John Knowles

friendship is incredibly rare and even more precious. John Knowles gives the reader a glimpse at what this kind of friendship is throughout his novel masterpiece, A Separate Peace. The character of Phineas exemplifies this kind of friendship with his best friend Gene Forrester, and shows the true rarity of this kind of friendship. Knowles also shows how this kind of dedication and devotion to another can devastate with extreme prejudice. In the book, Knowles shows the reader just how fragile…

Copious amounts of children experience hardships in their youth. In the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene goes through a tremendous amount of hardships. In the novel Gene is insecure regarding himself and it comes out as jealousy towards Finny. This is seen when he jounces the limb, he tries on Finny’s clothes, and he tries to be better than finny. The first way Gene is jealous of Finny is he jounces the limb upon which Finny is standing. When Gene jounces the limb he says to himself…

home. In a twist of events, Gene causes Finny to fall out of a tree and break his leg; a break that would ultimately kill him. Because of his actions and problematic behavior, this makes Gene the weaker character. In a comparison of the two boys, Knowles implies that Gene is nearly an exact opposite of Finny. Driven by rivalry and bitterness, Gene’s entire mindset is comprised of comparing himself to others and becoming the best at everything. On page 24, one moment changes everything and will…

ASP Essay John Knowles' novel, A Seperate Peace, shows both the good and bad sides of friendship. It is most prevelant in the two main characters' relationship with eachother, but is also shown between Gene and Leper, and Gene and Brinker. Gene and Finny have been best friends ever since they first met and were still best friends through every conflict that life gave them. This shows how John Knowles is giving us an example of best friendship. In the novel, their relationship is shown at it's…

Setting up at a boys’ boarding school during the World War II, “A Separate Peace”, written by John Knowles, is a luminous and sad story about friendships between the boys in Devon School. The title of the novel signifies about a peaceful place that is separated, protected outside from the destructive, evil war, which is realistically Devon. Although Devon is isolated from the war, there is still a personal war of misunderstanding, jealousy, fear and childishness among the boys in here, which…

Separate Peace and even The Bible have been removed from school curriculums due to their profane language, obscenity, and violence. In particular, A Separate Peace was banned because of its use of profane language. Although A Separate Peace by John Knowles may be seen as too rough and inappropriate for school curriculum, it should not be banned from schools due to its lessons about the importance of grace, forgiveness, and young male friendships. The way in which the concept of grace is…

How can anyone really tell the difference between a friend and an enemy? John Knowles wrote a unique book on how friends can become some of the biggest enemies. A Separate Peace’s main characters, Gene and Finny become friends after Gene starts attending Devon. They go through trials in their friendship, one of the trials happens when Gene jumps on the tree branch, by the lake at Devon, and Finny falls off, which breaks his leg, ruining his main love, sports, and his chances of going into the…

relationships. Throughout the novel, A Separate Peace, the author, John Knowles, displays the good things about close friendships but also the hardships that often occur. Gene and Finny, two boys that attend Devon school, grow emotionally and physically despite their opposite personalities. These boys go through several situations that force them to consider the value of their friendship. Throughout their time at Devon Academy, Knowles shows that the relationship…

Knowles depicts the sky color representing the ominous actuality of war which conceals everything that winter 1943. “The Saturday was a battleship gray.” This was seen as “high illegal competitiveness and order” wandered the school the whole day within the deep late winter. Knowles depicts the atmosphere to reveal the oppressive presence of the war that will not go away. Furthermore, Knowles reveals the uneasy atmosphere of the Winter Carnival…

patriotic, ironically, became dull and futile. In this passage from “A Separate Peace,” John Knowles displays the uniqueness of the era by characterizing America as depressing through the use of contrasting syntax, foreboding diction, and dull imagery. Throughout the passage, Knowles asserts multiple juxtapositions to emphasize the common perception of happiness in America with its harsh reality. Knowles…