A Separate Peace Sparknotes

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Recommended: American literature after World War 2

A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace tells the story of a 16 year-old boy named Gene who is on a journey of self-exploration and growth. By returning to his home roots where dramatic life changing events have shaped who he has become, he reflects on how fearful he was in those days. Taking place during World War II, Gene's adolescent years at Devon boy’s boarding school were spent mainly with his best friend and roommate Phineas (nicknamed Finny). Through his friendship with Finny, he discovers their undeniable personality difference’s that inevitably pushes them over the edge. Although Gene is quiet, intellectual and reserved and Finny is outgoing, athletic and daring, these two opposites tend to compliment each other for the most part. Naturally …show more content…

Once Finny gets settled in the infirmary, Gene sets out to visit him and is assured by the doctor that Finny has a clean break on the same leg he has originally shattered. As reality of the situation is setting in Gene and Finny finally confront Gene’s intensions the day of the accident, where Gene explains that some “crazy thing” inside of him made him jostle the branch. Finny assures him that he understands and believes Gene. Finny then goes into surgery to re set his leg and when Gene returns to the infirmary the doctor explains to Gene that a bit of marrow escaped from the bone as we was setting, it entering his bloodstream and stopping his heart. Finny was dead. The novel ends on an appropriately dark note, as the war invades Devon. Through the passing of Finny and the war encroaching in, Gene realizes the real war was within him-self. The boys of Devon lost a childhood illusion that the world is a fundamentally friendly place. To Gene, the war emerges out of a profound and toxic ignorance in the human heart- an ignorance that causes one to seek out an enemy and to see the world as a hostile place. A Separate Peace is a war novel without tanks and guns; it is the shadow of the war and the knowledge of its approach that affects the

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  • Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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  • A Separate Peace Quote Analysis

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    This quote shows their friendship. Gene didn’t understand why Finny talked him into things that he knew he shouldn't have done. Finny influenced Gene. This wasn't necessarily a good thing. Sometimes Finny helped Gene overcome his fears and help him become more social. But sometimes, it was a bad thing, like jumping from the tree. Much of his hesitation over jumping has less to do with a fear of dying than a fear of subordination, of blindly following Finny's desires

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  • Compare And Contrast A Separate Peace

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  • Denial of Truth in John Knowles' A Separate Peace

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  • Negative Peer Pressure Depicted in Knowles' A Separate Peace and Plath's Initiation

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    In a Separate Peace, the main character, Gene Forrester, is constantly pressured into rebelling against the school rules by his best friend Phineas, or “Finny”. Throughout the story it is obvious that Gene is jealous of his friend and therefore succumbs to the pressure Finny puts on him to temporarily find peace with himself. Because he is constantly following the crowd, Gene begins to lose his individuality and finds himself overwhelmed with jealousy. He risks Phineas’ life by shaking the branch of a tree they jump off of, which disables him and ultimately leads to his death. The boys’ friends feel that they need someone to blame for Finny’s tragic injury, so they hold a mock trial to investigate. Gene is under constan...

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