John Knowles intended his book, A Separate Peace, for a young audience such as a high school level, or a lower college level, and he hopes to convey the theme that one’s actions have consequences but it’s all part of growing up, which is what most people of this age bracket are going though at this time in life.
John Knowles exhibites the immaturity of the main character, Gene Forrester, by displaying his flawed reasoning and misconceptions about his grades slipping by blaming it on his friend, Finny. After their outing to the beach which leads to Gene failing his trigonometry test, he has an epiphany in which he believes Finny is sabotaging his studies on purpose because he is jealous; Gene says, “The deadly rivalry was on both sides afterall” (54). These thoughts are the start of a dark road which winds it’s way throughout the story and leads Gene to several mistakes, the consequences of which shape his life later in the story, similar to what one might also experience when growing up. …show more content…
After Gene agrees to come to the meeting, instead of studying, and Finny suggest that both of them should do a double jump, Gene says, ”Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb” (59-60). Because of this, Finny could no longer participate in sports and was lucky to be able to walk again, until the truth about the accident surfaced later leading him to break the leg again and then die of a heart failure. This shows the extreme consequences of Gene’s actions and though it is not likely that many people will go through the same situation for something they did it still reaffirms that one’s actions have consequences, that most of the time are impossible to
John Knowles exhibites the immaturity of the main character, Gene Forrester, by displaying his flawed reasoning and misconceptions about his grades slipping by blaming it on his friend, Finny. After their outing to the beach which leads to Gene failing his trigonometry test, he has an epiphany in which he believes Finny is sabotaging his studies on purpose because he is jealous; Gene says, “The deadly rivalry was on both sides afterall” (54). These thoughts are the start of a dark road which winds it’s way throughout the story and leads Gene to several mistakes, the consequences of which shape his life later in the story, similar to what one might also experience when growing up. …show more content…
After Gene agrees to come to the meeting, instead of studying, and Finny suggest that both of them should do a double jump, Gene says, ”Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb” (59-60). Because of this, Finny could no longer participate in sports and was lucky to be able to walk again, until the truth about the accident surfaced later leading him to break the leg again and then die of a heart failure. This shows the extreme consequences of Gene’s actions and though it is not likely that many people will go through the same situation for something they did it still reaffirms that one’s actions have consequences, that most of the time are impossible to