A Separate Peace Essay A Separate Peace Narrative A Separate Peace: Rivalry A Separate Peace Essay examples A Separate Peace Essay Themes Of A Separate Peace A Separate Peace Analysis

1. A Separate Peace Essay
In the novel "A Separate Peace", by John Knowles, Gene the protagonist transforms from a clueless
individual to one who understands events as he gains knowledge and experience. The story takes
place in the 1944 summer session at Devon School in New Hampshire during World War II. The
two characters, smart and careful Gene and his athletic and carefree Finny, have a strong friendship
in which Gene tricks himself into thinking as a deep rivalry. Gene's opposing feeling against Finny
thoughtlessly causes him to fall from the tree and shatter his legs. The two regains their close
friendship as the story goes on; however, Finny dies as he break his legs the second time, and the
marrow from the break gets into his blood. Throughout the story, Gene...show more content...
While Gene is first moving from the south to go to Devon, he thinks that he might have to act like
someone else to fit in. However spending time with his daredevil roommate Finny, he soon realizes
that he could just be himself. In the story, Gene tries to counterbalance against Finny, who is his
closest friend and at the same time the school's athlete star. Friendship is a combination of
admiration, respect, jealousy, and can sometimes blur one's identity. Gene lets his evil side of him
take over both physically and mentally causing him to trick himself that Finny is a conniving foil
that wants to sabotage his academic merits. As the number of Finny's invitation to activities increase,
Gene starts to think that Finny is intentionally trying to make Gene fail out of school. Gene starts to
dislike how Finny often interrupts and invites him to the tree jumping. "Holding firmly to the trunk
I took a step towards him and my knees bent and I jounced the limb," (Knowles, 60) In Chapter 4,
with anger and jealousy built up within Gene, he loses his battle against his inner–self and
thoughtlessly causes Finny to fall off the tree and shatter his legs. Gene was unable to confess to
Finny and admit to himself that he had caused the accident. However, Gene overcomes the obstacles,
and he expresses regret and confesses to Finny that he was the one that shook the branch of the tree
that caused Finny to
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2. A Separate Peace Narrative
When the present generation is asked about World War II, minds automatically go to Hitler, the
Nazis and possibly one of the many semi–terrible movies "based" on true events. This generation is
completely unattached to the naive soldiers who fought against the now notorious Hitler and Nazis.
The horror the youth of the time faced is completely unimaginable, except when told through a
realistic story highlighting the emotional trauma the young boys endured. A Separate Peace by John
Knowles highlights the multiple meanings of a separate peace, symbolized by the setting,
characters, and plot elements within the story showing the true trauma of growing up in a war–torn
country.
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3. A Separate Peace: Rivalry
4. Rivalry: A rivalry is a relationship between two people or groups that are competing for success in
the same field. It is unlike any other competition between two groups. This is because it includes
much more emotion and higher stakes. Quotes: To keep silent about this amazing happening
deepened the shock for me. It made Finny seem too unusual for–not friendship, but too unusual for
rivalry. And there were few relationships among us at Devon not based on rivalry.– Chapter 3 In this
quote, Gene is explaining the rivalry that he has sensed with Phineas. At this point, Finny has made a
major athletic accomplishment, but refrained from making it a big deal. Phineas has kept silent
about what he did and not used it to his advantage in the rivalry...show more content...
My friends and I are constantly playing games where the winner is entitled to bragging rights. We
versus all the time, and boastful when we play well. One topic that some of the biggest rivalries
and arguments come from in my friend group is with professional sport teams. For example, a
couple of my friends are fans of the Golden State Warriors and never fail to let me know how
successful of a year they're having. On the other hand, I can't stand this team and always tell them
how the team is going to choke. I argue with them about the talent the team has and about if there
captain really is the best player in the league. Simple arguments and opinions turn into deadly
rivalries when my friends begin to talk professional sports. All of our beliefs typically collide in
some way and we're left debating over questions that have no true
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4. A Separate Peace Essay examples
Brittany Schafer
September 21, 2012 Period 4
A Separate Peace Final Draft
In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, it relates to a complicated friendship of two young
boys Gene and Phineas. Gene is jealous of Phineas' achievements and lets his anger destroy their
relationship. The boys at Devon in the summer of 1942 have to deal with the fear WorldWar II
brings. Each time the boys feel safe and peaceful, reality sets in and reminds them of the warfare
around them. The boy's mental stability is tested by the struggles of school and the causes of their
actions. John Knowles' A Separate Peace displays how fear, warfare, and friendship can affect a
person's innocence and youth. Fear has affected Gene and made him paranoid with...show more
content...
Gene asks Finny what he think caused him to fall out of the tree to find out if Finny knows it was
Gene. When Gene visits Finny and tells him he was at fault, he regrets telling him, "It struck me
then that I was injuring him again. It occurred to me that this could be an even deeper injury than
what I had done before. I would have to back out of it, I would have to disown it." (62) Gene cannot
handle the stress of telling Finny the truth that he is afraid he might black out. Throughout the novel,
the war has caused great worry, wonder, and fear for the sixteen–year–old boys at Devon who could
enlist anytime. When the Boys open a Winter Carnival, it helps them believe that the war does not
exist and gets their mind off the war. Gene is caught up yet again in Finny's upbeat world by
helping run this carnival. The boys' happiness is interrupted at the end of the carnival when a
telegram is sent by Leper informing the boys he has escaped. The boys not only deal with military
warfare, but personal wars and feelings of hostility and resentment. Gene learns that one mans only
enemy was himself, "...this enemy they thought they saw across the frontier, this enemy who never
attacked that way– if he never attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy." (196) Gene struggles
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5. A Separate Peace Essay
A Separate Peace
Dealing with enemies has been a problem since the beginning of time. "I never killed anybody,"
Gene had commented later in his life, "And I never developed an intense level of hatred for the
enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform, I was on active duty all my time at
Devon; I killed my enemy there." In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the value of dealing with
enemies is shown by Gene, who was dealing with few human enemies, but his emotions created far
greater rivals than any human could ever posses.
One of the enemies that Gene created for himself was jealousy. Gene was jealous of everything
about Finny. The openness which Finny possessed was one of these things which Gene envied. One
incident of...show more content...
The real war, however, started when he got the idea that because Finny had low grades, he
wanted to lower Gene's grades as well, so he could remain "better than" Gene. Gene believed that
Finny was trying to wreck his studies with games and going to the beach, and their Secret Suicide
Society. Another time Gene's anger shows is when Finny wanted Gene to come jump off the tree
into the river with him, as they had been doing, and he claimed that Leper would be jumping too.
Gene burst out angrily at the idea because he was studying, and he thought Finny was trying to
wreck his grades, so he said no. Finny responded with no offense taken. Gene not being able to
say "no" to Finny changed his mind and went to the tree anyway. Gene was now enraged on the
inside because he realized that Finny was not trying to wreck his studies, and really was "perfect."
Still feeling angry by Finny's "perfection," Gene jounced the limb when they were about to jump,
causing Finny to fall and break his leg. This shows that Gene's anger, mixed with this jealousy,
drove him to cause physical pain to someone who was dear to him.
Another enemy of Gene's is Finny's modesty. Early in the story, Finny demonstrated his modesty by
when asked for his height he replied "Five feet eight and a half inches." Gene replied that he himself
was "five feet nine inches." Finny pointed out that they were the same height and that Gene shouldn't
be ashamed to
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6. Themes Of A Separate Peace
There are many different themes that make up the novel a separate peace, but some that stand out
are friendship, loyalty, and jealousy. some examples of those three themes are when finny broke the
swimming record and told gene not to tell anyone, it shows loyalty because gene listened to finny
and didn't tell anyone about him breaking the record and it also shows friendship, it hints to jealousy
though because throughout the story gene thinks that finny is trying to look like he is better than
him at sports and it shows that gene is jealous. When gene and finny jump out of the tree together it
displays both friendship and loyalty because it shows that they both trust each other and are really
close because they jumped out of a tree together
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7. A Separate Peace Analysis
John Knowles' novel A Separate Peace is about a few boys at a boarding school in New
Hampshire. The story is centered around the friendship of two boys, Gene and Finny, at a
boarding school in New Hampshire. Although in the beginning of their friendship Gene did not
trust Finny, by the time he dies Gene feels as if a part of him has died, showing that he still felt
closely bonded to him after all they had been through. Gene's trust towards Finny first subtly comes
through after returning from Leper's house. "I wanted to see Phineas, and only Phineas. With him
there was no conflict except between athletes... This was the only conflict he had ever believed in."
(Knowles, 152)When Gene returns from Leper's house, all he wants to do is see...show more
content...
Finny was such a large part of Gene, so crying would seem like self pity. There was a lot of tension
between Finny and Gene after the accident on the stairs, so Gene still feeling like a part of Finny after
all of that shows that the two were truly connected.
"I wanted to see Phineas, and only Phineas. With him there was no conflict except between
athletes... This was the only conflict he had ever believed in." (page 152) When Gene returns from
Leper's house, all he wants to do is see Finny. Gene says that Finny never believed in any conflict,
which alludes to when Gene admitted to making him fall out of the tree, and Finny refusing to
believe him. Gene wants to forget about what happened, as the event is fresh in his mind after
coming back from Leper's. He still subconsciously trusts Finny to not bring up the subject of what
happened at the tree.
"My aid alone had never seemed to him in the category of help... Phineas had thought of me as an
extension of himself." (page 180) After Finny falls down the stairs, Gene is left standing on the
sidelines. Phineas sees Gene as a part of him, as does Gene. When Finny is in need of help, Gene
doesn't try to assist him as he doesn't see the need to. A person wouldn't try and help themselves if
they got hurt, so Gene doesen't feel compelled to help Finny.
"I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case" (Page
194) In all of the time
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