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A Separate Peace Rite Of Passage Analysis

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“Everything has to evolve or else it perishes” (Knowles 125). Leper says this in the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles. This novel about the rite of passage was set at the Devon School between 1942-1943. The character undergo a rite of passage that transition them from childhood to adulthood; however, not everyone succeeds in this journey. Three characters that struggle to complete their Rite of passage includes: Gene, Leper, and Finny. The boys discover that if they do not successfully evolve during their rite of passage, than they will perish in one way or another. Gene, the first to experience his loss of innocence, struggles to successfully complete his Rite of passage.The young Gene stands unconcerned, self-absorbed, by the tree that will test his true nature. Gene is insecure because he believes Finny is better than him. Since Finny makes Gene do things he doesn’t want to do he is resentful such as daring him to experience the world more directly, by breaking rules and creating new traditions. Gene is jealous of Finny; which shows his immaturity and leads up to the pinnacle of the novel. Due to Gene’s ego he gives into doing something that he will later regret, he jounces the limb the Finny was standing on. Growth can come only through conflict and struggle and therefore, Gene's sense of guilt, however much he hides it, represents his attempt to make things right. He gains the knowledge of evil in himself …show more content…

Gene evolves successfully because he killed the savage and evil within himself once Finny dies. Leper, emotionally unprepared for war, is traumatized by what he see’s at war and therefore, does not successfully complete his rite of passage. Even though everyone wants to be like Finny, his inability to live in a world of evil results in an unsuccessful findings of his rite of

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