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Similarities Between A Separate Peace And The Red Badge Of Courage

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Not everything in the world has the easiest answer or the clearest meaning. The average citizen may not take the time to look for symbols in the real world. Those same citizens also may not notice that an object could have a hidden meaning. In the novels The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane, and A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, both contain symbols that help represent the novels overall theme. Crane’s novel is about a young boy named Henry, who fights in the Civil War. He goes through many internal conflicts from deciding to run or deciding to stay and fight the enemy. Knowles’ novel is about two teenagers, Gene and Finny, who attend school during WWII. They push each other to do different things and influence each other …show more content…

He was now a more courageous man from that point on. He saw his wound as a fact that he survived the shot, and he believes that he can survive what comes his way instead of running. When he ran back into battle one his friends had been killed. The man killed was the flag bearer. Instead of running in fear he pried the flag from his hands and ran into the heat of battle. Henry did not think about the possibility of himself being the one that could die. He decided to fight for his own honor. Henry grew there his experience n the Civil War because of things like his red badge of courage. Since Knowles’ novel contains a deep theme, there is a symbol that can connect to it. The symbol in Knowles’ novel is a tree. The tree is where everything began and ended. Gene and Finny first really connected at this tree, with the idea to jump off a branch and into the river. It was also the place Finny broke his leg, Finny‘s leg later broke again and died from the bone marrow reaching his heart. If he had not broken his leg from the tree, then his leg may not have been as fragile, and he could have possibly not died. The tree is also where Gene and Finny came up with the idea to create a ritual. A person would jump off a branch and land in the river. The tree was really the center of their friendship When Gene revisited the tree after many years, he noticed that “The tree was not only stripped by the cold season, it seemed weary

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