ipl-logo

Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

823 Words4 Pages

A Separate Peace
In the story A Separate Peace John Knowles shows how war impacts everyone despite mere indirect involvement. The people that are fighting in the war are not the only ones that are affected. It also has an impact on their family, friends, neighbors, and those in their communities. As the boys went through school, the pressure of the impending war was starting to have an effect on them. (“How Does War Impact the Lives of Gene, Finny, Leper, and Other Characters throughout A Separate Peace?”) The book starts out with Gene, who is the narrator and main character, going back to his old school after the war which brings up memories of him and his old friends. He walks around and re-lives all of his memories here that he had with his friends. At the …show more content…

Leper actually does enlist in the army, but basic training proves to be too much for him. He is soon discharged, but even when he comes home he is still plagued with the bad thoughts and memories. When Phineas crushes his leg, it crushes his hopes and aspirations. He wanted to enlist in the army and now he is no longer able to. So now Phineas becomes bitter and makes up stories about the war to try and convince people that he could care less that he wasn’t going, but on the inside his yearning is so strong that it is killing him that he can’t partake. Phineas doesn’t like feeling like all of his friends are gonna go off to the war and leave him behind. He thrives on companionship and now he feels as if he is going to be abandoned. Gene does end up going to war, but it doesn’t really have a significant impact on him. He feels as though his real battle was the one that he fought at school with his friend Phineas. The war left no real impression on him, but Phineas on the other hand, left a serious and strong impression on him. ("How Does War Impact the Lives of Gene, Finny, Leper, and Other Characters throughout A Separate

Show More
Related
846 Words | 4 Pages

By the end of the story, unlike the other characters, Gene was unpredictable and unsure of where he was headed next after Phineas’ funeral and the ending of the

Read More
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
950 Words | 4 Pages

A Separate Peace: Reading Journal A Separate Peace begins with Gene Forrester visiting his old prep school in New Hampshire, Devon school. Wandering through the campus, Gene makes his way to two distinct landmarks which he deems “fearful sites”: a flight of marble stairs and a scarred tree by the river.

Read More
286 Words | 2 Pages

A Separate Peace “ Explain how the title relates to the events of the novel and the themes of A Separate Peace. “ The title of this novel , A Separate Peace by John Knowles, relates to the story in a way that is not directly stated. Each reader must decipher the text to find the true meaning of the title. Each reader may have a different opinion on the underlying connotations of the title in relation to the novel. I have chosen to focus on the war aspect of this book, rather than the relationships between characters for I feel the novel would have a very different outcome, or overall feeling if the setting were anything but World War Two.

Read More
438 Words | 2 Pages

In John Knowles A Separate Peace he writes about the transition from childhood to adolescence. In this coming of age novel taking place in the 1950’s two teenage boys Finny and Gene form a relationship based on fear and adventure. The two opposite teens, finny a outgoing basically perfect teen and gene being a lesser perfect balances out the relationship between the two. The fact that they are somewhat minor opposites aren’t the only thing that brings the two together. Finny’s fear of anything bad or evil and gene’s fear of hitting rock bottom forms a relationship between the two teens which sets the stage for us all.

Read More
1224 Words | 5 Pages

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, friendship is the state of being friends. A friendship is so much more than simply calling each other a friend. A friendship is about loving each other, being there for each other, and making time for each other. At first glance, A Separate Peace by John Knowles seems like a heartfelt story of two best friends, but this story clearly shows that who you may think is your friend may not actually be your friend. The book centered on two students of Devon School named Gene Forrester and Finny.

Read More
895 Words | 4 Pages

A Separate Peace takes place during World War 2. This setting affects the way of life at Devon, with an added summer session to propel the senior class into the army. Gene acknowledges the seniors as “draft-bait” (Knowles 15). The war not only affects the graduating class, but also most of Gene’s activities. “For me, … this moment was the war.

Read More
893 Words | 4 Pages

The privilege of friendship conquers the immeasurable boundaries of deceit and treachery. When a true friendship carves in stone, nothing can break that bond. A Separate Peace takes place in 1942, roughly a year after the Pearl Harbor incident. The main character, Gene, goes to an all-boys school named Devon where he and Phineas (or Finny) are best friends. Throughout the book, their friendship goes through trials to see how strong their friendship is.

Read More
683 Words | 3 Pages

In John Knowles’s coming of age story, A Separate Peace, the author forces Gene to face the realities of adulthood and the war, but first he must shed his childhood, represented by the character Finny. Despite Gene’s desire to mature, he finds himself unable to make a clean break from Finny. This leads to a love-hate relationship that Gene must resolve before moving forward. Finny represents Gene’s childhood by preventing him from growing up and moving on to something else. In the mind of a child like Finny, war does not exist.

Read More
723 Words | 3 Pages

The novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles takes place during World War II in 1942. The World War II may not have directly affected the characters for the majority of the novel, but though out the novel, we see its effects on the characters' actions indirectly. The war also changes the characteristics and attitudes of certain characters of the novel, causing them to adapt and change of the thought of enlistment for the war. World War II also seems to affect the characters' interactions with others and seems to change the relationships that they share with each other. World War II is a major factor for the boys that attend Devon.

Read More
741 Words | 3 Pages

“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.

Read More
893 Words | 4 Pages

Protection from reality creates more harm than safety. John Knowles's novel, A Separate Peace, presents an unconventional dark representation of adolescence through a young boy’s life-altering experience. During World War II, the Devon School in New Hampshire houses many children, including Gene Forrester and Phineas. A Separate Peace displays how war forces children to lose their innocence and divert from the standard ways of growing up. The Devon School protects the children’s adolescence and shelter’s them from the dark realities of the world including war and internal struggle.

Read More
450 Words | 2 Pages

Rough Draft “The condition of man is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.” Thomas Hobbs. The paragraph will explain the theme of war in A Separate Peace. In the novel, A Separate Peace, John Knowles explores the theme that people can’t escape war and explore characterization of Gene, Gene hurting Finny mentally and physically, and the symbolism of war. My first topic has that Gene hurts Finny both mentally and physically.

Read More
786 Words | 4 Pages

War: Its Effects, and Disguises Every person can be a veteran of war at times, even if it is in personal battles rather than literal war. This is the case for the Gene as well as Finny in John Knowles 's A Separate Peace. The significance of the contrast of internal conflict with external conflict highlights Gene 's multiple conflicts with himself as well as Finny, building internal and external conflict through both characters. Ultimately, Gene becomes a veteran in the literal and figurative sense of war, regardless of uniform. Gene 's victory in this war with himself portrays how war can prevail in and out of uniform.

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 Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

Related Topics

Open Document