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A Separate Peace Summer Reading Answers

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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, …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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5. Reading Process While I was reading the chapter their were times I wondered what I was reading since it would flash back an forth. In the novel since we are barley getting to know the character I was very confused of who was who in the novel. Also another issue that I had while reading the novel was that all the parts were in English so I had to translate what the characters had to say.

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Oh Captain, My Captain John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace is a moving story about a young man and his friends at a preparatory school in the midst of World War II. Knowles’ beautifully crafts the story about internal struggle. This story is much like the movie Dead Poets Society, which is about boys at a preparatory school, during the 1950’s, who are challenged by their teacher to go against the flow. Both Dead Poets Society and A Separate Peace are similar because of the characters, setting, and overall theme.

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Gene considers Finny to be his best friend. In this type of friendship there is an implied vow of trust, loyalty and sense of forever friendship "Finny could shine with everyone, he attracted everyone he met. I was glad of that too. Naturally. He was my roommate and my best friend" (Knowles 40).

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This also shows that Gene isn 't good at telling people exactly what he wants to do and this doesn 't help him later on. We see that one of Gene’s struggles is to do what other people want and not what he does but when Gene does do what he wants to do then it doesn 't end well, while Finny on the other hand says exactly what he wants to say. An example of Finny’s weakness is, Finny has certain moralities that he lives by and his weakness is that he would never believe that one of his best friend’s broke one of his morals, we see this when Gene and Finny are talking they say, “‘I jounced the limb. I caused it’

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The internal conflict also revolves around jealousy but is not easily seen. Due to the fact the both of the protagonist are totally different from one another, they seem to want to have the characteristic that the opposite character has. These conflicts are sadly resolved by the death of Phineas,

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One quote from the book that exemplifies this aspect of the book is

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In other words, for a brief moment, Gene felt relief from his guilt and loses his identity. He was physically trying to become Finny by trying to look like him. Another aspect that effects finding Gene’s identity

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Without forgiveness, Gene would still be living in fear and hate, buried by his burden. Gene learns tremendously from his experiences. All his enemies were imagined, there was no need for “Maginot Lines” to protect himself from an enemy that didn’t exist. After Finny’s funeral Gene becomes “Phineas-filled” and his “war is over before it ever begins.” Gene realizes, “I was ready for the war, now that I no longer had any hatred to contribute to it.

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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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Strength develops in someone through their experiences which have the ability to make them an emotionally stronger person. A quote by Ernest Hemingway presents that “the world breaks everyone, then some become strong at the broken places.” Even those who suffer the most will have the ability to bounce back at a stronger state. This theme reveals its relevance in A Separate Peace by John Knowles as we analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the main characters, Finny and Gene. Although some may insist that Finny’s emotional state fits the mold of a weak character, I have confidence that Finny has the most inner strength out of the two boys given his description and actions throughout the novel.

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Since Gene was the one to jounce the limb of the tree and put Finny off balance he takes the responsibility for the accident. This proves that gene has the identity for being the worrier and the responsible one. Each time something bad happens Gene feels like he is responsible and doesn't want anyone to know that he is. Since he is known to be the nerd he doesn't want his identity to his friends to become worse.

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There was undergrowth—a mat of brambles and bracken. There were no obvious paths. Dark and light came and went, inviting and mysterious, as the wind pushed clouds across the face of the sun.” (355) The "thing" in the story was symbolized as the terror

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Finny used to ask Gene to go and do other things instead of studying. Gene normally did what Finny asked. Gene decided that Finny was trying to hurt him when they story states, “Suddenly he turned his fire against me, he betrayed several of his other friends,” and he was doing things on his own (102). The second stage of Finny and Gene’s friendship is betrayal and guilt.

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Some classmates felt that his last shred of hope to keep him alive was his hatred for the party while others agreed that his love for Julia would help him from conforming back to the ideals of the party. When discussing what another classmates have found in class it has helped me to understand other points I might have overlooked in the novels we have read. I have improved from these activities by writing down other points and

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Peace, an unreachable goal. It will never truly happen, unless you are in John Knowles novel A Separate Peace. In A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses characterization to convey character growth. Character growth is a very important part of the development of A Separate Peace. Gene, the protagonist, has to grow in his friendships and life as World War II encroaches on his life.

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