A Separate Peace Summer Reading Answers

A Separate Peace Summer Reading Study Guide
Answer the following questions in complete sentences. Your responses should be typed and in proper MLA format. Your responses will be collected and graded upon your return to school.

1. Describe the town and school where the story takes place.
The Town of Devon is located in the New Hampshire during WWII. The Devon School may be considered the Best school in New England and is described as being like a museum, well taken care of. It was ungated. The school had 3 red brick-ivory covered dormitories, tons of elm trees, a dean’s house (a pure colonial house), a field house called The Cage, a gymnasium, a chapel, Head-Masters House, and a lot of athletic fields. Gilman was the best street in Devon,

5. Gene says many things that indicate the guilt he feels for what he had done. Look through chapters 5-7 and write three (3) remarks that Gene makes that suggest or state that guilt. Be sure to cite the quotes. There are at least 25 to choose from, so make certain to find three.

“I couldn’t go on hearing about it much longer. If anyone had been suspicious of me, I might have developed some strength to defend myself. But there was nothing. No one suspected. Phineas must still be too sick, or too noble, to tell them.” (Chapter 5, pg. 62)

“If Phineas had been sitting here in this pool of guilt, how would he have felt, what would he have done? He would have told me the truth.”(Chapter 5, pg 66)

“Oh, you know about the tree,” I tried to let my face fall guiltily, but it felt instead as though it were being dragged downward.” (Chapter 7, pg 90)

6. There are many prophecies, foreshadowings or hints about something that will happen in the novel. Find two (2) and explain them.

Quote Foreshadowing
"There were several trees bleakly reaching into the fog. Anyone of them might have been the one I was looking for. Unbelievable that there were other trees which looked like it here. It had loomed in my memory as a huge lone spike dominating the riverbank, forbidding as an artillery piece, high as the beanstalk." (chapter 1, pg

7. This novel likely means different things to different people. Friendship, however, is definitely a theme to consider. A true friendship is not always smooth; it has peaks and valleys. Friends need each other, are often rivals, and are jealous of each other from time to time, practice great loyalty to each other, and have a need for reconciliation when there is a serious disagreement. Describe Gene and Finney’s friendship. Does is seem real to you? What makes it so? If you have other ideas as to what friendship is, what are they?
From Gene’s view of their friendship together it seems a little one-sided with Finney’s friendship being conditional to her. Finney is a great friend who is loyal and trusting. Finney pushes Gene into doing things that she may not normally do like cutting class. While Gene is secretly jealous of Finney and wants him to get in trouble and even jostled that made Finney fall, which Finney later forgives. I believe it is true friendship despite the contrast and mishaps between the two I believe they are friends because Gene tries hard to make amends with Gene and tries to make things