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Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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World War 2, started on September 1st, 1939, and affected many. Children, teens, parents, and nevertheless, soldiers. Experiencing a tragic event such as WW2, has many levels of emotions and fear. Novels, movies, and articles, portray feelings just as well as the ones affected. Gene Forrester, along with all his friends, experience many conflicts and “wars” among themself in the novel A Separate Peace. In the 1900’s, the characters relive memories at Devon High school, an all boy school, in which they attended 15 years ago. The writer John Knowles illustrates and conveys the theme of war on multiple levels onto Gene, Leaper and Finny's emotions on war and how they move along through the novel with enlistment dangling above their head. Not trusting or believing, the characters never fully knew how to feel about the army, and “enlisting”. John Knowles sways the story along the WW2 era, adding in nonfiction details. With adventures, feelings, and a never-ending amount of plot, Knowles takes readers into new heights. WW2 isn’t the only “war” talked about in John Knowles A Separate Peace. Conflict …show more content…

FInny and Gene struggle with enlistment. The difficulties of athleticism, falling out of a tree, and conflicts with others, left them with a war on emotions and also actions. The characters inveigh feelings among each other while amidst wars. It reads on page 144 ,”...for if Leaper was psycho it was the army which had done it to him, and I and all of us were on brink of army…” To summarize, the wars are changing and effecting Leaper, as all them are noticing. Finny, Gene and the characters, notice the change of Leaper and how his behavior and personality is. The thought of enlistment and entering a war itself, created wide feelings throughout. Relating to reality and the overall aspect of life, the war the characters are placed with, is relatable and are true concepts of war on multiple

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A Separate Peace by John Knowles, literally stands for something separate or elsewhere, but figuratively, it stands for how secluded they are from what is going on in the real world and how they cope with that separation. It also stands for the peace that Gene, the main character, finds after Finny’s death. With 42 million casualties in the US from World War II, and only one at Devon, it is easy to see which is better known in the world. Where the boarding school is placed makes it secluded from the outside world. It is isolated from the tumultuous war.

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A Separate Peace, Unit Test Hamza Eldohiri The story “A Separate Peace”, written by John Knowles, was written at the time and takes place during World War II when battles and conflicts amongst nations were evident. Each nation involved struggled and fought their hardest in order to satisfy the good of their nation. Not only is the setting in the story taking place during this time of quarrel, the story also demonstrates areas of self-conflict and an internal battle throughout. The characters in “A Separate Peace”, are described as experiencing this self-conflicting, internal battle. Gene (also the narrator) is specifically depicted as he goes through his battle in life.

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Gene arrived at Leaper’s house and explains how he got a Section Eight discharge for being crazy in the army. Leaper then says “Then they grabbed me and they were arms and legs and heads everywhere and I couldn’t tell when any minute,”(159) Leaper is explaining the hallucinations he had in the army and how he saw a broom turn into a leg. Gene could not stand hearing all these negative things about the war so he ran off yelling and told Leaper to shut up. This shows how Gene is not willing to accept reality and grow up, Not only that but Leaper had said to Gene “like that time you knocked Finny out of the tree.” This caused Gene to flip Leaper over in his chair and causing his real enemy, which was anger, kick

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Knowles shows that youth is isolated from the rest of the world. Growing up, then, involves a difficult transition from this sheltered environment to the harsh realities of war, hatred, and fear. When the world is immersed in hatred and war, this perfectly

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Gene believes that Finny and he hate each other, until he realizes Finny’s pureness, which Gene can not stand. At first, Gene believes that Finny wants to exceed him, and that the two are rivals. Everyone at Devon likes Finny. The teachers adore him, the students look up to him, the athletes aspire

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“Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time of school; I killed my enemy there” (Knowles, 204). A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, was taken place at Devon High in the mid 1940’s, in the New England area during WWII. The main character, Gene, is a very smart, but envious and imitative kid that returns back to his school later in life to find peace within himself and past conflicts. Gene’s envious and imitative actions have had many affects within himself, others, and his future, but has found peace throughout everything. Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects him a lot throughout the novel.

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Present throughout the book is the theme of disillusionment. In the school, they’ve been told by their schoolmasters and parents that unless they join the war, they would remain cowards. They see propaganda after propaganda, all alluding towards the glory of battle and warfare. Out on the front, they realize that nothing was further from the truth. Their dreams of being heroes shattered, like when they compare themselves to the soldier on a poster in chapter 7.

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In John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, the main character, Gene Forrester, undergoes a traumatic journey to develop the aspects necessary for coping through adulthood. This novel is a flashback to the year of 1942, when Gene attends his final year at Devon High School, in New Hampshire. Although Gene appears to be Finny’s best friend, he follows in Finny’s steps so that his personality clones to be like Finny’s. Finny exposes new experiences that provoke Gene’s development into adulthood. As Gene engages in new experiences, he soon realizes that he envies Finny’s abilities.

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Originally, Finny is ready and waiting to either enlist or become drafted into the military, until Gene indirectly breaks his leg by pushing him out

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