Reality In John Knowles A Separate Peace

In this soliloquy, Hamlet’s tone changes from being frustrated and irritated to sure, powerful, and bloodthirsty. Hamlet begins speaking in a frustrated manner, beating himself up that although there is so much around him that should motivate him to take revenge against his uncle, he has not. Shakespeare’s diction, such as “dull” (4.4.35) and “beast” (4.4.37) show Hamlet’s disgust with only living like an animal, just sleeping and eating. Hamlet is frustrated since he has been lazy, which was not God’s intention. He cannot even fight for a worthy cause dear to his heart, but Fortinbras’ men die for a meaningless reason.

Gene has not been the kindest to Finny but certainly would not want Finny gone. In John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, Gene is not worthy of sympathy because of his selfish and dishonest personality, but deserves forgiveness due to being on the brink of joining the war and his eventual maturing. Gene is not deserving of sympathy because he is selfish. Gene is paranoid. Not in the sense that he has a mental illness, in the sense that when it comes to Finny, everything Finny does correlates to him.

His “first mistake” lead to many more. He reflects, “In a position of moral leadership, of course, compromise begets only more compromise” (p.169). Hundert continues to ignore his own “code of morals” when Sedgewick cheats during the “Mr. Julius Ceaser” competition, the Headmaster even intimidates him to remain silent. Hundert describes his act as a “soldier following his captain’s orders.” Hundert reflects, “What had happened was that instead of enforcing my own code of morals, I had allowed Sedgewick Bell to sweep me summarily into his” (p. 172).

Caesar encounters many incidents when he is directly warned about his death. However, each time, he fails to accept such warnings because of his pride. The first incident is during the feast of Lupercal, when a soothsayer warns him “Beware the ides of March” (1.2.23). Without taking the warning seriously, Caesar dismisses the soothsayer as a “dreamer.” Furthermore, when he reencounters the soothsayer on the ides of March, Caesar ridicules him by saying “The ides of March are come” (3.1.1).

This metaphorical phrase alerts the reader and expresses a certain amount of blame and self-acknowledgment the subject feels in the part he has played in losing his legs. This quote is in contrast with the quote, ‘a blood-smear down his leg’. These two contrasting quotes, showing the before and after of the physical changes the soldier has experienced, convey even more pity. In the second quote, the poet tells

However, Holden becomes one as he is actively against the society that requires him to go along with the crowd and any bourgeoisie understandings, as suggested by the paragraph 3.1 “the most terrific liar.” Nevertheless, the repetition of “fucken” implies that Vernon is discontent with society as well. Little ́s thoughts are as straightforward: (page 60) ”Makes me want to puke.” Similarly, Holden Caulfield does it in his own way: (page 55) “She’s old as hell…”

Firstly, James Hurst uses characterization, in the beginning of the story the author alerts the readers to the narrator's original expectations for his little brother. The narrator wanted a brother who could run and play with him, so the reality of Doodle's condition hit him deeply. It is this disappointment for the narrator that lead him to push Doodle as hard as he possibly could. This shows the narrators character as mean, and selfish. The narrator taught him how to run and do other activities, since his pride cannot handle the disparity between the brother he wanted and the brother he got.

He dislikes Auggie and tries to convince the other students that if they touch him, they will develop "The Plague." He bullied Auggie and told most of the grade to isolate him, and Jack Will for becoming friends with Auggie. At the end of the story, Julian's parents take him out of Beecher, as they say they don't feel Beecher Prep is an "inclusion school" and they think Auggie shouldn't have been admitted. Justin: Via's boyfriend.

This quote supports the idea that with the death of Finny, Gene was able to think and act without enmity. Gene startsto become more like Finny by seeing the world with the same kindness and naivety as Phineas once did. Gene battles his enemy and is triumphant in his internal war. Gene achieves his inner peace,” only after fighting one’s own, private war of growing up. In this sense, the war is symbolic also of the inner struggle from adolescence to maturity” (Alton).

Huckleberry Finn is ashamed to be labeled as an abolitionist and is willing to forgo his own beliefs and his only friend in order to be accepted. Huck’s transformation is the pinnacle point of the novel. Jim is appearing to be sold by Dauphin and Huck has lost all hope. He is feeling guilty because he sinned and stole someone's “property,”thus he writes a letter exemplifying where Jim is and who owns him at the moment to Dauphin. He writes this letter in order to be able to pray because Huck is feeling very alone and he feels that God is the only one with him.

Basically, ever since Finny broke his leg, he has never been wanted or accepted by any regiment of the army. Since Finny is not able to fight, he had begun to start telling himself that the war was just a joke, made up by fat, old men. These actions by Finny were sparked by jealousy, and the author did this to stir empathy of the story. If you were in Finny’s shoes, wouldn 't you probably think the same way? To have this very important war raging on, and you are not physically capable to fight for your own country?

The feeling of neglect, presses like a dagger to Leper. He wishes for people to notice him and appreciate him. Moreover he wants to be closer to Gene and be his best friend. However, Finny is Gene’s best friend, and so he harbors an ounce of envy towards Finny. All the while, he joins the army, yet it cuts a deep wound into him, and he loses his mind, and so he escapes.

Embarrassment, that’s all it was” (O’Brien 57). O’Brien feels the shame engulf him and this leads him to submit and go to war. Although O’Brien does not have any incentive to go to war at first, it is the shame that ultimately motivates him to face his fears and head to Vietnam with other soldiers. Without feeling the embarrassment himself, O’Brien would not be anywhere near as motivated to go to war as he is in the book. Society’s influence on him causes him to not only feel ashamed, but to also submit to one of the most dangerous things one can experience: war.

He revisits this place and holds guilt within him because of what he did to Finny there. I will never truly get over what happened to Phineas, although it was finally equal between us I lost my best friend. I hold a guilt inside of me that slowly gets worse. I shook the branch and made it fall, I myself cannot truly tell whether or not I meant to shake that branch but I do regret it.

Gene comes to discover that all along Phineas is the kind of person he wishes he could be. After his death, Gene notes that Phineas “was never afraid” and that only “he never hated anyone” (Knowles 204). Phineas is the only one that did not create his own inner-demons. While every other student and teacher Gene knew had the same made-up enemies and the same dark nature, Phineas stood out as someone different, someone apart from the crowd. His death is the exemplification of his own good natured character.