A Separate Peace Rhetorical Analysis

The novel A Separate Peace written by John Knowles exhibits a unique friendship between two teenagers, Phineas and Gene Forrester which takes a turn for the worst to turn into a silent one sided war of jealousy that ends in regret. The film created by Peter Yates is a good attempt at exhibiting the same storyline as the novel, but falls short of the clarity displaying major differences which makes the understanding of the storyline difficult and less enjoyable. Two major points affecting the storyline by setting and plot event include the chapter in which Phineas passes away, along with the part where he is taken to the infirmary which results in major differences in the film.

For many years, there has been a lot of controversy centering on the rate at which crime and violence is happening in society. Steven Pinker, the author of “Violence Vanquished” states, “We believe our world is riddled with terror and war, but we may be living in the most peaceable era in the human existence.” This quote from the article proves to many people that our world isn’t as bad as it is made out to be. In the article “Violence Vanquished” Pinker uses Logos, and an argument of fact to support the article 's central message which stands to prove violence is at an all-time low in today’s society.

In John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, the main character, Gene Forrester, undergoes a traumatic journey to develop the aspects necessary for coping through adulthood. This novel is a flashback to the year of 1942, when Gene attends his final year at Devon High School, in New Hampshire. Although Gene appears to be Finny’s best friend, he follows in Finny’s steps so that his personality clones to be like Finny’s. Finny exposes new experiences that provoke Gene’s development into adulthood. As Gene engages in new experiences, he soon realizes that he envies Finny’s abilities. Gene comes of age through his understanding of the difficult challenges in his youth.

Atoms for Peace” is a speech delivered by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on December 8, 1945. Eisenhower created the speech from the fear of the rapid development of nuclear weapons after World War II and his fear that it was leading the world to destruction. His goal of the speech was to influence the American people to accept steps towards arms control because he felt it was essential that they were told the true magnitude of the destructive power that had been developed in nuclear weapons. In his speech, “Atoms for Peace” Eisenhower combined warning with a hopeful plan for turning atomic energy into a benefit to mankind.

Guilt is a funny concept, that has a different affects on different people. Guilt can cause some to confess and it releases the burden, but for those who take long to confess, it can turn into a negative reaction that can cripple your emotions. A Separate Peace is set in a boarding school in New England. Gene, a main character, is an incisive introvert whose best friend, Phineas, is a handsome athlete. When an accident occurs over the Summer, that leaves Gene and Finny hurt in some way, what comes next could take a toll on their friendship. Dismissive and harmful effects of guilt are all around Gene. These effects caused Gene to lose confidence, and lose his ability to grow as a person.

Gene is a very intelligent student. Throughout the novel we see Gene almost become persuaded by the actions of his friend Phineas. Phineas is a bouncy character who loves sports and doesn’t see the value of studying like Gene. Gene frequently tries to balance his academic and social life, but he gets sick of this balancing act when he backlashes at Phineas for interrupting him from his schoolwork, “Okay, we go. We watch little lily-liver Lepellier not jump from a tree, and I ruin my grade”(57). This event shows how Gene takes his academic work seriously and can get annoyed by the constant nagging and distractions by his friends.

A Separate Peace has a very unique description of friendship. Throughout the book, Gene is jealous of Finny’s looks and what he is able to do. Gene has a lot of ambivalent feelings toward Finny. He wants to be Finny, but at the same time he is jealous of him. They are supposed to be best friends, but Gene envies him and thinks he is trying to make him look bad. After Finny’s accident, Gene struggled with guilt and his life was changed because of it.

Charles Kuralt once said, “ The love of family and the admirations of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.” This quote shows how jealousy and popularity aren’t as important as relationships in your life. In the book, A Separate Peace, Gene has different priorities than relationships. Gene, a young boy who attends Devon boarding school, goes through many different trials along his grade school journey. He faces problems with friends and school life during the time of World War two and the draft being in full swing. In the book, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the author shows Gene being changed by his jealous personality, reveals how interactions with other characters affect the main storyline, and displays how friendship

Gene grows a resentment towards Phineas and makes him fall off a tree, crippling him. However, while trying to cope with what he did, Gene attempts to act like Phineas by putting on his clothing. The incident also changes his personality by the sudden lose of innocence. This can be seen both when Gene has to take responsibility for his actions and when visits the tree several years later. Both of these reflections allow Gene to come of age to realize that he is no longer innocent and he must find his place in the world. Gene’s relationship to the past makes him come to terms with his dark human nature and shapes his personality for the rest of his lives. The past will always shape how the present is

First, we will start Gene’s actions leading up the death of Phineas. As stated indirectly by Leper, the kid who never lies: he recalls seeing two shadows up on the tree branch, one was Finny, and the other could be inferred as Gene. Gene stated right before Finny’s first traumatic fall, “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step

Throughout the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, there are many important things portrayed that coincide with the fact that the book is a wonderful literary piece and should be a required book to be read by many students. The main characters Phineas or Finny, an athletic and caring young man, and Gene Forrester, an intelligent student at Devon with an undying hatred within himself, are very similar to a vast majority of high school students. A Separate Peace is an absolutely amazing novel and should be a required book read by every high school student because of the following: it relates to High School students, it demonstrates how hatred can turn into something very evil, and it teaches people how to forgive someone despite previous

3.A Separate Peace starts off with our main character and narrator, Gene Forrester, revisiting his prep school fifteen years after he left it. Gene explores the area, but mostly seems interested in a tree, that if a very important object throughout the entirety of the book. Half way through the first chapter, we begin to see why the tree is so important when Phineas and Gene jump off of it. The reader soon learns that Finny (Phineas) and Gene are roommates and best friends, who have even made a club known as Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. As the story progresses, Finny and Gene are steadily becoming closer friends, though secretly, Gene is starting to feel a deep rivarly towards Finny. He thinks that Finny is trying to indirectly

Since Gene was the one to jounce the limb of the tree and put Finny off balance he takes the responsibility for the accident. This proves that gene has the identity for being the worrier and the responsible one. Each time something bad happens Gene feels like he is responsible and doesn't want anyone to know that he is. Since he is known to be the nerd he doesn't want his identity to his friends to become worse.

In the novel, A Separate Peace, one of the main themes, friendship, is shown by the two main characters, Phineas “Finny” and Gene, having a little friendly competition that ends up weakening their friendship. Friendship is a bond between two or more people that care about each other. In the end, their friendship dissipated because of their lack of respect towards each other and the unwillingness to trust each other as their relationship developed over the years. This book takes place at Devon Academy, a boarding school in New Hampshire, in the summer of 1942 during World War II.

Gean’s Lack of Peace The famed author Ralph Waldo Emerson once stated that “envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide,” (Emerson 370-372). John Knowles explores this idea in his novel, A Separate Peace, set in an all-boys school in New Hampshire. The story focuses on one Gene Forrester, a young boy growing up in the midst of the Second World War. Gene is quite envious of, and easily persuaded by, his best friend Phineas. This leads to a decline in his friendship and is eventually the reason for his lack of peace. Gene’s envy and imitation of his best friend leads him to go along with whatever Phineas wants him to do. He begins conforming to whatever Phineas wants, even if Gene doesn’t really want to. “Why did I let finny talk me into stupid things