Essay On A Separate Peace

Differences in A Separate Peace Novel and Film

Everyone at some point has felt envious of their bestfriend. In the novel, “A Separate Peace”, envy leads to many problems and changes in the film. Phineas is a main character that is bestfriends with Gene; he is athletic, a leader, and goes by Finny. Leper is a student that is viewed as weird. When he came back from the war he is portrayed differently in the film than in the book. Gene is the protagonist, intelligent, and is best friends with Finny. The story takes place at Devon high school, with the students becoming seniors . In the novel and the film “A Separate Peace”, some differences that were made are the beginning scene, Leper’s life after the war, and the last scene.

For instance a difference between the novel and film is the beginning scene. The novel starts by opening in Gene’s thought of his past. He states “I went back to Devon school...was a student there fifteen years before.”(Knowles 1). However the movie starts by showing the mock trial, “..The trial can commence,”(Yates 3:03). While novel starts with Gene visiting Devon school after fifteen years of his departure, the film displays that in the beginning they were in the courtroom for Genes trial. In the novel this scene is shown

In the beginning scene the novel starts with a recap, while the film begins with the trial against Gene. Leper’s personality in the novel was the complete opposite of the way he acted in the book towards others. However the ending scene demonstrates that in the novel he did not enroll into the war, but in the film he told of his enrollment. These differences were main points that were replaced or improve from the novel for the film. Changes were made to make the point across of what occurred in the novel. Overall the novel’s perspective differs from the film of how the actual story