How Does A Separate Peace Relate To High School Students

Throughout the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, there are many important things portrayed that coincide with the fact that the book is a wonderful literary piece and should be a required book to be read by many students. The main characters Phineas or Finny, an athletic and caring young man, and Gene Forrester, an intelligent student at Devon with an undying hatred within himself, are very similar to a vast majority of high school students. A Separate Peace is an absolutely amazing novel and should be a required book read by every high school student because of the following: it relates to High School students, it demonstrates how hatred can turn into something very evil, and it teaches people how to forgive someone despite previous

“Like all old, good schools, Devon did not stand isolated behind walls and gates but emerged naturally from the town which had produced it” (Knowles 11). This quote shows how Devon has been just like all old, good schools, so it can relate to many other high schools because of the clear fact that the students attending Devon were nearly the same as the students attending high schools in real life. In addition to the school itself, the characters in A Separate Peace relate to a lot of high school students because they deal with a lot of school work and get distracted quite easily, “He got carried away by things; for example, he was so fascinated by the tilting planes of solid geometry that he did almost as badly in trigonometry as I did myself” (Knowles 54). The previously listed quote explains how Chet Douglass, an intelligent character, almost got too distracted with geometry that he nearly did as bad as Gene Forrester did in trigonometry (Knowles 54). In light of the evidence above, it is clearly obvious that the characters and setting in A Separate Peace closely relate to the students and setting of high schools in real

Phineas, after being tormented by Gene’s actions, still finds forgiveness in his heart. Shortly after Gene visits Phineas in the infirmary, Gene tells Phineas how it was he who purposely jounced the limb (Knowles 191). Phineas, in response to Gene’s great remorse, says, “Something just seized you. It wasn’t anything you really felt against me, it wasn’t some kind of hate you’ve felt all along. It wasn’t anything personal” (Knowles 191). Phineas understands that Gene had something deep within his heart that Gene himself could not physically control. Directly after Gene agrees that it was not anything personal, Phineas says, “I believe you. It’s okay because I understand and I believe you. You’ve already shown me and I believe you” (Knowles 191). Despite the fact that Gene’s actions tragically affected Phineas and eventually led to Phineas’s death, Phineas still shows great forgiveness for Gene. This forgiveness shown by Phineas at the end of the novel teaches the reader that, although someone may have hurt another person, always be open to forgive the person who had