Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

best of friends and that they did not have any problems. But, all of this changed with

The novel begins with old Gene remembering what happened at Devon fifteen years ago. Gene and Finny go to Devon School during WWII. Even though they are friends , they are very different. Finny is the top well-rounded athlete who can get talk his way out of anything, while Gene is the studious, shy kid. Finny comes off as a jerk and thinks he has to be good at everything. I do not quite understand Finny and Gene’s friendship. Finny creates a secret society and in order to be in it you must jump from a tree limb. I also believe that Finny and Gene are both afraid of denial, change in time passing. The way they see things and the way Gene presents himself isn’t reality. Also, Gene has trouble finding his inner peace throughout the novel.

“It is better to have an enemy who honestly says they hate you, than a friend who is petting you down secretly”-Unknown. While this is true, is a person who puts you down secretly even considered a friend? Not according to Webster’s New World Dictionary and Thesaurus’s definition of friend, “a supporter or an ally” and Dictionary.com’s definition of friendship, “a state of mutual trust and support between allies”. In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, Gene, the narrator puts his “friend” Finny down so is their relationship really classified as friendship? No, Gene and Finny are not friends because Gene purposely made Finny fall out of the tree, their relationship is considered rivalry, and Gene doesn’t support Finny.

As for Finny he is one of the best athletes at Devon that enjoys taking risks and tries to have as much fun as possible. When the following event took place their friendship was never the

In the novel, A Separate Peace, John Knowles wrote about two boys that had anunforgettable friendship. The boys names were Gene and Finny, they both went to Devon schooland met in the same room. Gene, was hardworking, insecure, and proud; however, Finny isathletic, charming, and earnest. Yet, the two boys became friends the second they met. The boysshowed they had a friendship because of how they acted towards each other, Finny would alwayspush Gene, Gene hurt Finny, and they would always argue.First, Finny would always push Gene to do things he would not do. Gene liked schoolwhere as Finny liked sports. So, Finny wanted Gene to get into sports and he pushed him to getinto it. He shows he does this when Gene first moved to Devon, Finny gets Gene to playBlitzball.

What do you consider a good friend? Is it a person who always looks for your best interest, someone who wants to see you succeed, or how about someone who helps you to reach your goals in life? In the book A Separate Peace written by John Knowles, Gene and Finny appear to be friends. As the story follows them going through another school year, the characters show traits and actions that reveal unhealthy characteristics of a good friend: jealousy, mistrusting, and distracting. This negatively affects their relationship. Gene is clearly better off without Finny in his life.

Trust and loyalty is the main part in a friendship. Even thoughGene betrayed Finny, Gene and Finny still thinks they are friends. The center of the story ASeparate Peace is when things started to unravel to me, mainly because of what Gene did toFinny. The ending of the story convinced me to not classify them as friends. It made me not toclassify them as friends because they lost the bond that they used to have, they lost all the toolsthey needed for a friendship.

Who does not remember their school days? The good times, the bad times and all the memories. John Knowles wrote an inspiring novel that shows all that can happen when life is at its worst. In the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene grows up and sees how hard life can be. The novel is a bildungsroman because it is a book about a person coming of age or growing up. A Separate Peace is a bildungsroman because when Gene returns to his school as an adult he remembers all the good times he had, the heartbreak he experienced, and he sees the school differently, .

That is what makes friendship so great, it is two people making an effort to get along and develop a bond strictly out of free will. No one is forcing you to be a friend to someone, it is a choice.

Throughout the novel there are many ways that can you finish a very tight friendship. When Gene and Finny Were messing around near the tree Gene Says, “ if he hadn't been there...I could have fallen on the bank and broke in my back! If I had fallen awkwardly enough I could have been killed. Finny had practically saved my life(32). In this scene Gene and Finny decide to climb up the tree But Genes leg slips and he almost fell to his death but Finny grabbed him and saved his life. Another example of a tight relationship is when Finny and Gene go to the swimming pool and Finny decides to jump in. “‘ Don't say anything about it, to… anyone’ ‘not say anything about it! When you broke the school record.” (44). This quote shows friendship because when Finny broke the school swimming record Gene was being a good friend because he was proud of him and wanted people to know. Lastly an example of Finny and Genes friendship is when Finny decides that they should go to the beach and gene does not want to let him down so he tags along. “The only real swimming is the ocean’ then in the everyday mediocre tone he used when he was proposing something really outrageous he added, ‘ let's go to the beach’”(45). During this scene Gene and Finny are about to go to the beach and that is what great friends do together. They end up staying the night. Over all Gene and Finny's Friendship throughout the book is very important and understandable.

It shows how sometimes Gene was very jealous of Finny, so jealous that he harmed him. The irony in this is that Finny and Gene have been friends for so long, and Finny didn’t get angry with Gene, but instead forgave him, which caused Gene to become more jealous of someone who was supposed to be his friend. Even though Finny never did anything to deserve the fall, he still fell, and Gene became friends with other boys, but was not jealous of them the slightest bit. Other offers of friendship oddly opened Gene’s eyes. So in the novel, Gene displayed the dark side of adolescences, by hurting his apparent best friend.

Friendships can be positive or negative. A good friend is supportive, kind and trustworthy. However, a negative friendship can cause a bad influence and habits. Finny and Gene have many qualities that combine to create a terrible friendship. They are not supportive of each others decisions and are very envious of the others abilities. Throughout the novel, Gene’s friendship with Finny becomes unhealthy and detrimental.

In the novel, “A Separate Peace,” by John Knowles, takes place in New England, during World War II. Gene, remembers his experiences at Devon school 15 years ago, when he was 16 years old, to the time when he was a student with his best friend Phineas (Finny). who he both had mixed feelings for of jealousy and admiration. Both Gene and Finny have advantages of their own mainly being, academics and athleticism. But as the story continues as each of their aspects starts to have negative effect and influences upon one another; Gene starts to get jealous and worried that he is not “better” than his best friend based on his best aspects. This causes problems in their friendship, as their trust, and relationship as a whole slowly falls apart. One theme this story suggest is how loyalty and jealousy in close relationships may blind you from the truth

The friendships form because they lack care from other people in their lives and need the friendship to compensate their loss of emotion. Although two people in the friendship have different genders and ages, they have similar life experiences and living background so they can understand each other’s feelings.

He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, which served model for the setting of the book.