Minor Characters In A Separate Peace

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.

Elwin Lepellier. A known naturalist who goes by Leper. He was the very first in Devon to go off and enlist in the army. He was usually picked on and was generally unpopular, but once he enlisted his popularity soared and brought the students of Devon closer together. The students started to picture Leper in the front lines and at the center of every Allied victory. Little did everyone know he started going crazy once he got into basic training. He eventually burst out and was given a Section Eight Discharge, which is reserved for the insane. Leper went home and

Even the simplest character can have a monumental effect on the conclusion and the development of characters. It doesn’t matter if the only time we see the character is in one chapter, page, or even just a single paragraph, even if we don’t know why the author wrote in a specific minor character they will either advance the plot or show us something new. Brinker exposed Gene for his actions and Leper helped, Quackenbush, gave us another look at the savage core of Gene’s that made him make the choice to jounce the limb and to make Finny fall. If it wasn’t for Brinker Finny would have never known that Gene was telling the truth at Finny’s house, and would most likely have been left alone and depressed by all his friends who had to go off to war. The main characters give the book focus on the end game, the minor ones give it