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Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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Throughout the novel, A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses the character of Leper to symbolize the loss of innocence and the challenges that come along growing up. When Leper is first introduced as a student at Devon, he is interpreted as an introvert, spending most of his time skiing throughout the countryside, looking for beaver dams, and sketching. Because of this, when Leper enlisted in the war, everyone at Devon was confused and caught off guard. Someone as innocent and pure as Leper didn’t seem to belong in a war. However, Leper’s innocence vanished before he even entered battle, causing him to flee home in fear. “Psycho. I guess I am. I must be. Am I though, or is the army? Because they turned everything inside out.” (150) Leper attended Devon as a young man slowly transitioning into adulthood. In the safe environment …show more content…

When Leper returned to Devon, he brought his knowledge of the real world with him. While Gene was held on trial, Finny mentioned Leper’s location on the Devon campus. They were trying to figure out the true story of how Finny fell, and Leper possessed this information. “The one holding on to the trunk sank for a second, up and down like a piston, and then the other one sank and fell.” (176) The confusion on the fall prevented the characters of Finny and Gene from growing as individuals. In order to become adults, they needed to stop avoiding the truth. Leper, who had been to the war, a place of harsh reality and truth, was the one to reveal the truth about Finny’s fall. It made sense for Leper, the bearer of reality, to introduce this truth to Finny and Gene. He took away the perfect world they were living in and opened them up to a whole new stage of life. They couldn’t hide their entire lives, otherwise they would never become adults. Knowles used Leper as a pathway for Finny and Gene from the safety of innocent Devon into the actual world they eventually had to

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468 Words | 2 Pages

That something deep down, some deep feeling made him do it, made him jounce the limb. Finny denies that Gene would ever do such a thing. Gene persistently tells him the truth which angers Finny and calls Gene a “damn fool”, still denying that it was his fault. Gene admits he jounced the limb which caused Finny to fall, and therefore, he blames himself for Finny's

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344 Words | 2 Pages

Due to Gene Forrester's insecurity with his identity, John Knowles portrays him as conforming, afraid, and deceptive in the novel, A Separate Peace. During dinner at the Lepelliers, Gene analyzes Mrs. Lepellier's opinion of him, assuming that she thinks “'He's a good boy underneath'... 'a terrible temper, no self-control, but he's sorry, and he is a good boy underneath'” while Gene states that “Leper was closer to the truth”, with Leper accusing Gene of savagery (137). To obscure his true self, Gene provides a distorted identity towards others because he knows of the wrongdoings which negatively characterize him. By adding his commentary, Gene gives the reader the insight that he knows of his facade, and that he does nothing to persuade others

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444 Words | 2 Pages

Finny announces the beginning of the carnival decathlon and has shown several athletic gestures for the popular crowd. Among the festivities, Brownie reappears bedroom with a telegram: Lebbro Gene wrote to say he is "escaped" and that his safety depends on whether gene is immediately approaching his "Christmas position." In Chapter 10, he speaks mainly of the leprosy gene, Leper tells Gene that he has abandoned; he did so because the army was planning to get him a scatter from the eighth section of madness that he said would have prevented him from finding work or leading a normal life. Gene makes some uncertain comments and Lebbro suddenly breaks, insulting him.

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950 Words | 4 Pages

Finny organizes a winter carnival during which a telegram arrives for Gene from Leper, saying that he has “escaped” and desperately needs Gene to come to his home in Vermont. Gene goes to Vermont and finds that Leper has gone mad during the war, recounting frightening hallucinations he’s

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1035 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the book Elwin Lepellier, Leper, has appeared many times. His character happens to be the ‘odd one out,’ with his strange actions and a complete turn around, I his character, as he progresses in the novel. The oddness of Leper, added with the effects of the war on not only leper, but also all the children at Devin, all contributed to his isolation. Whether self-isolation or isolation from other characters in the novel. The oddness of Lepellier was not just in the way he walked, or talked, but also in the ways he reacted to certain situations.

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683 Words | 3 Pages

Not Finny’s, but Gene’s. Leper was questioned about what really happened that day with the tree. Because he didn’t know any better he said he saw an engine, one piston went up, the other down. It would soon have been figured out that Gene went up. Finny did not give them a chance, because he stormed out and fell again, but later they would have found out it was Gene.

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1461 Words | 6 Pages

Finny is unaware. Throughout the book Finny does not realize that the relationship between him and Gene is not a true and pure as he thinks it is. He is unaware that Gene is filled with hatred and envy towards him. For example, Gene thinks, “I found it. I found a single sustaining thought.

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130 Words | 1 Pages

The feeling of neglect, presses like a dagger to Leper. He wishes for people to notice him and appreciate him. Moreover he wants to be closer to Gene and be his best friend. However, Finny is Gene’s best friend, and so he harbors an ounce of envy towards Finny. All the while, he joins the army, yet it cuts a deep wound into him, and he loses his mind, and so he escapes.

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871 Words | 4 Pages

John Knowles, author of A Separate Peace, uses both character development and setting to support his decision in selecting the title. He uses the main characters of Gene and Phineas (Finny) and their troubled yet deeply bonded friendship as a way to illustrate the separate peace that takes place both within the boys themselves and in the friendship that is built between the two. Knowles also uses the setting of the novel to demonstrate the vast difference between the peaceful Devon School grounds and the war raging outside of the school’s walls. The title, A Separate Peace, as chosen by the author is symbolic of the main characters, Finny and Gene’s, struggle to find peace within themselves and with each other while set in a place that significantly contrasts the events of the real world.

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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.

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700 Words | 3 Pages

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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1194 Words | 5 Pages

Finny is pushed off a tree by his own best friend, Gene. Because of this event, Finny’s leg is greatly injured. Finny and Gene have always been good friends, so Finny automatically assumes that he must have slipped or stumbled. Finny would have never guessed that Gene was to blame for his fall. Gene started to feel truly guilty for what he had done.

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1701 Words | 7 Pages

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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582 Words | 3 Pages

Finny used to ask Gene to go and do other things instead of studying. Gene normally did what Finny asked. Gene decided that Finny was trying to hurt him when they story states, “Suddenly he turned his fire against me, he betrayed several of his other friends,” and he was doing things on his own (102). The second stage of Finny and Gene’s friendship is betrayal and guilt.

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674 Words | 3 Pages

1. The two worst causes of World War II were the invasions on China and the Nazi 's political takeover in Germany. 2.The United States became involved in the war after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 5, 1941. 3.

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