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Characteristics Of Narrator In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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The fictional novel A separate peace by John Knowles conveys the characteristics of the narrator through the shifts of the setting.Throughout the text, the narrator displays a lack of independence and leadership.The butt room,the tree,and time period are settings that reveal the characteristics of the narrator. Throughout the butt room, Gene revealed characteristics of denial.The Butt room was not only the dungeon, but it was the place where Gene was sent for confession. During A Separate Peace, Brinker Hadley announces ,“Here’s your prisoner,gentlemen…”(Knowles Page.89) A confession was overrated for Gene because although Phineas didn't want to believe him about the tree incident everyone else believed differently. Brinker accused …show more content…

e.Gene was accused of “doing away with his roommate” because everyone knew Gene would like a room to himself.With the breaking of Phineas's leg, it brought upon a surreal situation.Dwelling on his mistakes Gene was …show more content…

While the adult Gene recalls the tree as an enormous, forbidding structure, when he actually rediscovers it, the tree appears much smaller and similar to all the other trees in the vicinity.” (TNTEL.TNSOS.org) During Gene’s days at Devon, the tree was one of the factors of his fears.The thought of the tree hung depression,weary,and more upon Gene.He always saw the tree to be huge,scary,and a nightmare he wishes he could escape.While returning to Devon as an adult he examined the tree wondering why was he so scared of it.Wondering how could something so simple bring fear upon him. The symbolization of the tree varied on specific activities. The symbolism of discipline and authority exemplify the tree.Along with the many other fears of Gene, the tree symbolized his insecurities and lack of self-confidence.Gene, Phineas, and their friends use it to jump into the river in a friendly sort of adventure game. Mastering the courage of leaping upon heights beyond their level.With Gene’s inaccurate thoughts of rivalry between Phineas and him,Gene said, ”Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I

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Theme 1.1: Envy. In Knowles’s coming of age book, “A Separate Peace”, there are lots of mishaps that happen and the beginning of these mishaps is when one of his main characters, Gene, starts thinking malicious things about Phineas, his friend. It started out as a small inkling of envy, suddenly later on in the book, it turned into something that resembled a fractious disaster. As the chapters progress, Gene shows the readers his way of thinking towards Phineas, by describing his “unexpected excitement” (27) when Phineas was about to receive a scolding from Mr. Patch-Wither, the substitute headmaster of Devon during the summer session. Surprisingly, when Phineas (aka Finny) further explained why he wore the school tie as a belt,

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Gene grows a resentment towards Phineas and makes him fall off a tree, crippling him. However, while trying to cope with what he did, Gene attempts to act like Phineas by putting on his clothing. The incident also changes his personality by the sudden lose of innocence. This can be seen both when Gene has to take responsibility for his actions and when visits the tree several years later. Both of these reflections allow Gene to come of age to realize that he is no longer innocent and he must find his place in the world.

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519 Words | 3 Pages

The Two Rivers In a Separate Peace Novels have contrasting objects or places that help explain the meaning of the story. In “A Separate Peace,” the two rivers that surrounded Devon represented two worlds going on at the time. The Devon river, clear and clean, represented the school and the life of the students. The Naguamsett river on the other hand was dirty and nasty, this river represented the war happening at the time, which was World War II. The students at Devon would only use the Devon river, the reason behind this is that it was clean, omitting to use the disgusting Naguamsett river.

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507 Words | 3 Pages

Gene from John Knowles novel, A Separate Peace, a dynamic character changes in accordance to the events of the story. Gene is a very intelligent student. Throughout the novel we see Gene almost become persuaded by the actions of his friend Phineas. Phineas is a bouncy character who loves sports and doesn’t see the value of studying like Gene. Gene frequently tries to balance his academic and social life, but he gets sick of this balancing act when he backlashes at Phineas for interrupting him from his schoolwork, “Okay, we go.

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A Separate Peace The novel “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles has a vast array of characters ranging from unimportant to crucial. The story paints two best friends as the main characters, Finny and Gene. Gene is more intellectually skilled while Finny is more physically skilled. Some of the “minor characters” play a role almost as important as the main characters. For example Quackenbush, Brinker, and Elwin they all are minor characters and nevertheless play a very important role in the story.

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Christopher Plevniak Mr. Hewlett English II-II 26 February 2016 A Separate Peace “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud, It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear forgotten.” (Knowles 59-60).

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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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Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that, “envy is ignorance; imitation is suicide.” (370). John Knowles’ A Separate Peace is set during World War I at Devon School, a boarding school for boys. The book centers on Gene Forrester, a student at Devon, who could be described as an intelligent, but jealous, conformist. A Separate Peace illustrates Gene’s envy and imitation of his friend, Finny, and how it affects himself and his relationship with Finny, and also how Gene eventually finds peace.

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Adam and Eve had a perfect Garden of Eden, until Eve ate the apple and contaminated the garden. In being tricked by the snake, Eve betrayed God’s word. Mankind has often betrayed others because of the darkness in their heart. In A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses Phineas as a sacrificial lamb to portray Gene’s savage side and demonstrate that peace can never be achieved at a worldwide level until man accepts the darkness in his own heart.

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772 Words | 4 Pages

(Knowles 9). The first site that he visited was a marble staircase that was “...the same as ever,” (Knowles 11). Gene implies that he also had not changed much, except he “...had more money, success, and ‘security’,” (Knowles 12) than before. He then battles his way through mud, rain, and cold to see a tree by the Devon River. This act of determination highlights the importance of his visit to the tree.

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“Our minds are a battle ground between good and bad ideas; we are whatever side wins the battle” Bangambiki Habyarimana, The Great Pearl of Wisdom. The struggle between good and evil is found universally. In the novel A Separate Peace, Gene Forrester struggles between his own inner good and evil. Gene's actions often reflect his feelings, leading him to trouble, giving the illusion that Gene is filled with more evil than good. However, Gene's goodness can be found even through dark times.

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1268 Words | 6 Pages

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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978 Words | 4 Pages

In John Knowles’s novel A Separate Peace Identity is shown as what defines us and makes us be placed in other peoples perspectives. An author can use identity to place characters in the readers mind to portray them a certain way, just as John Knowles did in A Separate peace. An identity can be defined as who a person is inside and out.

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Shouldn’t certain things be kept from the knowledge of the public, for the sake of the public itself? Brinker Hadley is one person whose peers would have been better off, if he had simply abided by that statement. To illustrate, Brinker had the majority part to do with Phineas’s overall death, because of him not keeping the knowledge of something crucial hidden. In the story, there is a large tree by a body of water, with rungs of wood leading up to a limb that, although it is very dangerous, can be jumped off of into the water.

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Sigmund Freud's defense mechanisms influence many ways of writing authors use today. These mechanisms are used in everyday life, somtimes not even noticing they are being used. Many of these mechanisms appeared between the characters in John Knowels novel A Separate Peace. The character Gene uses Sigmund Frued's defense mechanisms displacement, rationalization, and intellectualization which shows his emotional instability after the trumatic incident in the tree. Generally speaking, Gene is usually a well behaved, mature boy, however, sometimes in the novel he tends to lose temper.

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