and winter sessions at the school also represent peace into war as well. As the summer session is full of good times and friendship,the winter session is full of conflict and turmoil. Also, the settings of World War II and Devon school play a role in portraying this idea of the novel. The wartime setting allows the reader to realize as there is a war on the outside, there can also be a war on the inside as well. The Devon school also represents a safe place as well as a dark one. It shows the peace as well as the war of friendship in the novel. In the end, Gene ultimately find peace after battling himself and the world around
him.
Friendship is a necessity throughout life whether it is during elementary school or during adulthood. Some friendships may last a while and some may last for a year; it depends on the strength of the bond and trust between the two people. In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the main characters, Gene and Finny, did not have a pure friendship because it was driven by envy and jealousy, they did not feel the same way towards each other and they did not accurately understand each other.
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 discovers that war and death can never be understood.
expressing individualism is elicited by Gene and Finny actions. Some ways the characters are forced to conform are by peer pressure, as evident in the excerpt,. In this citation, conformity is shown through Gene’s decision of complying with what Finny orders, due to peer pressure of jump off the tree, therefore nearly injuring himself. Furthermore, he realizes it wasn’t his culpability of being in that position, due to if Finny wasn't there none of this would have occurred. Even more, this led to Gene feeling a desire to assert his individualism, due to he feels that Finny has surpassed him in every way, and cause his failure, such as in his academics. As well, Phineas
At the beginning of the literary criticism, it discusses how the book, A Separate Peace, began growing in popularity through the 1900’s. The book was first published by Secker and Wanderburg in London, England (Alton). Its sales drastically went up after it won the William Faulkner Foundation Award (Alton). After that, many teachers wanted A Separate peace to replace the classic, Catcher and the Rye, due to the profanity found in the latter (Alton). After that, the various authors in the literary criticism discuss the praises and criticisms they have of the plot and characters in A Separate Peace. The first praise comes from David Holborn. He discusses how the flashback technique used at the beginning of the novel helps draw the reader
Have you ever had negative thoughts or feelings towards a friend? Envy is a natural condition and likely has evolutionary roots. John Knowles’ book, A Separate Peace, focuses on the complicated friendship between two teenage boys, and the resulting loss of innocence of the protagonist, Gene Forrester. Gene struggles with inner wars such as jealousy, inferiority, and guilt towards his best friend, Phineas.
John Knowles wrote the book A Separate Peace during WWII at a school named Devon. In the
Power, the perception of superiority over another human, is the source of many conflicts between people. Feeling inferior causes people to act beyond their normal personality. John Knowles strongly demonstrates this point in his work, A Separate Peace. In the relationship between Finny and Gene, Gene sets himself up to be inferior in the balance of power which motivates him to act irrationally to take power back from Finny.
In the novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the narrator, Gene Forrester struggles to earn and preserve a separate peace. The story takes place in a remote boarding school named Devon, in New Hampshire. While Gene and Finny are in school, World War II is taking place. The author clearly explains an important story about the jealousy between Gene and his best friend, Phineas. Gene suspects that Finny is trying to sabotage his grades, and Gene allows his jealousy to control his actions. Therefore, Gene misinterprets their relationship by thinking that they shared enmity towards each other, and this caused Gene to enter a world of jealousy and hatred, which ultimately leads to Finny’s death. By examining this jealousy, John Knowles
The American Library Association defines a challenge to a book as, “an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based on the objections of a person or group” (“About Banned). A Separate Peace by John Knowles was one of the many challenged books of its time; it was ranked sixty-seventh on the American Literature Association’s list of most challenged classic novels The book continues to be challenged all over the country and in 2013 it is ranked thirty-fifth on the summer of banned books list .(ALA). A Separate Peace chronicles the life of a boy named Gene Forrester, a student of the prestigious Devon School in New Hampshire. In Gene’s first year at Devon. He becomes close friends with his daredevil of a roommate Finny. Secretly Gene somewhat
"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion. It is harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) A Separate Peace (1959) written by John Knowles, expresses the true struggle to respect ones individuality. In 1942 at a private school in New Hampshire Gene Forrester became good friends with his roommate, Finny. He envies Finny for his great Athletic ability. In spite of the envy, Gene and Finny do everything together and one day for fun they decide to jump out of a tree into the river. After that they form the Super Suicide Society, the first time they jumped being their reason for formation. During one of their meetings they decide to jump off at the same time. When they get up on the limb Gene bounces it and Finny falls on the bank. He shatters the bones in his leg and will never again play sports. Nobody realizes that Gene deliberately made Finny lose his balance. Because of the accident Gene does not play sports either and continues being friends with Finny. One night, some of the other guys from Devon School woke Gene and Finny up in the middle of the night. They are suspicious of the "accident." They conduct a trial to blame Gene for what has happened to Finny. Eventually Finny gets upset in the midst of argument and runs out. He ends up tripping and falling down the stairs, and breaking his healed leg allover again. It was a cleaner break this time but they still have to set it. Gene confesses to Finny that he bounced him out of the tree. While setting the break there are complications and Finny dies. Gene learns that he is his own person and now that Finny is gone he can finally be content with himself. In the beginning Gene feels inferior to Finny.
This story, A Separate Peace, exhibits interesting main characters which establish the frequent struggles of personal identity in adolescence. Gene's story is set in a boarding school called Devon during World War II and "The War" which he speaks of, gives overcast and grim feelings for his classes' future like an impending doom they cannot escape. Finny is a rebellious, charming, and very athletic boy. His charisma comes from his ability to make up rules and ideas on the spot and being able to get out of any trouble, which is magnetic to the other boys at Devon. Most of the teachers admired Phineas because he was the poster boy of boys not yet affected by the war, as mentioned by Gene when he says, "But there was another reason.
Brenda Shoshanna once stated, “All conflict we experience in the world, is a conflict within our own selves.” This quote recognizes how much conflict influences our everyday lives and personality. The wise words were especially true for Gene, the main character in A separate peace, who let his battles with other characters and the society of his time become his own internal battles. In John Knowles’s novel, A separate peace, all the types of conflict are shown through the main character Gene.
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.
John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, reveals the many dangers and hardships of adolescence. The main characters, Gene, and Finny, spend their summer together at a boarding school called Devon. The two boys, do everything together, until Gene, the main character, develops a resentful hatred toward his friend Finny. Gene becomes extremely jealous and envious of Finny, which fuels this resentment, and eventually turns deadly. Knowles presents a look at the darker side of adolescence, showing jealousy’s disastrous effects. Gene’s envious thoughts and jealous nature, create an internal enemy, that he must fight. A liberal humanistic critique reveals that Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, has a self contained meaning, expresses the enhancement of life, and reveals that human nature does not change.