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Universal Themes In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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“Preserved along with it, like stale air in an unopened room, was the well known fear which has surrounded and filled those days, so much of it that I hadn’t even known it was there.” (Knowles 10) In the beginning of A Separate Peace, Gene revisits Devon, he is able to pick out the details that he didn’t see when he was a student there, such as the woodwork. Also, he remembers the memories. More specifically, he remembers fear. Fear was always with him, however; he claims that he was unaware of it. His actions of shaking the tree, and facing the truth say otherwise. Knowles uses universal themes such as jealousy and a love-hate relationship in friendships and identity so the reader can understand the connection to modern day society and themselves. …show more content…

Their love-hate relationship sets up the main conflict in the story, which continues as the story unfolds. “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies…..The way I believed that you’re-my-best-friend blabber! (Knowles 53) Gene believes that Finny is only interested in jeopardizing or even ruining Gene’s academics. This shows rivalry between them bringing out the “hate” in their relationship. This isn’t the case all the time, as shown with moments of “love”, such as their apology in the infirmary or just their respect for one another. Knowles does this so the reader can see these moments in their own friendship. To think there is a perfect relationship is an imperfect thought. There will always be some sort of rivalry, but moments of love to make up for them. Another theme that creates conflict between Gene and Finny is jealousy. …show more content…

During what was supposed to be a fun festival, Gene receives a telegram from their friend Leper. It states Gene must come to see him in Vermont. After arriving in Vermont and talking to Leper, it is clear to see that Leper has both mentally and physically changed due to the war. For example, he has many outbursts, constantly repeats that he has “escaped”, and believes people see him as a psycho. This causes most of Leper’s friends to feel differently about him such as when Brinker repeats “we have lost him.” Knowles does this so the reader can understand how war affects someone. Mental illnesses such as PTSD is sometimes overlook when really it’s an extreme condition for those who have it. One doesn’t fully realize what war is like until they experience it for themselves. This can create fear, which ties into the theme. Also, in the beginning of the story, when the characters are being introduced, the reader sees the desire of Gene to be like Finny. While Finny was injured, Gene felt guilt, but found a way to lose it momentarily. “One evening when I was dressing for dinner in this numbed frame of mind, an idea occurred to me, the first with energy behind it since Finny fell from the tree. I decided to put on his clothes” (Knowles 62). Not only does his try on Finny’s clothes, but throughout the story he also tries to find liking in sports and even senses a feeling of

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The author, John Knowles, in the novel, “A Separate Peace”, conveys the lesson of friendship, or rather the lack of, with his use of diction. The strategy in which the author phrased certain sections of dialogue between Finny and Gene is there to show that Finny cares for Gene despite Gene’s obvious discontent. The friendship is a one-way street, and the author uses diction to represent this unbalance in the relationship, leading to friendship being a key theme throughout the book. There exist many examples of this diction throughout the novel, one of these is during their illegal beach trip. “I hope you’re having a pretty good time here.

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Gene considers Finny to be his best friend. In this type of friendship there is an implied vow of trust, loyalty and sense of forever friendship "Finny could shine with everyone, he attracted everyone he met. I was glad of that too. Naturally. He was my roommate and my best friend" (Knowles 40).

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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’s envy and imitation of Finny affects Gene greatly. Gene’s feelings cause him to be much more aggressive. For instance, on page 191, Finny told Gene, “it wasn’t anything you really felt against me, it wasn’t some

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They are supposed to be best friends, but Gene envies him and thinks he is trying to make him look bad. After Finny’s accident, Gene struggled with guilt and his life was changed because of it. “I spent as much time as I could alone in our room, trying to empty my mind of every thought, to forget where I was, even who I was. One evening when I was dressing for dinner in this numbed frame of mind, an idea occurred to me, the first with any energy behind it since Finny fell from the tree. I decided to put on his clothes” (Knowles 29).

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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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In the beginning of the novel, Gene returns to Devon to understand what happened in 1942. This is important because Gene seeks to console the guilt he has faced. Furthermore, Gene shows his shame after Finny was jounced off the tree. Remorse over Finny's injury ate Gene up, causing Gene to not participate in sports. Gene feels disgrace while in the infirmary thinking, "If Phineas had been sitting here in this pool of guilt...what would he have done?"

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Gene wanted Finny to get in trouble for what Finny had did, which had worn his tie as a belt. He hated that Finny got away with almost anything that he did wrong and wanted to go down someday. Another way their relationship is affected is through Gene’s lack of self-finding and liking. Gene hated that he never was like Finny, so he started to acting and do things that Finny did. That caused a lot of jealousy, guilt, and self-destruction from throughout the relationship that Gene and Finny had.

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He still encourages Gene to do the things that Finny no longer can because he wants to see someone else flourish, and most importantly: his friend. After Finny’s death, Gene even declares that “nothing … had broken [Finny’s] harmonious and natural unity” (Knowles 203). Since Gene exclaims this, the reader understands that Finny

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Much like the many sides of a person, Gene and Finny work together and make each other better, improving while competing. Reliant on each other, Gene and Finny have create a co-dependency with one another that they base their personalities on. A prime example of Gene and Finny’s co-dependency presents itself when Gene tries on Finny’s clothes describing, “but when I looked in the mirror… I was Phineas, Phineas to the life” (54). Eccentric and audacious, Finny’s pink shirt is his trade mark symbol of purity, and in this scene Gene tries on Finny’s “costume”. Much like these characters the good and bad of a person are not only one-dimensional, bad can be good and good can do bad.

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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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“Then a second realization broke as clearly and bleakly as dawn at the beach. Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies.” (24) Gene thinks this after going to the beach with Finny and ruining his grade because of the lack of studying due to his time spent having fun. This is just one example of how Gene thinks there's some sort of ongoing competition between themselves, causing Gene to be extremely jealous, self concerning and over analyzing about every situation instead of just enjoying the fun the two have as Finny does. Even though Gene acts like this he is still very friendly and a good person.

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Knowles makes the vision the reader grasps of every character sharp and in focus. A Separate peace goes in depth to every character to give them a specific identity. Throughout the book Knowles brings up key qualities of each character to make the situation different. As a reader follows the story the identity of the character develops further and further. By doing this the author leaves the reader always wanting

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Gene and Finny are the main characters in this story, they teach you a lot about their friendship. Finny and Gene’s friendship can be described by their rivalry and loyalty, betrayal and guilt, and confession and forgiveness. The first stage of Finny and Gene’s friendship is loyalty and rivalry. Gene usually does what Finny wants to do.

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Finny not being able to play sports anymore that meant Gene was next in line for the top athlete at Devon. In addition, this incident leads to Finny having several health issues and dying towards the end of the novel. Gene knew that Finny had no admirations towards him and that made him angered. Gene was hurt when Finn died but he still didn’t change once he went to war or when he came back to visit Devon in his elder years. “He had never been jealous of me for a second.

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