Summary: A Separate Peace By John Knowles

Decent Essays
Annalyse Potter
Kiernan per. 1
A Separate Peace
Characters featured in books or written pieces are very similar to people in this modern day life. Rivalries are extremely common when it comes to both fiction and nonfiction. To be more specific, a rivalry is another way of expressing competition. In A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, Gene and Finny show many examples of competition throughout their friendship during the book. Chapter 4 represents a time where their rivalry was at it's peak.
A great example is featured on page 53 when Gene talks about having even enmity. "You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record, but so what? He hated you for getting an A on every course but one last term" (Knowles:Page 53) shows vying,

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The book a Separate Peace by John Knowles is a historical fiction book. In this book it shows how the relationship between two characters Gene and Finny. How one another impacted their friendship through broken bones, to having to change your dreams to carry on one another, to being the Valedictorian.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    From Lost Innocence to Gained Experience War does not only include army warfare, but also personal experiential wars. Feelings of fear, hostility and indignation dominate peacefulness; as we all identify rivals in the world around us and “pit ourselves” against them so as to have an object for hate. Personal or political wars may result ignorance in the human heart and result in inability to understand self and others. Furthermore, realities of life permeate and threaten peace in the world of youth as seen in the Devon School in A Separate Peace. War can hold strange parallels to sport as also in the Winter Carnival, and the atmosphere created can prevail in a time of war, along with the emotions, conflicts, and jealousy that can result…

    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In chapter 5 of A Separate Peace, John Knowles introduces the denial of truth between friends. Gene comes into Finny’s home, and confesses that he, Gene, caused Finny’s accident. However, Finny replies, “I don’t know anything. Go away.” (70).…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout A Separate Peace, Knowles uses juxtaposition to develop the characters of Gene and Phineas, also known as Finny. They are always with each other, and Gene even juxtaposes himself against Finny multiple times in the book. Consequently, these contrasts between them help establish their character; who they really are. One example of juxtaposition would be how Gene and Finny performed in school.…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    John Knowles uses the literary device symbolism in his book A Separate Peace. John uses the tree, the marble staircase, and the Assembly Hall to symbolize Gene’s mixed emotions towards Phineas. The tree is symbolic because that’s when Gene basically changes Phineas’ life permanently. Why this was symbolic was because that’s when Gene pushed Phineas of the tree causing him to break his leg. When Brinker takes them to the Assembly Hall he basically puts Gene and Phineas on trial; trying to get Gene to confess.…

    • 139 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    We take it back to the times of world war 2, we see two best friends and a boarding school named Devon, just living life to the fullest. One boy is named Gene the other Phineas(also called Finny), they are your common roommates, Finny being the wild one, and Gene being the studier. Over time though, Gene starts to notice that Finny's popularity to get out of anything and making these activities is to wreck his studies. Genes envy towards Finny gets turned into a huge bulge of anger built up in him that one day gets released. In the novel A Separate Peace, the author, John knowles, reveals a friendship that is slowly broken from envy and anger.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The narrator returns to his old school, in which he attended with his friend Phineas 15 years ago. (World War 2 began). The narrator shifts back 15 years when “Finny”, being a daredevil, jumped off a tree into a river in which the narrator, Gene, followed behind him. Gene stating that he tends to feel more comfortable around Finny and also tends to break the rules around him. Finny is a rule breaker, a good thing for him is that he is a good student and a charming athlete.…

    • 1208 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    mentally insane. An example of dialogue in the scene where the audience is exposed to the reality of Andrew is when George became aggrivated with Andrew because he was the reason he was there,he says to Andrew “They are going to take me to the lighthouse,and they’re going to cut into my brain. And I’m only here because of you”. Scorsese used this dialouge to indicate to the audience what surgeons at the mental facility did to soldiers who were mentally disabled and unable to return back to a normality state. Thus survivors were lobotomised and left disconnected to their own body.…

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    War has both a positive and negative effect. Sure, war is dark and dreary, but through hardships and suffering, many friendships evolve due to the conflicts surrounding them. In the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, a nostalgic Gene Forrester goes back to a boarding school he previously attended expecting to remember his lively times, but upon arrival, he can only manage to remember all the awful experiences he once suffered through. As he relives old times, he remembers his old friend, Finny, who he faced many hardships with. Observed throughout the book, was the theme of war and friendship, and how the two provoke the teenage characters to grow in both their maturity and in their interactions with both the world, and one another.…

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    From the start Gene and Finny’s friendship has isolated them from a true companionship of each other. These are two characters from the brilliant mind of John Knowles; the author of A Separate Peace. Throughout this story he uses Finny and Gene as a conduit for his thoughts and feeling on friendship. He exposes the dark thoughts of jealousy and envy in everyone's inner self through Gene and Finny’s friendship. Gene, a quiet kid who starts school at a boys’ boarding school during the Second World War.…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Defying reality makes life more difficult than it has to be. Although it might seem scary to lose your innocence it's a fact of life. Losing innocence is the only way people are able to survive in a harsh society. The characters Gene and Finny decide to defy reality by conjuring illusions and burying emotions. With doing so they consequently make their lives very hard and leading to some of them making regretful choices like hurting the ones closest to them.…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John Knowles’ A Separate Peace presents the reader with a young, oblivious boy’s transformation to a man with a clear perspective of the world around him. Gene Forrester’s story begins with a group of young boys living in their own world at Devon, completely untouched by reality. By the end of this story though, Gene sees and accepts the reality of the world he is living in. Through his journey, he develops into a man who accepts the evils of the world and can come to terms with the darkness inside of every person, including himself.…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Can one split decision change a way someone lives? John Knowles the author of A Separate Peace and the director of School Ties both touch on the effect of how one's actions change the course of events. In A Separate Peace Gene actions cause Phineas's life to take a turn for the worst. In School Ties David Green gets a scholarship to go a Christian high school and gets bullied for his religion. In school a boy named David did the Nazi salute while the Pledge of Allegiance was being said triggering the students in class to rebel against his actions.…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Human beings spend their entire lives searching for their reason for existence. Often times, the inner being that resides in every person contains the truth, making self-realization the key to the indispensable knowledge of existence. The truth; however, often reveals the dark side of human nature that only acceptance can help overcome, leading to improvement. In John Knowles’s A Separate Peace, characters such as Leper struggle with the acceptance of their discovered inner truth. Discovery of the truth shatters Leper’s romanticized view of the world: turning his politeness and naivety into a corrupted, angry juxtaposition of his former self, and transforming his flowery and illusionary perspective into a reflection of the shock of reality…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gene and Finny are a prime example of how friendships are always cheerful. The theme of friendship is significant in A Separate Peace because it emphasizes the jealousy between Gene and Finny, it shows how friendship is forced to change overtime, and it makes the boys show who they truly are. Jealousy between Gene and Finny almost separates them at times.…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays