A Separate Peace Foreshadowing Analysis

“Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even death by violence” (Knowles 14). John Knowles famous quote in his work A Separate Peace does more than leave a lasting memory. Set in the New England preparatory school Devon, the novel focuses primarily on the relationship between Gene and Phineas. Knowles uses foreshadowing, especially in the first chapters to answer questions about the relationship Gene and Finny have. Those moments answer questions about their bond that are left hanging at the end of the novel.
Knowles inserts foreshadowing in key places, particularly in the first chapters. When Gene revisits the school, he notices that the places that once caused awful things in his life now had noticeable features to them on how they carries out those actions. He first sees the marble stairs and observes their appearance:
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When Gene states that a tree does not endure, he is pertaining to the tree that he and his friends jump off in the super suicide society of the summer session. When he came back to the school, he wasn’t able to find that tree that had always frightened him. “There were several trees bleakly reaching for the fog. Any one of them might have been the one I had been looking for” (13). All the trees had blended in and he could not find the specific tree because he was not afraid of it anymore. When Gene mentions that death by violence does not endure, it is foreshadowing that someone might die a violent death, which is shown to us later in the novel with the death of Finny. “And I have to tell you about it now, your friend (Finny) is dead” (193). After Finny fell down the steps, the doctor set his leg again and when he did, marrow from him bone stopped his heart and Finny dies right there. The use of foreshadowing in one quote led to several different events that happen much later in the