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• a separate piece by J. Knowles
The theme of a separate peace
• a separate piece by J. Knowles
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Throughout life, people are constantly finding themselves, whether it be physically or mentally. The novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, highlights this feature. The main character Gene Forrester is repeatedly overshadowed by his best friend, Finny, this forces him through a state of anger, distrust, and aggravation. Although Gene has several attributes to be proud about, he decides to focus on Finny's actions instead. Through the use of characterization for Gene Forrester, Knowles demonstrates the fact that when one finds their own identity it allows for them to overcome hardships and undergo growth. Across the entire novel, Gene fluctuates from states of confidence to depression within minutes, this is the result of his views on …show more content…
When Gene begins to reminisce, the first memories that enter his mind are that of when him and Finny are jumping off of the tree for the first time. Throughout the majority of the experience Gene questions ¨why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things” which shows his constant recurring regret (Knowles 17). Gene allows Finny to control his decisions which restricts him from thinking on his own. Gene has not yet acknowledged the presence of his identity, so he seems to feed off of Finny's actions as his own. This poor decision results in Gene not having the ability to grow based on his own actions and decisions, because he does not think on his own. Apart from not thinking on his own, Gene struggles continually with the fact that he lacks the ability to follow through on some actions. He attempts to study to pursue dreams of valedictorian, but Finny comes into his room and interrupts him with questions. Gene shrieks at Finny with rage, lecturing him about the importance of studying, but then ¨slammed the chair against the desk¨ following Finny out to the tree (57). Although Gene knows that he should be thinking on his own, he allows Finny's
A Separate Peace is a coming of age novel in which Gene, the main character, revisits his high school and his traumatic teen years. When Gene was a teen-ager his best friend and roommate Phineas (Finny) was the star athlete of the school.
The theme “rite of passage” was used in the novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. This moving from innocence to adulthood was contained within three sets of interconnected symbols: summer and winter, the Devon and Naguamsett Rivers, and peace and war. These symbols served as a backdrop upon which the novel was developed. The loss if Gene Forrester’s innocence was examined through these motifs.
The novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles describes the life highschool life of Gene Forrester through the flashbacks he experienced 15 years after his graduation. Throughout the novel Knowles takes us on a journey that revolves around Gene and his friend Finny as they go through their years in a private high school. While reading the novel one can see that Gene takes his hero journey during his highschool time as he makes the choices that will dictate not only his hero journey but his entire life.
His focus upon the importance of individuality is a constant throughout the novel and is displayed through Gene’s hatred toward Finny at the beginning of the novel only because he was more athletic than he was. (Knowles 43). Finny has always been a breaker of rules-game rules, school rules, the rules of a society at war that say that no one should be having fun now. But Gene's desire to break the boundaries of their separate human identities is finally still more radical. The reader might not think Finny's death is Gene's fault, but this desire to absorb his friend completely seems to require either Finny's actual death, which of course occurs, or the death of all difference between them, which one will argue also occurs (McGavran).Though Knowles is (to us) curiously coy in describing the death of Finny, even italicizing it as ‘that’, he considers it extremely important because of its concentration on pure pleasure.” This proves that Knowles is clearly focusing on the pleasures of emotion and feelings of Gene. Emotion and all other feeling is basically nonexistent in Gene, which is a clear warning to people today that that lust is not the answers to solving your problems even if it means losing someone you truly love and care
"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion. It is harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) A Separate Peace (1959) written by John Knowles, expresses the true struggle to respect ones individuality. In 1942 at a private school in New Hampshire Gene Forrester became good friends with his roommate, Finny. He envies Finny for his great Athletic ability. In spite of the envy, Gene and Finny do everything together and one day for fun they decide to jump out of a tree into the river. After that they form the Super Suicide Society, the first time they jumped being their reason for formation. During one of their meetings they decide to jump off at the same time. When they get up on the limb Gene bounces it and Finny falls on the bank. He shatters the bones in his leg and will never again play sports. Nobody realizes that Gene deliberately made Finny lose his balance. Because of the accident Gene does not play sports either and continues being friends with Finny. One night, some of the other guys from Devon School woke Gene and Finny up in the middle of the night. They are suspicious of the "accident." They conduct a trial to blame Gene for what has happened to Finny. Eventually Finny gets upset in the midst of argument and runs out. He ends up tripping and falling down the stairs, and breaking his healed leg allover again. It was a cleaner break this time but they still have to set it. Gene confesses to Finny that he bounced him out of the tree. While setting the break there are complications and Finny dies. Gene learns that he is his own person and now that Finny is gone he can finally be content with himself. In the beginning Gene feels inferior to Finny.
Beyond the basic need for a sense of control, people are driven by their sense of identity, of who they are. Each person lives in their own universes, which are centered upon their feeling of self-purpose. There are multiple types of identities such as individual and group identities. Each person's identity is formed differently because of the unique experiences every individual encounters. The formation can be affected by many things such as their home environment, social concurrences, and physiological health. This story, A Separate Peace, exhibits interesting main characters which establish the frequent struggles of personal identity in adolescence.
In the novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the main character, Gene, transforms from a clueless individual, to one who understands events by the middle of the novel, when he starts to gain knowledge. By the end of the novel, Gene is a wise individual who has obtained his knowledge with age.
In John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, Gene and Phineas strive to find their true selves which is normal for teenagers. The Greek poet and playwright Sophocles suggest that humans never reach a full realization of who they are as individuals until they find another human being with whom the person can share themselves with. This story starts with Gene as an adult reflecting on how he no longer considers places at Devon fearful anymore. Over the course of Gene and Phineas’ friendship, Gene accumulates guilt and jealousy which fabricates fearful places. The fearful places include, the tree and the marble stairs. The reason Gene came back to Devon was to confront places he considered fearful. He no longer considers them fearful places once
Throughout the novel ‘A Separate Peace’ by John Knowles, readers can critically evaluate how the character Gene interacts and responds to other characters. We see examples of this with several other boys at Devon school, including Finny, Brinker, and Leper. For the most part Gene is a fairly easygoing person. However, several times in the novel another character “triggers” a negative response from Gene. Gene is a round character which means the author wrote him to have vivid character traits. A trait readers can explore is his strong temper, and reactions to certain situations.
Contemporary Literary Criticism states that John Knowles’ main characters often, “arrive at a painful awakening, the realization of the evil in society and themselves.” According to Knowles, this realization helps them enter adulthood. Within the novel A Separate Peace, the protagonist Gene had a “painful awakening,” to the evil that exists in society and within himself. These evils that developed within his everyday environment influenced him and helped him mature into an adult. Three events that evoked this change within Gene is his fear of jumping off the tree, when Gene pushes Finny out of the tree, and the death of Finney. Therefore, the essay will began on Gene’s fear of jumping from the tree.
Throughout the novel A Separate Peace, the reader is introduced to the friendship of Gene Forrester and Phineas. The story is mainly about Gene Foreseer who flashback his memory fifteen years ago where he was still in high school when the war happened and the transition to their adulthood. The story covers students in Devon High School go through many things to learn about their friendship focusing on Gene and Finny. The two students,however, had a very different views on their friendship. Gene’s view on his friendship with Finny was full of jealousy while Finny’s view on his friendship with Gene was real and pure; nonetheless, Gene and Finny were both competitive.
...er, Gene’s activities demonstrate gradual escalation. Obsessed with Finny, Gene seeks to transform himself into Finny to finally be equals.
Enemies are not seen, but the inner conflicts arisen makes certain people seem like rivals. With high self-conflict, many people may strive to attain a better form, a better identity, the alter ego. This alter ego is a better version, where inner conflicts are nonexistent and innocence proves to rule the mind. In order to finally become an adult, innocence must be lost, as well as the alter ego, this allows a person to gain enough experience to achieve clear vision. The book, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, is about a young teenager, Gene, who is coming to age. Gene is jealous yet loves his best friend, Phineas, who seems utterly perfect. Phineas represents innocence and the friendship they share; Phineas pulls Gene into a vision of innocence,
... age of Gene Forrester. Because Finny causes Gene to grow up, we are able to realize that one must grow up to move on in life. In that process of growing up, several people impact your life. This novel shows us how our identity is basically created by those who are present in our lives; however we must not measure our abilities against another person (Overview: A Separate Peace 2). We are shown how the impact of one person can make a great difference. The goodness in people is what one should always take away from a relationship. This is shown in the relationship between Gene and Finny. The experiences Finny gives Gene cause him to grow up and become a better person because of them.
In "A Separate Peace" many characteristics of becoming a man can be seen. For example, as the novel progresses, so does Gene's maturity. Gene's first seen in the novel as a boy, not yet brought on by nature, but as one gets deeper into the novel, one sees change; Gene embarks on life change that all men journey through once in their life. Gene begins to see his life and others from a totally new standpoint, as though even from a newer perspective. In Chapter two and chapter three, Gene, develops a sheer envy for Finny, and acknowledges it as the truth. He is extremely envious of the methods in which Finny uses to escape his unusual actions and his popularity. He embeds himself in a pool of self-assurance, by repeatedly telling himself over and over again that having