A Separate Peace Conflict

Point: Leper is like a blender because he is all mixed up. Evidence: After Gene’s trip to see Leper he is fully convinced he has become crazy after the frequent crying and the absurd talk between the two characters. Sadly Gene finally admits it and confirms when Brinker says “I’ll bet he cracked up, didn’t he? That’s what happened.” referring to Leper.

A Separate Peace Wars are cruel, ruthless, and catastrophic. Lives are destroyed, and families are ripped apart. People are turned against each other, and seek to extinguish one another. “Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history” (Chris Hedges, New York Times). In John Knowles, A Separate Peace, Gene Forrester, a foolish teenager, experiences his own war; a clash between friendship and insecurities.

A Separate Peace, Unit Test Hamza Eldohiri The story “A Separate Peace”, written by John Knowles, was written at the time and takes place during World War II when battles and conflicts amongst nations were evident. Each nation involved struggled and fought their hardest in order to satisfy the good of their nation. Not only is the setting in the story taking place during this time of quarrel, the story also demonstrates areas of self-conflict and an internal battle throughout. The characters in “A Separate Peace”, are described as experiencing this self-conflicting, internal battle. Gene (also the narrator) is specifically depicted as he goes through his battle in life.

In the book, “Separate Peace” community is exemplified first through both Gene and Finny resided in a boarding school for young men/boys. The young men had future aspirations of moving forward in life by enlisting in the WWII. As we all know by enlisting into the military the men all share the same goal which is fighting and protecting our country. Secondly, community was presented through the boys being friends and never separated. Both individuals were a part of the super suicide society.

In the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene is a teenage boy who attends the boarding school called Devon. Devon is a sanctuary for young men before in the midst of World War II. The boys’ lives are surrounded by influences of war and influences on each other. Gene lives with his roommate Phineas (Finny) who he spends the majority of his time with. Being surrounding by each other all the time, all the boys in Devon influence who each other are.

Within the pages of A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the main character Gene goes through a multitude of changes; in his life and in his being. Living at Devon, an all-boys private school in scenic New England, gives his changes even less room to grow and adapt in such a secluded environment. At the center of these dramatic changes is his relationship with his closest friend Finny. A tipping point in this relationship is when Gene makes the decision to “jounce the limb” of the tree he and Finny are standing on, causing Finny to fall and cripple himself.

In “a separate peace,” gene and finny become very close friends during the summer session of 1942. One day, finny wanted gene to jump with him up from a tree and into the river. By doing this, they created the super suicide society of the summer session in where they do other rituals with other people. A few days after, when gene and finny were going to jump off the tree again, gene bent his knees, causing the branch to shake and make finny fall off the tree and break his leg. The doctor comes in and states that finny’s athletic days are over now, which makes gene feel guilty for what he has done.

In the fictional novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, two ‘best friends’ Gene and Finny face many challenges while they are attending Devon School. The story takes place in 1943, which is during World War II. Because of this, the overall challenge shown throughout the book that affects not only them, but everyone, is the encroaching war that interrupts and gradually dominates their lives. No matter how hard the boys try to live normally, they are faced with doing work for the war, seeing friends make decisions about enlisting, and watching as eventually the war takes over not only Devon’s Far Common, but their entire lives.

A Separate Piece, by John Knowles, is a coming of age novel that follows the development of the main character, Gene Forester, a junior at an exclusive boy’s school in New England. This extract focuses on Gene moving on from Devon and moving on from Phineas. As Gene looks back on his days at Devon, he begins to accept the mistake he made. Not the mistake of pushing Finny off the tree, but the mistake of misunderstanding their friendship. By the end of the novel, Gene has discovered himself.

When most people think of envy, they think of a competition that pushes someone to improve themselves to be like another person. While it is true that envy can definitely have a positive impact, in A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the reality of envy is displayed when Gene hurts his best friend Finny. The overpowering feeling can take over a person and bring them suspicion that can cause them to commit poor actions leaving them damaged and changed forever. The first place we see this in the book is when Gene starts suspecting Finny of planning a master scheme to wreck his academic success.

John Knowles, author of A Separate Peace, uses both character development and setting to support his decision in selecting the title. He uses the main characters of Gene and Phineas (Finny) and their troubled yet deeply bonded friendship as a way to illustrate the separate peace that takes place both within the boys themselves and in the friendship that is built between the two. Knowles also uses the setting of the novel to demonstrate the vast difference between the peaceful Devon School grounds and the war raging outside of the school’s walls. The title, A Separate Peace, as chosen by the author is symbolic of the main characters, Finny and Gene’s, struggle to find peace within themselves and with each other while set in a place that significantly contrasts the events of the real world.

Sean Duhey Mrs. Peeler 2 5/15/17 A Separate Peace A Separate Peace takes place Devon school in New Hampshire during the summer session in 1942. World War 2 plays a huge role with the students daily live and routines at school. The setting is key in the novel because Gene goes to different spots of the school where he had memories of Finny. Gene Forrester is the protagonist because he is the narrator of the the story he appears to be a middle aged man visiting his old school

Elizabeth Ross, a Swiss-American author wrote, “The most beautiful we've known are those who have known defeat, struggles, loss, and have found their way out of the depths.” In order to survive in the world we must realize that growing up comes with having to face your fears. The protagonists in John Knowles, Elie Wiesel, and J.D. Salinger books either fear losing their identity to cruelty, change, or their best friend. These fears tend to be the evil that the characters live with and shape their lives. What they do not get is that every adolescent endures evil; how they handle this will cause them to mature.