John Knowles was born on 1962 in Fairmont, West Virginia and passed away on November 29, 2001. He was 15 years old when he became a student at Phillips Exeter Academy, a boarding school. After he graduated from there is 1945, he decided to join the war effort as part of the U.S. Army Air Force’s Aviation Cadet Program. John went to Europe and worked as a journalist until the mid 1950’s and then returned to the U.S in 1957. After returning, he took a job with the associate editor at Holiday magazine, Thornton Wilder. Wilder was interested in Knowles’ writing and started working on “ A Separate Piece.” This was Knowles’ first novel and his most successful one too. Knowles was given the honors of writer-in-residence at both Princeton University and University of North Carolina. A Separate Peace illustrates Knowles’ idea and understanding of the war as he, himself comes out through the narrator of Gene. Gene does not only struggle with the idea of the war, but he must overcome his jealousy and hostility toward his best friend Finny.
FORM, STRUCTURE, AND PLOT
The novel was organized in thirteen chapters and 251 pages. The techniques the author used was flashbacks and chronological order of events. Knowles would first explain the novel in present time, but then would flashback to his teenage life, especially memorize about the tree. The plot of the novel is complex because of all the flashbacks and present-time events Gene talks about. There is a lot going on and sometimes it’s difficult to understand what perspective Gene is using. In the beginning of the novel, Gene visits his old school in his thirties. As he approaches the famous tree that started so much drama, he begins to reminisce the years he spent there. Throughout the book ...
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...his friendship. It’s necessary to figure this out because in comparison to Gene, Finny is the loyal, caring, and loving friend. Finny doesn’t want to make Gene even more jealous that he broke the record of all time.
“..Phineas had died form the marrow of his bone flowing down...I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case.
The quote from the end of chapter 12 really touches me. Ever since Gene became a part of Finny, he has later realised how important Phineas was in his life. Part of Finny lives in Gene as does Gene lived in Finny’s. It’s important that we acknowledge the way Gene feels because it is completely differ from the way he felt before about Finny.
Works Cited:
"Biography of John Knowles (1926-2001)." Biography of John Knowles. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2014.
SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 09 May 2014.
Throughout A Separate Peace, Knowles carefully, yet successfully develops the inevitable loss of innocence theme. He is able to prove the Latin inscription “Here Boys Come to Be Made Men” (165), by describing the necessity of transition to adulthood. If Finny never accepted the tragedy that occurred to him and the new perspective of the world, he wouldn’t have been able to live beyond his illusion. If Leper didn’t let go of his imaginary world of nature, he would not have been able to become the individual he is at the end of the novel. And if Gene did not try to fight his enemy he would not have resolved the issue of self-identity. Knowles effectively develops the theme, thus portraying it as a necessary part of life.
In the novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the narrator, Gene Forrester struggles to earn and preserve a separate peace. The story takes place in a remote boarding school named Devon, in New Hampshire. While Gene and Finny are in school, World War II is taking place. The author clearly explains an important story about the jealousy between Gene and his best friend, Phineas. Gene suspects that Finny is trying to sabotage his grades, and Gene allows his jealousy to control his actions. Therefore, Gene misinterprets their relationship by thinking that they shared enmity towards each other, and this caused Gene to enter a world of jealousy and hatred, which ultimately leads to Finny’s death. By examining this jealousy, John Knowles
“some kind of hold”(9) over Gene. The fact that Gene lets Finny talk him into things
First, I believe that Gene and Finny were not sincerely friends throughout the novel due to their relationship being driven by competitiveness. Along with the competitive atmosphere came jealously, envy and enmity. Gene created a rivalry between him and Finny. Since Finny was
The rain had washed away his mascara and left him exposed to his real emotions, and there he was cleansed. The rain was not just weather, it was “never just rain” (Foster 75). Rain had a deeper meaning than initially perceived. But rain is not the only thing that cleanses people, baptism does as well. In religious aspects of baptism, sin is supposed to cleanse you of your sins, and a person only does it once they are ready to publicly profess their religion. So, unlike rain, “the thing about baptism is, you have to be ready to receive it” (Foster 157). In the story, Gene and Phineas are best friends, and they decide to jump off the tree one day. Gene was fearful of Phineas because Gene believed that Phineas was trying to sabotage his place as valedictorian of the class. So, Gene jounces the limb of the tree and causes Phineas to lose his balance and fall. Phineas “hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud. With unthinking sureness, I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear forgotten” (Knowles 52). Baptism must be done with sureness, and Gene shows definite sureness in this part of A Separate
Throughout A Separate Peace, John Knowles effectively uses his characterization of Finny to teach one of life's greatest lessons. Although at times Gene and Finny appear to be enemies, the tests and challenges Finny presents to Gene actually cause him to blossom, making him a stronger person. Despite Finny's death, his wisdom, courage and actions live on in Gene. Gene learns that throughout life accomplishments that one works for and achieves will provide much more reward than those handed to a person. Many times, the greatest reward is finding one's true self and discovering his or her capabilities.
Gene believes that people are deliberately out to get him and concentrates only on grasping the evil within his friends. Therefore, Gene decides to defeat his enemies before he gets defeated himself. During the summer session at Devon, Gene encounters a dark suspicion that his friend Finny is drawing him away from his studies in order to make him fail. This makes sense to Gene since he religiously follows the rules to win approval from the staff at Devon, and anyone who persuades him to disobey these rules wishes failure upon him. Therefore, Finny
Finny and Gene were two very contrasting characters who both had their flaws, but in the end one was stronger than the other. On one end of the spectrum, Gene was associated with the traits of bitterness, hate, jealousy, secrecy, and he was a very loathing person. And on the other end, Finny was a light-hearted, good spirited, young, optimistic character. Gene throughout the book developed and changed extensively, and in the end came out the stronger character. Finny was definitely a crowd pleaser, but, Gene was the more solid and strong of the two because of his massive changes, making him a dynamic character.
In the novels A Separate Peace and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time there are a number of themes. The books have so many similarities in them. All of the characters love and help each other get through things that are tough in their life. One of the problems that all of the characters face is being lost. This isn’t one of the themes that I chose, but I think it puts them together nicely. Most of the characters want to be put back on the right path in the story. By the end of the novels, they all achieved this goal. The three things that helped them do that were the friendships and sheltering that they had and the forgiveness they gave and received.
In the beginning of the novel, Gene, is a clueless individual. He sees the worst in people and lets his evil side take over not only his mind but also his body. During the tree scene, Gene convinces himself that Finny isn’t his friend, tricking himself into thinking that Finny is a conniving foil that wants to sabotage his academic merit. Gene is furthermore deluded that every time Finny invites Gene somewhere it’s to keep him from studying and doing well. Finny has a reputation for being the the best athlete in school, and Gene attempts to counterbalance Finny’s power by being the best student. After a while of joining Finny’s activities, Gene thinks that Finny is intentionally trying to make him fail out of school. He starts to dislike Finny and his activities, and Gene starts interrupt...
"Looking back now across fifteen years, I could see with great clarity the fear I had lived in, which must mean that in the interval I had succeeded in a very important undertaking: I must have made my escape from it" ( Knowles 5). In this novel A Separate Peace, using these words, John Knowles reveals the fear that haunts the students at Devon and when they proceeded with all their training for the war they mature into adults.
In the early pages of the novel, Finny confesses that Gene is his best friend. This is considered a courageous act as the students at Devon rarely show any emotion. And rather than coming back with similar affection, Gene holds back and says nothing. Gene simply cannot handle the fact that Finny is so compassionate, so athletic, so ingenuitive, so perfect. As he put it, "Phineas could get away with anything." (p. 18) In order to protect himself from accepting Finny's compassion and risking emotional suffering, Gene creates a silent rivalry with Finny, and convinced himself that Finny is deliberately attempting to ruin his schoolwork. Gene decides he and Finny are jealous of each other, and reduces their friendship to cold trickery and hostility. Gene becomes disgusted with himself after weeks of the silent rivalry. He finally discovers the truth, that Finny only wants the best for Gene, and had no hidden evil intentions. This creates a conflict for Gene as he is not able to deal with Finny's purity and his own dark emotions. On this very day Finny wants to jump off of the tree branch into the Devon river at the same time as Gene, a "double jump" (p. 51), he says, as a way of bonding. It was this decision, caused by Finny's affection for Gene and outgoing ways that resulted in drastic change for the rest of his life.
John Knowles writes a compelling realistic fiction about the lives of two teenage boys throughout the start of World War II in his novel A Separate Peace. Peter Yates the director of the movie plays the story out in a well organized theatrical manner. There are similarities and differences in these two works of art. However; there are also similarities.
Additionally, Gene justifies his hatred towards Finny by assuming Finny feels hatred towards him because of his excellence in academics. At this moment, Gene does not attempt to deny his shadow. Rather, he embraces his shadow completely, allowing it take him over and make false accusations against his own best friend. In Gene’s mind, “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies. That explained blitz all, that explained the nightly meetings of the Super Suicide Society, that explains his insistence that I share all his diversions.
The novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, is the coming of age story of Gene Forrester. This novel is a flashback to the year 1943, when Gene is attending Devon School during his senior year and the summer before it. "Gene's youth and inexperience make him ill-equipped to deal with situations that require maturity" (Overview: A Separate Peace 2). However, Gene is a follower of Finny and therefore gains experiences that provoke his development into adulthood. Some of these experiences include: breaking Finny's leg, training for the 1944 Olympics, and killing Finny. Through these three experiences Gene is forced to grow out of his childish-self and become a man.