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A Separate Peace Friendship Theme

770 Words4 Pages

Himaja Vijaykumar
Mr. Mustafaa
Language Arts
26 March 2017
Friendship is a responsibility and a privilege, not a right. Many people have trouble with this lesson. In the novel. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the theme of friendship becomes the main focus through characters, emotions and hardships. It is a novel about two boys, Gene and Phineas, with nothing, and everything, in common. Gene and Phineas were best friends, however, they made somewhat of an odd pair. Gene was a quite boy; he studied hard and excelled in all of his classes. On the other hand, Phineas, better known as Finny, was athletic, fearless, and always a leader. In chemistry, opposites attract, and in the case of Gene and Finny, the same seemed to be true. …show more content…

After the incident Finny went trough a period of denial, wanting to believe Gene would never intentionally hurt him. However, Finny was soon forced to acknowledge what really happened. Much anger was expressed by Finny until Gene was finally able to talk with him. Gene and Finny reconciled. A Separate Peace is a story about friendship. A pair of best friends doing the best they can in a time when life is hectic and the world is confusing. This story gives us characters dealing with friendship, emotion that can destroy friendship and hardships that only a true friendship could withstand. A Separate Peace is about friendship and the many factors that effect it.
The emotions or conduct of friends; the state of being friends. In the novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. One of the most important themes is about friendship growing through conflict. This theme also includes friends resolving differences, giving forgiveness, and accepting the strengths and weaknesses of each other. The two main characters go through all of these phases in their …show more content…

Conflict in a friendship can take a long time and be very difficult to resolve. Sometimes for a conflict in a friendship to be resolved a person must resolve their inner conflicts and conquer their fear of it. An example of this from the novel is when Gene is battling with himself over how to tell Finny what he did. The conflict can only be resolved when the two people acknowledge that the conflict is there and they are willing to solve it.

A Separate Peace focuses on the friendship between two sixteen-year-old boys, and it's…complicated. Friendship is a combination of admiration, respect, jealousy, and resentment. For all the camaraderie between them, these boys are still driven by good old healthy competition, which at times can end up being, well, less than healthy. Friendship blurs identity, as one boy begins to assimilate the life of the other.

Friendship is noble. Friendship is divine. A true friend is really a gift of

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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 “ Explain how the title relates to the events of the novel and the themes of A Separate Peace. “ The title of this novel , A Separate Peace by John Knowles, relates to the story in a way that is not directly stated. Each reader must decipher the text to find the true meaning of the title. Each reader may have a different opinion on the underlying connotations of the title in relation to the novel. I have chosen to focus on the war aspect of this book, rather than the relationships between characters for I feel the novel would have a very different outcome, or overall feeling if the setting were anything but World War Two.

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Both of the main characters have inner battles they struggle to make peace with throughout the novel. The boys also must come to terms with how these battles impact their friendship. One boy lets jealousy and resentment guide his decisions and the other is in denial of the reality of the friendship as well as the world around him. Once the walls of the Devon School stop protecting the boys from their personal battles each boy is able to attain some type of peace with whom they have become and the path they chose to reach this

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A Separate Peace, Unit Test Hamza Eldohiri The story “A Separate Peace”, written by John Knowles, was written at the time and takes place during World War II when battles and conflicts amongst nations were evident. Each nation involved struggled and fought their hardest in order to satisfy the good of their nation. Not only is the setting in the story taking place during this time of quarrel, the story also demonstrates areas of self-conflict and an internal battle throughout. The characters in “A Separate Peace”, are described as experiencing this self-conflicting, internal battle. Gene (also the narrator) is specifically depicted as he goes through his battle in life.

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“Don’t fear the enemy that attacks you, but the fake friend that hugs you” -PravineeHurbungs. It is still undecided weather Finny realized this about Gene or not but, even withWWII going on, the cruelest enemy was right next to him. A Separate Peace is a novel by JohnKnowles, based in New Hampshire, 1942. The novel showcases, coming-of-age, jealousy , andloss of innocence through the main character Gene. Gene and Finny became roommates at the prestige Devon School for boys.

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“A Separate Peace” portrays how Gene’s envy and imitation affects himself, his relationship with Finny, and how he finds his peace, or lack thereof, at the end of the book. Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects him in many ways. He starts to believe he was meant to become a part of Finny. After Finny broke his leg from falling out of a tree, he tells Gene that he must play sports for him. Gene then thinks to himself “and I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become part of Phineas,” (Knowles 85).

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Beware of Desires “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else 's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation,” observed Oscar Wilde. In the fictional novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles two best friends, Gene and Finny, both go to an elite boys ' private school in New Hampshire. Finny is a natural born leader and an athlete that easily succeeds in everything he does. Meanwhile, Gene is a bookworm that tries his best to be as successful as Finny.

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The author of An Overview of “A Separate Peace” says that, “he reaches this atmosphere only after separating himself from Phineas and finding his own identity,” (Alton). When Gene had been focused on becoming just like Finny, he was not at peace. However, when Gene starts constructing and discovering his own identity, he has a complete burden lifted from his shoulders, therefore finding his peace. To conclude, Gene finds peace by realizing that Phineas was not the enemy and by finding his own

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Friendship A Separate Peace has a very unique description of friendship. Throughout the book, Gene is jealous of Finny’s looks and what he is able to do. Gene has a lot of ambivalent feelings toward Finny. He wants to be Finny, but at the same time he is jealous of him.

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“Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time of school; I killed my enemy there” (Knowles, 204). A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, was taken place at Devon High in the mid 1940’s, in the New England area during WWII. The main character, Gene, is a very smart, but envious and imitative kid that returns back to his school later in life to find peace within himself and past conflicts. Gene’s envious and imitative actions have had many affects within himself, others, and his future, but has found peace throughout everything. Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects him a lot throughout the novel.

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In John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, the main character, Gene Forrester, undergoes a traumatic journey to develop the aspects necessary for coping through adulthood. This novel is a flashback to the year of 1942, when Gene attends his final year at Devon High School, in New Hampshire. Although Gene appears to be Finny’s best friend, he follows in Finny’s steps so that his personality clones to be like Finny’s. Finny exposes new experiences that provoke Gene’s development into adulthood. As Gene engages in new experiences, he soon realizes that he envies Finny’s abilities.

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A loving friend turns murderer after his retched jealousness and overanalyzing pushes him to new lows. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the true character of Gene Forrester is shown as he narrates his point of view of the story. Gene Forrester is a relatable ever changing, humanistic, and someone who is always in contention. Although at points Gene seems mentally unstable, he is a round, dynamic character that adapts and is generally mentally sound. Gene being the narrator of his own story shows from his perspective just how he views people and their interactions.

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Finny and Gene’s Friendship Friendship is very important in this story. Friendship is very important for a person’s well-being. In this book titled A Separate Peace by John Knowles the reader learns a lot about friendship in this book.

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Charles Kuralt once said, “ The love of family and the admirations of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.” This quote shows how jealousy and popularity aren’t as important as relationships in your life. In the book, A Separate Peace, Gene has different priorities than relationships. Gene, a young boy who attends Devon boarding school, goes through many different trials along his grade school journey. He faces problems with friends and school life during the time of World War two and the draft being in full swing.

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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.

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