ipl-logo

A Brief Summary Of A Separate Piece By John Knowles

513 Words3 Pages

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

Show More
Related
570 Words | 3 Pages

A Separate Piece, by John Knowles, is a coming of age novel that follows the development of the main character, Gene Forester, a junior at an exclusive boy’s school in New England. This extract focuses on Gene moving on from Devon and moving on from Phineas. As Gene looks back on his days at Devon, he begins to accept the mistake he made. Not the mistake of pushing Finny off the tree, but the mistake of misunderstanding their friendship. By the end of the novel, Gene has discovered himself.

Read More
980 Words | 4 Pages

Differences in A Separate Peace Novel and Film Everyone at some point has felt envious of their bestfriend. In the novel, “A Separate Peace”, envy leads to many problems and changes in the film. Phineas is a main character that is bestfriends with Gene; he is athletic, a leader, and goes by Finny. Leper is a student that is viewed as weird. When he came back from the war he is portrayed differently in the film than in the book.

Read More
307 Words | 2 Pages

In A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses the universality of jealousy and envy to develop a theme based upon man’s inhumanity to man. Fifteen years after attending Devon, an elite military preparatory school located in New Hampshire, the narrator, Gene Forrester, returned to reflect upon how fearful he was during the time he spent training and studying for World War II. He then decides to visit the places or symbols on the campus that were closely associated with his fear; a marble staircase and a tree placed near the bank of the river. As Gene visits these key symbols of fear, he flashes back upon his time at Devon. He remembers his best friend, Phineas or Finny, as a very superior athlete and charming young man.

Read More
1613 Words | 7 Pages

In the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene is a teenage boy who attends the boarding school called Devon. Devon is a sanctuary for young men before in the midst of World War II. The boys’ lives are surrounded by influences of war and influences on each other. Gene lives with his roommate Phineas (Finny) who he spends the majority of his time with. Being surrounding by each other all the time, all the boys in Devon influence who each other are.

Read More
692 Words | 3 Pages

The author, John Knowles, in the novel, “A Separate Peace”, conveys the lesson of friendship, or rather the lack of, with his use of diction. The strategy in which the author phrased certain sections of dialogue between Finny and Gene is there to show that Finny cares for Gene despite Gene’s obvious discontent. The friendship is a one-way street, and the author uses diction to represent this unbalance in the relationship, leading to friendship being a key theme throughout the book. There exist many examples of this diction throughout the novel, one of these is during their illegal beach trip. “I hope you’re having a pretty good time here.

Read More
1164 Words | 5 Pages

Through the thoughts and actions that Gene chooses to show in his flashback, this paper will draw the conclusion that Gene’s war with Finny was made up in his head in order to give himself a solid enemy to defeat. Because of this, he contributed to, if not caused, Finny’s injury. Once solidified, the concrete theory will allow a reader to more profoundly understand the incidents leading up to Finny’s “fall” off the tree limb and why this explains the ending of the book and Gene as a whole. Gene’s jealousy of Finny is evident in Gene’s reactions to Finny’s accomplishments. Finny is a natural athlete who performs exceptionally in school sports.

Read More
871 Words | 4 Pages

John Knowles, author of A Separate Peace, uses both character development and setting to support his decision in selecting the title. He uses the main characters of Gene and Phineas (Finny) and their troubled yet deeply bonded friendship as a way to illustrate the separate peace that takes place both within the boys themselves and in the friendship that is built between the two. Knowles also uses the setting of the novel to demonstrate the vast difference between the peaceful Devon School grounds and the war raging outside of the school’s walls. The title, A Separate Peace, as chosen by the author is symbolic of the main characters, Finny and Gene’s, struggle to find peace within themselves and with each other while set in a place that significantly contrasts the events of the real world.

Read More
1176 Words | 5 Pages

In a world of many people, conflicts arise within those people. The novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, tells a story about two boys, their coming of age story and the conflicts that arise with their coming of age. In the novel, both boys try to stay true to who they are as people. But only one of those boys stays true to who they are. Overall, the way each boy responds to events that occur shows who they really are inside and how different the boys are.

Read More
438 Words | 2 Pages

In A Separate Peace, the reader can see that Finny’s death was part of a chain reaction caused by Gene. His death shows that a person not knowing their identity and who they are could affect other people and not just themselves. Although Gene didn’t directly kill Phineas, we can see how Gene being so overly obsessed with trying to be someone he’s not affected several people. He lost his identity and it cost someone else’s life rather than his own.

Read More
782 Words | 4 Pages

A Separate Peace The novel “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles mainly talks about the relationship between two adolescents, Gene and Finny who were best friends and roommates during the World War II. The plot takes place at the Devon School in New Hampshire during a wartime. The two boys went on lots of adventures together and went through some ups and downs too. . As reading this piece one of the main themes that highlights the story is what rivalry and jealousy can cause to a friendship.

Read More
791 Words | 4 Pages

He still encourages Gene to do the things that Finny no longer can because he wants to see someone else flourish, and most importantly: his friend. After Finny’s death, Gene even declares that “nothing … had broken [Finny’s] harmonious and natural unity” (Knowles 203). Since Gene exclaims this, the reader understands that Finny

Read More
1011 Words | 5 Pages

A Separate Peace: Homoerotic Theory and Hidden Love John Knowles was a very well known American author for his most popular novel, A Separate Peace, published in 2003. Knowles does not hold back when writing descriptions of characters or their emotions. This is very important for the novel because it lets readers visualize the emotions the characters feel and how they view each other. Knowles describes his own use of this literary technique in A Separate Peace by using the two main characters, Gene and Finny, and the setting of the novel, an all boys school named Devon Prep.

Read More
871 Words | 4 Pages

Friendship~ in A Separate Peace by John knowles One cannot be friends with someone who they see as a competition or a threat to their success. The story A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a coming of age realistic fiction novel. It is set in 1842 during World War II at an all boys academy; Devon School. The boys there are trained to join the army. Once they reach the age of 18, they are recruited into the army and have to fight for the country.

Read More
1024 Words | 5 Pages

In the book, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the author shows Gene being changed by his jealous personality, reveals how interactions with other characters affect the main storyline, and displays how friendship

Read More
522 Words | 3 Pages

A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a fictional book about Gene Forrester, a student at Devon Private Boarding School. This story takes place during the 1940s when World War II was becoming more and more a part of daily life at Devon. The war encroaches and finally dominates the lives of the boys at Devon. Starting with the boys shoveling snow off of the train tracks, then their friend, Leper, enlists, and finally troops get permanently stationed at Devon.

Read More

More about A Brief Summary Of A Separate Piece By John Knowles

Related Topics

Open Document