A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, is a fictional novel about a boy named Gene Forrester and his life at the Devon Private School, during the early 1940’s. Gene faces many challenges and hardships throughout the book, one being the war. The war ends up taking over life at Devon, starting with the boys picking apples for the war effort, then Leper Lepellier enlisting, and eventually the troops moving in, and dominating life at Devon.
The war slowly starts influencing life at Devon, starting with Gene and his friends picking apples for the war effort. In chapter seven on page ninety-two Gene states, “Devon was revealed as still very close to the ways of peace: the war at worst was only a bore, as Brinker said, no more taxing to us than a day spent at harvesting in an apple orchard.” (Knowles) This shows at first the boys thought the war was boring and not worth talking about. They thought it would not ever be anything important. …show more content…
The Ski Troops in the war lead Leper to believe that the war was inviting and great. Gene narrates this in chapter nine on page one-hundred and twenty-four by saying, “To Leper it revealed what all of us were seeking: a recognizable and friendly face to the war. Skiers in white shrouds winged done virgin slopes, silent as angels.” (Knowles) This demonstrates that the war was providing false information to try and get young men to join up, and it worked. They made the war look “easy” and “fun” so that boys would enlist. Cliff notes.com also portrays this by saying, “When Leper watches a war recruitment film, he becomes dazzled by the angelic images of soldiers skiing across the virgin snow.” This shows that the war is made to look “happy” and not sad or depressing like it really is. In the end, Leper realizes that the war is an awful and scary place. It even makes Leper go “mad” as the boys say. Gene soon realizes the war is taking over Devon, even though he thought it never
The war slowly starts influencing life at Devon, starting with Gene and his friends picking apples for the war effort. In chapter seven on page ninety-two Gene states, “Devon was revealed as still very close to the ways of peace: the war at worst was only a bore, as Brinker said, no more taxing to us than a day spent at harvesting in an apple orchard.” (Knowles) This shows at first the boys thought the war was boring and not worth talking about. They thought it would not ever be anything important. …show more content…
The Ski Troops in the war lead Leper to believe that the war was inviting and great. Gene narrates this in chapter nine on page one-hundred and twenty-four by saying, “To Leper it revealed what all of us were seeking: a recognizable and friendly face to the war. Skiers in white shrouds winged done virgin slopes, silent as angels.” (Knowles) This demonstrates that the war was providing false information to try and get young men to join up, and it worked. They made the war look “easy” and “fun” so that boys would enlist. Cliff notes.com also portrays this by saying, “When Leper watches a war recruitment film, he becomes dazzled by the angelic images of soldiers skiing across the virgin snow.” This shows that the war is made to look “happy” and not sad or depressing like it really is. In the end, Leper realizes that the war is an awful and scary place. It even makes Leper go “mad” as the boys say. Gene soon realizes the war is taking over Devon, even though he thought it never