ipl-logo

Sample Book Report For A Separate Peace

947 Words4 Pages

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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

Show More
Related
887 Words | 4 Pages

Oh Captain, My Captain John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace is a moving story about a young man and his friends at a preparatory school in the midst of World War II. World War II puts a lot of stress on the boys, while the main character, Gene, is also struggling with internal conflict. Knowles’ beautifully crafts the story around Gene’s inner struggle. This story is much like the movie Dead Poets Society, which is about boys at a preparatory school during the 1950’s who are challenged by their teacher to go against the flow of society.

Read More
461 Words | 2 Pages

The rules are strictly enforced, and everyone must pay close attention to them. Also, the boys don’t have near as much free time. The war time activities take up all of the extra free time. One of the main characters, Finny, is most like the summer session.

Read More
307 Words | 2 Pages

In A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses the universality of jealousy and envy to develop a theme based upon man’s inhumanity to man. Fifteen years after attending Devon, an elite military preparatory school located in New Hampshire, the narrator, Gene Forrester, returned to reflect upon how fearful he was during the time he spent training and studying for World War II. He then decides to visit the places or symbols on the campus that were closely associated with his fear; a marble staircase and a tree placed near the bank of the river. As Gene visits these key symbols of fear, he flashes back upon his time at Devon. He remembers his best friend, Phineas or Finny, as a very superior athlete and charming young man.

Read More
183 Words | 1 Pages

In John Knowles, fictional story A Separate Peace he uses internal conflict to give the reader insight on the narrator’s feeling of lack of self-confidence. After Finny’s accident, Gene decided that he wanted to be the assistant senior crew manager of the crew team. Quackenbush, the head crew manager, questioned Gene as to why he suddenly wanted to assistant manage the crew team, “Starting a little late to manage teams aren’t you?” “Am I?” (78) Gene is a pretty good athlete, but suddenly he doesn’t think that he’s good enough to play sports.

Read More
446 Words | 2 Pages

Thought Over Truth How do you know the whole story if you were only told from one perspective? A Separate Peace is a novel by John Knowles told during World War II, from the perspective of Gene Forrester, an intelligent, but not athletic student. Gene tells his memory of his senior year at Devon School, a school which only boys attend, but is his memory the whole truth? Gene has shown us that he is misleading and biased.

Read More
439 Words | 2 Pages

A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, is an unsettling fable about the dark side of adolescence. The long-time American classic takes place during the early years of World War II at a New England boys’ boarding school, where Gene and Phineas are best friends, but become troubled by the loss of innocence as they progress in their adolescence. As the story progresses you see the two boys struggle to identify their own individual identity. The self-identity struggle both of the boys encounter serves as the basis for the major theme in the story of the threat of codependency to identity.

Read More
1032 Words | 5 Pages

In his memory, the tree is a “huge lone spike”(13) or an “artillery piece”(13), but when he sees it again it looks small and innocuous. Though the tree itself has not changed, Gene's perspective, which has changed over the years, is what is enabling him to face the tree without it haunting him. At the time of the incident, in his youth, the tree was a symbol of fear and forbidding. At the end of the novel, the tree has become a symbol of profound changes in perspective that time and growth can give people. “This was the tree, and it seemed to me standing there to resemble those men, the giants of your childhood, whom you encounter years later and find that they are not merely smaller in relation to your growth, but that they are absolutely smaller, shrunken by age….”(14).

Read More
1304 Words | 6 Pages

Peace, a noun. freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility or freedom from war or violence. The novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles is set during World War Two. The world was captured in the most violent conflict, but several school boys in New Hampshire find a way to grow and develop. The book’s protagonist Gene Forrester develops in a normal way that is separate but affected by the war.

Read More
871 Words | 4 Pages

The Peace Within A Separate Peace by John Knowles takes place in the summer of 1942 during World War II at The Devon School in New Hampshire. Gene Forrester becomes best friends with his roommate Phineas (nicknamed Finny) despite them having such different personalities. Gene is an introverted and uptight character, while Finny is more outgoing and carefree. Gene starts to feel envy for Finny because he thinks that everything comes so easy to him.(QUOTE)

Read More
1011 Words | 5 Pages

A Separate Peace: Homoerotic Theory and Hidden Love John Knowles was a very well known American author for his most popular novel, A Separate Peace, published in 2003. Knowles does not hold back when writing descriptions of characters or their emotions. This is very important for the novel because it lets readers visualize the emotions the characters feel and how they view each other. Knowles describes his own use of this literary technique in A Separate Peace by using the two main characters, Gene and Finny, and the setting of the novel, an all boys school named Devon Prep.

Read More
873 Words | 4 Pages

The novel, “A Separate Peace, by John Knowles shows readers the rocky friendship between two young boys, Gene and Finny. The novel guides readers through the complicated friendship between the duo during their senior year of high school, and the lifelong friendship they have created. The audience takes away from the story a different outlook on what it means to be a true friend. Firstly, Gene had a distorted outlook on friendship.

Read More
567 Words | 3 Pages

A Separate Peace is a novel, written by John Knowles, about a very quiet and cautious boy named Gene and his persuasive and daring friend, Phineas. It takes place at the Devon School during World War II. The story is told by Gene in a flashback, after he returns to the school 15 years later. Phineas is very easy going. He is unpredictable and lives in the moment.

Read More
630 Words | 3 Pages

Also, the writing style used was sort of confusing. In each chapter, I forgot who was telling the story; Kelly or Teagan. I would've preferred that the story be told by one person only; preferable an omniscient.

Read More
1024 Words | 5 Pages

Charles Kuralt once said, “ The love of family and the admirations of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.” This quote shows how jealousy and popularity aren’t as important as relationships in your life. In the book, A Separate Peace, Gene has different priorities than relationships. Gene, a young boy who attends Devon boarding school, goes through many different trials along his grade school journey. He faces problems with friends and school life during the time of World War two and the draft being in full swing.

Read More
522 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Sample Book Report For A Separate Peace

Related Topics

Open Document