Loss Of Innocence In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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

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