Separate but equal

A Separate Peace, Prompt seven A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a story told from the viewpoint of an older Gene Forrester as he reminisces on the past as he visits his old schoolhouse in Devon. Starting in the summer of 1942, he reflects on how fearful he was during the days of WW2 and how Devon is a close reminder of those days. He walks on the street through the schoolhouse, gymnasium, dormitories, and tennis courts, finally arriving at the river where he and his best friend Phineas, also…

A Separate Peace is a coming of age novel by John Knowles and was originally published in 1960 by Macmillan Publishing in New York, New York. The novel is set in the 1940s at an all boy's preparatory school in New Hampshire. It tells the story of two friends, Gene and Phineas, as their lives begin to change while forming into men. The story begins in summer of 1942 at the Devon school, where we meet the procrastinator, Gene Forrester, and his wild roommate Phineas, or as everyone calls him,…

The opening passage of “A Separate Peace” sets protagonist and first-person narrator Gene Forrester at the Devon school, the private prep-school in New Hampshire, that he graduated from fifteen years prior. Now in about his mid-30s, it is evident that since his time at Devon, Gene has undergone great change, recognizing the immense fear in his days at Devon that wasn’t clear to him the. Gene’s perspective and description of the school is evidence to that, now as an adult, he is now much wiser…

In 1959, John Knowles authored a novel named A Separate Peace. Knowles writes about a student, Gene, and his relations with his best friend, Finny, an athletic superstar. They had both attended a boarding school, named Devon, in 1942 the height of World War II. Throughout his novel, Knowles incorporates many themes. One of the themes in Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, is that when someone believes that s/he is engaged in a personal battle against, another person, s/he is not at peace.…

Relationship in One During a lifetime friendships are the most important bond that people can form. These friendships are alive throughout all generations and we use the skills we learn to continue making new 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…

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…

The novel “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles takes place in New England during World War 2. Gene and Finny’s friendship is a combination of different feelings. They admire and respect each other, but Gene is jealous of Finny’s athletic ability. Jealously causes Gene to compete with Finny. Gene tries to excel in his academics to even up with Finny. Their friendship blurs who they are, as Gene begins to live his life for Finny. Gene is becoming part of Finny, therefore losing his own identity. The…

Unsettling Curiosity Oftentimes people think of the ideal nostalgia, getting comfort from looking back on the past, instead of the reality of pain and hardship. In A Separate Peace, a novel written by John Knowles, Gene the very impressionable narrator, looks back on his past with strong discomfort about what happens and what actions he commits. Every time Gene thinks of the tree where he pushed Finny (his best friend and roommate) off of, he is overridden with immense guilt. We intend to look…

What side, emotions or actions? The book A Separate Peace by well known Yale graduate John Knowles is about two boys, Gene and Finny, and their life outside the war at a boarding school called Devon. The boys are best friends also loosely based of of John Knowles experience at a boarding school, and an accident happens in which Finny's fall from the tree and Gene's fall from innocence can be traced to unresolved tensions. Tensions created by the mixed feeling of envy and admiration in which Gene…

According to HG Wells, “If we don't end war, war will end us” (Things to Come). In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the main character Gene struggles with the wars around him. Gene struggles at Devon, an all boys preparatory school during the World War II era. At Devon, Gene faces the struggle of finding peace and many conflicts throughout the story along with the other boys, Brinker Hadley a natural born leader, Phineas his sporty best friend, and Quackenbush a dislikeable crew team captain.…