Sample Book Report For A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a coming-of-age story narrated by the main character, Gene Forrester, it takes place at a boarding school called Devon during World War II. This novel describes the days Gene spent at Devon with his best friend/roommate Phineas, or Finny as he is commonly known. Gene returns to Devon and reminisces about the time he spent there, which turns into a giant flashback. Multiple mishaps occurred, Finny broke his leg in an accident involving him jumping out of a tree, Gene was accused of causing the accident, Leper, one of their friends went mad after joining the military and the war that’s going on. There are multiple themes I can apply to A Separate Peace. One of them is friendship. John Knowles does an excellent

Finny’s broken leg, for example, represents him and Gene’s friendship. Their friendship, like Finny’s leg, have experienced fractures and breaks. The logical thing to do would be fixing the problem; if the job is done right, the break would be stronger than before, but if it heals wrong, it would be weaker. Another major symbol I found was the tree Finny and Gene jumped out of. That tree was one of the first things that was described in this book, and like many characters in this book, the tree “changed”. It didn’t necessarily change in appearance, but it change in Gene’s opinion. I think the tree represents the past and his childhood. It’s never going to change, but Gene’s opinion about it and the effects on him can be different. I think Finny can be a symbol too. I noticed while reading the book that Finny never undergone any major change in his character. Finny’s lack of change and his eventual death made me think maybe Finny is a symbol for youth and childhood. Phineas always had a very youthful and energetic air around him, he is the embodiment of what being young is. His death symbolizes that everyone must grow up at some point, especially with a war going

I guess I was in such shock I couldn’t focus on what’s happening in the book and just dropped it. I thought the way Phineas died was so stupid, and so sudden too. I never expect any, especially Phineas, to die in this book. Other than that I didn’t have any trouble with the language or pacing, and the plot was quite easy to follow. It was a little hard to get into at first, but once I started reading I got really into the story.

Some changes I would recommend to the author is to include drawings. I’ve always enjoyed images in books, such as Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children or any of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. I think that would add more depth and make the book more interesting. I would make it look like the characters in the book drew the pictures, Gene could draw a picture of the suicide tree, or a map of the Devon campus. I think that would make the characters more realistic and more relatable because they did ordinary things regular kids would do