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Outline For A Separate Peace

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The Peace Within A Separate Peace by John Knowles takes place in the summer of 1942 during World War II at The Devon School in New Hampshire. Gene Forrester becomes best friends with his roommate Phineas (nicknamed Finny) despite them having such different personalities. Gene is an introverted and uptight character, while Finny is more outgoing and carefree. Gene starts to feel envy for Finny because he thinks that everything comes so easy to him.(QUOTE) One day when Gene and Finny are up in the tree, Gene jounces the branch and Finny falls out of the tree, shattering his leg. Later on in the story, Finny falls down a set of marble stairs and his leg breaks again, causing him to need to get surgery. Finny died during his surgery, leaving …show more content…

In the story, Gene started to envy Finny for his personality and his ability to do things easily and get away with anything. (QUOTE) . Gene shook the branch of the tree when he was up in the tree with Finny, causing Finny to fall and shatter his leg. When Finny dies in surgery after breaking his leg a second time, Gene felt many emotions.(QUOTE) Gene felt some guilt for the death of his best friend.(QUOTE) Gene has to find peace within himself by realizing that evil and fear caused him to act how he did and to jounce the limb of the tree. It isn’t until Gene is older that he can finally accept the death of Finny without guilt. (QUOTE) Gene needed to accept that he wasn’t guilty of the death of Finny to find his separate …show more content…

In the story, Finny tries to convince Gene and his other friends that there is no war at all. (QUOTE). Finny doesn’t want to accept that the war is real because he doesn’t want to lose his innocence. Finny and Gene create a “separate peace” between themselves by trying not to face the truth of what happened when Finny fell from the tree. Gene originally tried telling Finny that he shook the branch but eventually hid from the truth. (QUOTE). When some of Finny and Genes friends try to make them face the truth about the incident, Finny couldn’t take it and he left the room and fell down the marble staircase, breaking his leg a second time. (QUOTE) Finny and Gene try to distract themselves from the war by jumping out of the tree at Devon into the river, going to the beach, and forming the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. Finny creates a game called blitzball and he has a winter carnival. Finny and Gene try to create their own “separate peace” by having fun together and keeping their

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