A Separate Peace Friendship Theme

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.

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

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