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Loss Of Innocence In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

705 Words3 Pages

Knowles is able to convey a message to anyone who reads this book, from the youngest reader to the oldest. Knowles tries to portray that Devon in 1942 is a tiny opening of peacetime throughout one of the bloodiest wars in history. But that soon turns sour. This description of Gene and the way his mind works shows that anyone and anything can change in an instant. Gene's friendship with Finny turns into a co-dependent catfight. Every tide can turn, even in the modern world readers experience today. Knowles intentionally wrote this novel for an adult audience who is trying to gain the same thing Gene yearns for throughout his career at Devon, an innocence lost. While readers skim the pages of the novel, Knowles sets up a scene at Devon that …show more content…

Considering that Knowles' actually wrote the book with an adult audience in mind, the portrayal of the older is innocence. One of the smartest things Knowles does throughout the novel that still sends a message to anyone who reads the book is that adults can be innocent too. Whether fabricated or simply lacking in authority, adults can gain some innocence back, just as children lose innocence. (Examples) Mr. Patch-Withers and other adults succumb to the "selfish" ways during the summer session of Devon. Although they see wrong being done, they simply choose to ignore considering any type of punishment for breaking the rules. Ignorance is often associated with innocence, and that's the main reason the adults ignore the students who a re breaking the rules, to preserve the youth and innocence of the boys while trying to regain some of the lost innocence that they once had. "Only Phineas failed to see what was so depressing. Just as there was no way in his philosophy, there was also no dreary weather." Innocence can only be held onto for so long, and Gene tries to live his lost innocence through Phineas. I think Knowles is trying to appeal to adult readers for just that reason. Gene is doing the exact same thing adult readers are trying to do as they read this book, experience an innocence lost. Knowles tries to send a message that all innocent is lost at some point in our lives, and if not cherished while it is there in

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A separate peace by John Knowles is book that takes place at a boarding school and a big part of it is looking at how tragedy can change a characters personality. Gene Forrester the protagonist and narrator of the novel is a great example of this. At the beginning of the book he is envious of his best friend Phineas and will do anything to be the best, but as the book goes on and tragedy strikes all he feels is guilt. Before the tragedy of Finny breaking his leg gene is envious of him.

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In the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knolls Gene's and Finny's friendship with one another brings out each character's virtue or true self. Gene is the smartest kid at the Devon school , and Finny is very athletic. Finny's athletic ability is what leads to the rivalry because Gene wants to be able to achieve an athletic ability like Finny. This novel tells the story in Gene's point of view of how he has grown into adulthood during World War II. The author John Knolls does not give a very good view of Finny because the story is through Gene's eyes where Gene envy's Finny.

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The story’s tone has reached an irreversible point of tragedy. Towards the story’s conclusion character development is shown to make the loss of innocence in many characters final. Gene has lost the one friendship that was the epitome of his innocence. Leper lost his innocence to the war, and Brinker has lost his in the heat of conflict. Here the plot has an empty feeling that ends the novel.

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A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a fictional book about Gene Forrester, a student at Devon Private Boarding School. This story takes place during the 1940s when World War II was becoming more and more a part of daily life at Devon. The war encroaches and finally dominates the lives of the boys at Devon. Starting with the boys shoveling snow off of the train tracks, then their friend, Leper, enlists, and finally troops get permanently stationed at Devon.

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