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Emotions In A Separate Peace

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For many people acquiring peace is one of their life long goals and something they strive for each and every day. When the uncertainty, fear, and cynicism inside of someone is extinguished, they are finally able to find peace. Peace is a very large topic in the critically acclaimed novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. In A Separate Peace Knowles writes about two boys, Phineas and Gene, and the struggles they face after Gene develops negative emotions towards Phineas. He used his own experiences to portray what living at an all boys boarding school was like. Gene, the main character and narrator, faces an internal conflict after his original feelings of admiration towards Phineas turns into envy, jealousy, and resentment. These emotions …show more content…

On page 204 Knowles writes, “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.” The “enemy” that Gene was referring to in the second part of the sentence was his negative emotions and paranoia. This quote is directly telling us that Gene’s emotional turmoil and mental disturbances were resolved. Not only does John Knowles blatantly tell us that Gene found peace, he also implies it. “I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case,” (Knowles 194). When Gene said that he felt he was at his own funeral, he could have been referring to the part of him that was full of negativity and just utter maliciousness. If that part of him truly died, it would mean that he found peace. In the very beginning of the book when Gene was visiting the Devon School fifteen years after he graduated, he revealed a very important fact. ¨Looking back now across fifteen years, I could see with great clarity the fear I had lived in, which must mean that in the interval I had succeeded in a very important undertaking: I must have made my escape from it,¨ (Knowles 10). This tells us that Gene found peace, or as others would call it, a separate

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