A Separate Peace Analysis

cold blast for the enemy. The winter lives to destroy the warmth of the summer

Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace, also reveals that human nature never changes. Knowles, reveals the tragic flaw of jealousy, that has continuously plagued human nature. Gene’s envy of Finny’s exceptional personality and character, reveals this terrible flaw. Human nature has always contained jealousy or envy, but Knowles’ novel reveals its truly destructive nature, through the characters’ thoughts and actions. Gene’s character, illustrates the progression of human nature and jealousy. A pattern is revealed, that simple jealousy forces action, which in turn, creates guilt and internal punishment. This represents the static nature of humans, who change very little. Gene’s envy, forces him to act, which creates enormous guilt that he must now carry. Knowles reveals that humans do not change or learn, even after a great tragedy. Gene may have learned from his actions, but all the other characters, will take no heed. This shows that although humans should learn from their past mistakes, they do not pay attention, and continue doing what they know they should not. Gene “jounced the limb,” (Knowles 60,) thus ending Finny’s life. Humans however, will not change, and another person

In the 1950s, 15 years after his graduation from Devon, an all boys school in New Hampshire, Gene Forrester returns. While walking through the campus, Gene thinks of his experiences at Devon during World War II, especially during the summer of 1942, when he was a 16 year old boy.

    Throughout the book, Gene matures from Finny’s death and training for the  Olympics. After exercising with his “coach”, Finny, Gene thinks “I felt magnificent. It was as though my body until that instant had simply been lazy, as though the aches… an accession of strength came flooding through me… I forgot my usual feeling of routine self pity when working out” (Knowles 120). Gene becomes more disciplined and athletically inclined as he trains for the Olympics, which shows he is growing up. He looks at his training as if he is preparing for the war, which also another sign of maturity brought on by the training for the Olympics with Finny. After Finny’s death, Gene reflects “I did not cry then or ever about Finny. I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family's strait-laced burial ground outside of Boston” (Knowles 194). Instead

John Knowles’ “A Separate Peace” takes place at a boarding school during World War II. Best friends Gene and Finny have been inseparable during their time at the Devon School. This is until reality hits Gene, and he slowly starts to realize that he is inferior to his best friend. Through the unbalanced friendship between two teenagers in “A Separate Peace,” Knowles illustrates that a loss of identity may be present in a relationship if there is an unequal amount of power.

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have” (Socrates). Humans are selfish, they wish for more even when there is no more to give. This is shown in many books through parallels between texts. These parallels allow readers to become connected with the text on a deeper level. People must read in between the lines to get a clear understanding of the author's message. John Knowles, author of A Separate Peace, has woven an intelligent story which at a glance seems like the story of two boys friendship, but underneath explains the reason behind why people are ever jealous. Through the use of biblical allegories and character parallels, A Separate Peace, meticulously portrays the human impulse

A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, is a seemingly simple yet heartbreaking story that gives the reader an inside look and analysis of the reality of human nature. Set permanently in the main character Gene’s point of view, the audience is first taken to the present of a reflective and now wise man (Gene) and then plunged into his past back in 1942 to relive the harsh lessons that youth brought him. Along with vivid imagery of tranquil days past, a view into the social construct of a boy’s private school, Devon, and the looming presence of World War 2 on the horizon, there is also a significant power struggle that the reader can observe almost instantly. Conquering the need to be supreme in the situations of the war, high school, social interactions, and even simple moments that

Knowing that one event can change the outcome of a person’s life is very crucial to the thought process of humans. In the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles the characters experienced an event that changed the outcome of the rest of their lives. At the boarding school Devon, Gene and Finny spent their high school years being each other’s best friend. Gene is known as Finny’s intelligent sidekick, Finny is great at any sport he attempts. Gene is dependent on Finny to make decisions for him. When Finny falls out of the tree, this hinders Gene and Finny’s relationship. Gene believes that he caused the accident so he goes to admit it to him. When Gene goes to Finny’s house to admit he pushed him out of the tree is the single pivotal moment because it changed their relationship and how

In A Separate Peace, the characters battle with their identity. Similar to the many other characters that struggle to be themselves, Gene tries to be other people. Given that Gene has a difficult time with his identity, he tries to be someone he is not: Gene tries to be Finny. Finny can be described as athletic, outgoing, and a risk taker, all things that Gene does not possess. Although Gene is far from Finny’s qualities he tries to duplicate them. Gene says “I decided to put on his clothes (Knowles 29).” When Gene puts on Finny’s clothes it starts his obsession of being Finny. The obsession Gene has continues, for example Finny told Gene that he wanted to one day become an Olympic athlete until he broke his leg. In response, Gene

Throughout life, there is always a person who one strives to beat, be better than or rise above. Little does each of them know that in the end the two actually make each other stronger. In John Knowles' novel, A Separate Peace (1959), he addresses just this. The novel, told from Gene Forrester's point of view, is based on a friendship and rivalry between him and his friend, Finny, during World War II. The two sixteen year olds attend Devon School, a private all boys' school, in New Hampshire. Finny, a very athletically talented youngster, continually but unintentionally causes Gene to feel inferior and insignificant, producing inevitable anger and jealousy inside Gene. During their

In A Separate Peace, John Knowles carries the theme of the inevitable loss of innocence throughout the entire novel. Several characters in the novel sustain both positive and negative changes, resulting from the change of the peaceful summer sessions at Devon to the reality of World War II. While some characters embrace their development through their loss of innocence, others are at war with themselves trying to preserve that innocence.

As Carl Jung once stated, “Man's task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious”. To reach a peaceful reconciliation, one must learn to embrace two distinct elements of their personality, the "Persona" and "Shadow." Likewise, in the bildungsroman, A Separate Peace, author John Knowles depicts the common rivalry between young adolescents, and how they struggle to accept their identity and the relationship between their unconscious self. Gene, a Devon High student, becomes best friends with Finny and grows jealous of his ostensibly flawless friend, causing him to make a life-changing decision. His struggles to reach an inner balance between his “Persona” and “Shadow” lead to the ultimate death of Finny. Gene’s transformation involves the changes of his mask and “Shadow”—from guilt and jealousy to pride and tolerance—which results in the later acceptance of the light and dark parts of himself, allowing him to truly reach adulthood and a state of peace.

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conclusion that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide” (Emerson 370). John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, perfectly shows the results of envy and imitation at a boys’ preparatory school, Devon, in 1943. The novel’s narrator and protagonist, Gene Forester, tells his story as a flashback of his days at the Devon School. He is first known for his academic skills and following of the rules, but later allows his insecurities and jealously drive him to make transgressions that will follow him for the rest of his life. A Separate Peace perfectly shows the results of how envy and imitation affect Gene, his relationship with Finny, and Gene’s achievement of peace.

Dealing with enemies has been a problem since the beginning of time. “I never killed anybody,” Gene had commented later in his life, “And I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform, I was on active duty all my time at Devon; I killed my enemy there.” In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the value of dealing with enemies is shown by Gene, who was dealing with few human enemies, but his emotions created far greater rivals than any human could ever posses.

As humans were on Earth their emotions kept the people they liked close and the people they didn’t out. Furthermore getting a human's trust is hard to earn but one wrong move they could lose all trust someone had with them; with losing trust someone could be sent into chaos. This chaos could show the dark side of human nature. As shown in the movie, The Dead Poet's Society and also within the book, The Separate Peace the readers are given an incite to the dark side of human nature.