A Separate Piece is a very unique novel in which it states how conflict can affect the friendship of two friends. This book is written as a flashback and takes place during WW II, at a private school Devon. John Knowles describes the experience between the two friends (Finny) and (Gene). He describes what they experience at the school during the war. The author emphasises the power of imagery, symbolism, and conflict. First, John Knowles states the imagery of the novel that sets the whole tone in the book. He uses imagery by talking about war the same amount of time as talking about sports. Finny sees war as something fake and sports as something real, but Gene feels the opposite. He knows that the was is real and at anytime he might be called in. Finny creates a game that represents both sport and war at the same time. He creates Blitzball where as every player is against everyone. The author here shows that like in sports everyone is against eachother, same as in war. It also shows that there is not a strong friendship between anyone in Devon. This also includes the sport of tree jumping which states the whole theme in the novel. …show more content…
Symbolism is found in every chapter of the book. The most important symbol the author states was Finny's broken leg. In this quote from the book one can see that they are not talking about the bone, but friendship. “Isn't the bone supposed to be stronger when it grows together over a place where it’s been broken once?” “Yes, I think it is.” “I think so too. In fact I think I can feel it getting stronger.” This symbolises the fact that when Gene admitted of breaking Finny's leg, there friendship went a little down the slope. But by this quote, John Knowles states here that there friendship is healing and going to become twice as strong as