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A Separate Peace By John Knowles: An Analysis

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In the book a Separate Peace, John Knowles the author uses, different levels of war to show the different conflicts throughout the book, and the effects they have on Gene. An example of a level of war is interpersonal war, or also known as man versus man, which is a conflict between two people. In the book, Gene thinks there is in interpersonal war between him and Finny. Gene believes that Finny wants to be better than him, as shown in the quote when Gene and Finny talk back in forth, “You don’t need to worry about me Finny.” “I’m not worried.” “You wouldn’t mind if I wound up as head of the class, would you?” (52). This little argument that Gene and Finny had is a great example of interpersonal war. This affects jeans character this affects Gene’s character because he believes he wants …show more content…

The last example of war in this book is international war. International war, is a war waged between countries. This book takes place in a big international war, known as World War II. The international war, World War II comes to affect when Brinker gets angry with the academy and says he is joining the war. Brinker says, “Everybody in this place is a draft-dodging Kraut or a...a… naturalist… I’m giving it up, I’m going to enlist. Tomorrow” (100). This is an example of how international war affects the people of the countries involved. The war can cause young men to use it as an escape from school, like how Brinker wants to. This has an effect on Gene because Gene then says he has been waiting for someone to say those words so he could too. People can learn from Gene’s experience that war can have a big impact on a person's life and their choices. In conclusion, the book the Separate Piece has three different levels of “war”, showing each type of conflict. Man versus man, man versus self, and man versus country. Those three levels of “war” affected Gene and the way his actions played

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