A Separate Peace: Social Sterotypes
Thesis: The five main characters in John Knowles' A Separate
Peace represent social stereotypes, according to some people. In his book A Separate Peace, John Knowles represents jocks with
Phineas, a character who believes that sports are the key to life. Phineas is more of a sportsman than a jock. Real jocks only care about winning, Phineas makes sure it's not possible for anyone to win or lose.
Chet Douglas is an exaggerated prep, just like Phineas is an exaggerated jock. He is obsessed with learning just for the sake of learning.
No real hardcore prep thinks that way! Chet Douglas lives in his own educational world. He's so absorbed in this alternate reality in which Calculus has a justified existence that he forgets what the school is trying to teach him, and actually goes out and seeks more academia than what the school is already shoving down his and everyone else's throat. The standard prep is only concerned with being on the top of the Honor Roll, so that everybody's parents can marvel at how smart (s)he is.
There is one character that fits into no stereotype. "Leper" Lepillier is an individualist. Individualists are people who don't conform to social norms just for the sake of being accepted by others. Real individualists are not those people with blue and green hair you see on talk shows. Those people conform to a subculture, something that was less common during World War II.
The real individualists of the world are quickly disappearing, as conformity becomes more popular. I haven't met any real individualists, so I can't say whether or not Knowles exaggerates Lepillier's lack of stereotype.
In modern society, there is pressure on individualists to conform to the most prominent subculture in the local area (I think). Those who fail to conform become outcasts, like the character Quackenbush. Outcasts are ridiculed so that they see themselves as inferior to everyone. In the book,
Quackenbush tries desperately to find someone who he is not inferior to, and starts a fight with Gene. While outcasts are created in the same way as
Quackenbush, he reacts much differently to being an outcast than most outcasts do. To the standard outcast, everyone is the target, eventually, not just a few inferior people.
Some people are self-obsessed. Gene would be a good example if he was
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.
Women wear cosmetics and everyone has a different hairstyle.
At the beginning of the book Nick sees Gatsby as a mysterious shady man. In the beginning of the chapter Nick somewhat resents Gatsby. In Nick’s opinion Gatsby was the representation of “…everything for which I have unaffected scorn.” (Fitzgerald 2). Nick sees Gatsby as what he hates the most in life, rich folk. Since the start of the novel it was obvious that had “Disapproved of him from beginning to end.” (Fitzgerald 154). As time passes, Nick realizes his neighbor has quite a mysterious past. Some think he’s a bootlegger, and a different person wa...
On April 23, 1791, a great man was born; fifteenth president of the United States, James Buchanan.He was born near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. His father, James Buchanan, and his mother Elizabeth Speer Buchanan, raised their son a Presbyterian. He grew up in a well to do home, being the eldest of eleven other siblings. His parents cared for them all in their mansion in Pennsylvania. They sent him to Dickinson College.
In the novel The Great Gatsby, the story is told from the point of view of Nick, who came from the Midwest to the East Coast. At the beginning, Nick recognized Gatsby’s flaws and scorned his values, but by the end of the novel, Nick finds something heroic and noble in Gatsby’s vision and his extraordinary gift for hope. Gatsby was the son of a family of poor farmers, but he didn’t even consider them as his family at all. All he had to start was his Platonic conception of himself, which he was determined to make reality, and no amount of fire could challenge the fairytale vision he had for his life. He rose to riches, albeit by criminal activities, gaining the title of “new money”. He lived in West Egg, where all the “new money” folks lived, across from white palaces of old moneyed East Egg. Gatsby, ever since meeting Daisy during his time in the military, had envisioned and planned out his life with her in it. He gained a large amount of money, threw large, l...
Power, the perception of superiority over another human, is the source of many conflicts between people. Feeling inferior causes people to act beyond their normal personality. John Knowles strongly demonstrates this point in his work, A Separate Peace. In the relationship between Finny and Gene, Gene sets himself up to be inferior in the balance of power which motivates him to act irrationally to take power back from Finny.
In addition, his sympathy towards the individuals in the city who cannot even fantasize, due to their necessity of work, shows his pensiveness, somewhat contradicting many characters in the novel. The world he has had a taste of, Gatsby’s world, is out of contact with the world which Nick is interacting with now. Gatsby’s experience is residing in West Egg, while the people surrounding Nick right now may never even see West Egg. Herein lies Nick’s thoughtfulness and observational
A persona is a mask shown to the outside world developed in relation to consciousness, to hide the darkest aspects of a psyche, known as a shadow, behind it. Shadows contrast personas by holding undesirable and unwanted memories and behaviors, but the dark side of an individual must be accepted for the individual to fully understand oneself. In the coming of age novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, narrator Gene Forrester returns to New Hampshire to visit Devon School, where he studied fifteen years ago just as World War II had begun to unfold. The narrative shifts back fifteen years ago to Gene’s days at Devon School with his best friend, Phineas, also known as Finny, as he recalls memorable events from his past. Gene’s persona and shadow
... the east coast. For example, on the east coast, life has a more lively and chaotic feel compared to the midwest. This feeling of excitement portrays how Nick’s change of settings has caused a change of Nick’s morals. Throughout the story, his thirst for living the in the limelife, like Gatsby, increases which shines light on an ambitious side of Nick. Moreover, Nick’s transition from his obsolete life in the midwest, to the prosperity and havoc of the east coast described in this passage opens up an opportunistic view of the American Dream for Nick, and also sets an example of what he, one day, strives to be-- surrounded in grandeur. Additionally, Nick falls into an American Dream trance brought by Gatsby’s opulence; however, the pandemonium seen in the passage reveals a possible shady aspect to Gatsby’s compilation of resplendent material wealth and prosperity.
One of the most controversial topics in the news today is the legalization of marijuana. Supporters believe that the drug is not harmful and can have numerous benefits. However, opponents argue that marijuana can lead to addiction and other more dangerous drugs. In the end, marijuana should be legal based on economic, medicinal, and philosophical factors.
So why exactly should marijuana be legal? Well, there are many reasons both opinions and facts, but why does it need to be legal? According to many of my sources, marijuana has been found to be less dangerous than both alcohol and tobacco products. “Marijuana is safer than many over the counter drugs.” (Young, Francis L. 2) Judge Francis L. Young, from the DEA, declared that marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. “Long term heavy marijuana use does not produce the severe or grossly debilitating impairment of memory, attention, and cognitive function found with chronic alcohol use.”(British Medical Journal Lancet 4) Only a small number of marijuana users eventually smoke enough of it for a long period to suffer impairments matching those ...
Nick Carraway is the only character worth knowing in The Great Gatsby. He is living in East Egg with the rich and powerful people. He is on the guest lists to all of their parties and yet he is the person most worthy of attending such parties because he is well bread and his family is certainly not poor. “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” (Ch1, P1). These words were taught to Nick by his father showing the qualities that a man with goals and values would have in a place where goals and values was no existent. His Judgmental eye for character and guts of using them when desired makes him more interesting. He has a greatest fear that he will be all alone by himself.
question largely is not on their jobs, but if they are deemed of a different
Growing up, I was raised in a southern Baptist church setting. Every Sunday you were required to attend church which included going to Sunday school, first service, and second service. You were also required to be active in the church whether it be ushering or singing in the choir. For my foreign experience of worship I decided to attend a Catholic church. At first I was a bit skeptical about stepping outside of my background history of worship because I thought that attending a Catholic church may change some of my beliefs or practices. I will admit before my attendance to this Catholic Church I had negative thoughts and was determined that my paper would be only about negative experience that I had. Once I entered the church all of my negative thoughts were out of my mind. Prior to researching background information I really didn’t think that Catholics and Baptist had a lot in common, besides their belief in the faith of Jesus Christ. In my essay about my Catholic Church experience I will describe the physical setting of the church, tell you about the church service, and lastly tell
Frost uses nature as a reflection of human experiences; just like humanity it can have seasons and life cycles. He uses different scenes to depict a certain mood for readers to step into the psychological happening of a man. The idea of how seasons change, Frost compares it through the life cycles that humans encounter. Contrary to popular opinion, I believe that nature is not Frost’s central theme in his poetry; it is about the relationship that man has with nature in which can be seen from “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, “The Road Not Taken”, and “An Old Man’s Winter Night.”