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A Separate Peace Compare And Contrast Essay

718 Words3 Pages

Everything Has an Opposite “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies. That explained blitzball, that explained the nightly meetings of the Super Suicide Society, that explained his insistence that I share all his diversions. The way I believed that you’re-my-best-friend blabber!” (Knowles 45). A Separate Peace by John Knowles focuses on the two main characters Gene and Phineas who attend Devon Boys Boarding school. Gene and Phineas are best friends yet polar opposites, Gene is very academically smart and Phineas is very athletic and does not care about school. Although Gene and Phineas seem similar in many ways, in reality they are polar opposites. In the book A Separate Peace everything has opposites. One opposite that is easily found in A Separate Peace is the rivers that run alongside Devon. Before this quote it is talking about how nobody …show more content…

A person that is opposite from Gene in A Separate Peace is Finny. Before this quote Finny and Gene are talking about the war and Finny brings up the fact that he does not believe that it is real. Finny believes that the war is a hoax. “‘Do you really think that the United States of America is in a state of war with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan?’ ‘Do I really think …’ My voice trailed off” (Knowles 107). This is a great example of Gene and Finny being opposites; there are many other ways that they are opposites. This quote shows that Gene thinks that the war is real, however he does not want to admit that to Finny because Finny does not think that it is real. A number of people may say that Gene and Finny are similar in many ways including how they react to situations. While that may be true, the real point to consider is that they are different in more ways than similar . One of those ways could be how they react to certain situations. “I noticed something about Finny’s own mind, which was such an opposite from mine” (Knowles 26). This quote shows another way in

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Introduction: Gene is a 16 year old boy attending the Devon boarding school in the year 1942. He is an introvert who is trying to find himself throughout the book, A Separate Peace. Gene befriends a boy named Phineas, or Finny. Finny is the exact opposite of Gene, he is an extrovert who likes adventure and breaking rules. The two boys become close friends, but throughout their friendship Gene is jealous of Finny.

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A Separate Peace Gene and Finny are Psychological aspects of the same person. Because some things gene says make it seem like they are the same person. Gene and Finny are the same person just have different sides of that one person. Gene is the sarcastic, anxious, and jealous side of him, and Finny is the fun, loving, peaceful, energetic, brave side. Then Leper could be the crazy psycho path side of Gene after he goes to war.

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There are many instances in “A Separate Peace" in which Gene and Finny are each other's foil character. Throughout this novel there are many different ways that Gene and Finny highlight one anothers aspects. During their interactions it is obvious how well these two characters serve as foils for each other. Finny is outgoing, charismatic, and carefree. While Gene on the other hand is analytical, introverted, and envious.

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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.

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In John Knowles A Separate Peace he writes about the transition from childhood to adolescence. In this coming of age novel taking place in the 1950’s two teenage boys Finny and Gene form a relationship based on fear and adventure. The two opposite teens, finny a outgoing basically perfect teen and gene being a lesser perfect balances out the relationship between the two. The fact that they are somewhat minor opposites aren’t the only thing that brings the two together. Finny’s fear of anything bad or evil and gene’s fear of hitting rock bottom forms a relationship between the two teens which sets the stage for us all.

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