Loss Of Innocence In A Separate Peace

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Tom Stoppard once said, “Maturity is a high price to pay for growing up”. Just as in A Separate Peace, the boys are forced to give up their innocence in exchange for adulthood. This loss of innocence is best shown through Phineas’s fall off of the tree, the two seasonal school sessions, and the war. Phineas’s fall off of the tree marks the climax of the story and the progression from childhood to adulthood that is caused by a loss of innocence. After the fall, Gene stays in his room trying “to forget where [he] was, even who [he] was” (62) because his evil has filled him with immense guilt that absolutely crushes him. Gene is trying to forget who he is because he cannot believe that he has just hurt his best friend. By having to deal with this guilt Gene is pulled from his adolescence into adulthood. Phineas also experiences this pull when he realizes what Gene has done to him. At this time Phineas yells “want to break something else in me” (184) at Gene because his world has been shattered by the realization of his best friend has crippled him for life. Phineas’s fall signified the end of the adolescence of Gene and his …show more content…

It is shown not only through direct references but also through words such as when Gene returns to the tree after fifteen years and compares it to an “artillery piece” (13). Knowles’s use of this type of military diction shows what the boys will have to deal with as an adult and how this change is inevitable. By frequently incorporating it, he recreates the boys’ situation where the war was a constant reminder, no matter how subtle it was. Through this he is able to compare how dreary the life of an adult is and how blissful it is to be young and ignorant. With this he is able to bring into question the life of people and how they live. If they only have a tough future life to look forward to, why should they

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