John Knowles s A Separate Peace - 945 Words

In the first few chapters of A Separate Peace alone, Gene Forrester is John Knowles. In the first chapter, Gene is a grown man fifteen years in the future. He describes Devon School in the summer session in 1942. Devon School is rarely mentioned in the book. In A Separate Peace: The War Within the chronology states that in 1943, a year older than the book, he too went to a summer session at Exeter Academy (Bryant, xi). Knowles, too had a tree that he and other boys jumped off of, but he broke his foot and had to be on crutches (Bryant, xi). This book is a rough autobiography of his life. Gene and the author John Knowles will be explained as WWII in their eyes, the symbolism of Phineas, and the school and the older Gene. In A Separate Peace, the summer session is for seniors who are training for the war. Gene and Phineas are sixteen and not eligible for the draft. As the book states, they jump off the tree used for diving in the river. Gene says in the book â€Å"The tree was tremen dous, an irate, steely black steeple beside the river. I’d be damned if I climbed it† (Knowles, 14). Similar to the book, Knowles probably thought the same thing after he broke his foot. In The War Within, Bryant states that A Separate Peace can be read as a war book. With this in mind, it was only about two boys who were not of drafting age, but one to two years before it. In the summer session, the teachers are a little less strict, but only to the boys under eighteen. Even then, the boysShow MoreRelatedJohn Knowles s A Separate Peace1221 Words   |  5 PagesA Separate Person The ego and superego walk into a bar but leave because the bartender needs to see some id. This joke alludes to one of Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud’s signature theories about the composition of the human psyche. The theory states that the human psyche is composed of three parts: the id, ego, and superego. The id represents one’s natural instincts while the superego represents one’s morality and empathy. The ego attempts to balance the id and superego, trying to compromiseRead MoreJohn Knowles s A Separate Peace1737 Words   |  7 Pagesand public intellectual once said that, â€Å"everybody tends to merge his identity with other people†¦ It’s called being mass man†. Mass man is what one would describe as a person lacking any individuality or uniqueness. This relates to John Knowles’s novel, A Separate Peace through the idea of Gene’s struggle with identity throughout the stories that he tells due to his own lack of individ uality. In the novel, Gene Forrester is a student at the Devon School, a boarding school in New Hampshire. At DevonRead MoreEssay on A Separate Peace: Friends or Foe?1117 Words   |  5 PagesDuring the 1940’s in America, times were hard. It was a time of war. In this period of history, people found themselves looking for peace and innocence. John Knowles’s A Separate Peace illustrates a boarding school, one of the only places left to find peace, where the main characters, Gene and Phineas, face their own internal wars with each other. Starting out their friendship seems strong and everlasting but as the novel progresses, like all friendships, the fire between them seems to dwindle. AlthoughRead MoreWar s Relationship With People1404 Words   |  6 Pagesothers. War is always bad, and it effects people so that they can t think straight, and they want release their anger to others like the meaning of war, which is express the anger of one country to other countries. War represents anger, and hatred(John W. Dower). During the largest war, World War 2, there were around fifty to seventy millions of people died during that time, and this number also represents the three percent population at that time. When we break down this number, Germany had 7.4Read MoreA Separate Peace And The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald1111 Words   |  5 Pagestimes, with very different plots. Such novels deserve the exploration of comparison between them. Both John Knowles and F. Scott Fitzgerald, in the novels A Separate Peace and The Great Gatsby respectively, show relationships between two male characters and detail how a dream can become out of hand. While both authors use extended flashback to start their narration about the past events, Knowles chooses to tell the story from the perspective of Gene who is extremely involved in Finny’s dream, whileRead MoreA Separate Peace By John Knowles1148 Words   |  5 PagesA Separate Peace by John Knowles: Boys to Men The boys at the Devon school, in the novel A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, are World War II influenced by making them mature and grow up more quickly than they would have had there not been a war. The war makes some boys stronger and more ready for whatever life would bring, while in others it disables them to the point that they cannot handle the demands of life. This novel shows a â€Å"coming-of age† story, especially with three boys. Gene startsRead MoreA Separate Peace By John Knowles Essay1463 Words   |  6 Pages In A Separate Peace, a realistic fictional novel by John Knowles, World War 2 gradually encroaches upon and finally dominates life at Devon. The War is an ever present focus, if not focus then presence, that fell upon the students of Devon. That was the whole point wasn’t it? Train hard in a boarding school to prepare for war. The war impinged itself upon the school through the boys’ views, jargon, and also was brought to the school. World War II infringed Devon through the boys’ views. This canRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem A Separate Peace Essay1463 Words   |  6 PagesSited Knowles, John. A Seperate Peace. Agincourt: Book Society of Canada, 1966. Print. King, Gilbert. The Boy Who Became a World War II Veteran at 13 Years Old. Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian, 19 Dec. 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2016. . Davis, Arthur T. Being a Teenager During World War II at Ocean City, Maryland. Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum. Ocean City Museum Society, Inc., 2006. Web. 15 Nov. 2016. . Avey, Helen. A Teenager s Life in the Second World War. WW2 People s War. BBCRead MoreA Separate Peace By John Knowles1792 Words   |  8 Pagesbut also in the Devon School of Prep. The book A Separate Peace by John Knowles is mostly about a boy, Gene, who is receiving his education and learning about how to become a soldier to fight in the second World War. He and his best pal, Finny, are both being forced to mature and grow up before being drafted to fight, but before that even happens Gene’s jealousy gets the best of him which will threaten his friendship. Throughout the novel John Knowles uses a great deal of literary elements to helpRead MoreLord Of The Flies, By William Golding And The Perks Of Being A Wallflower1087 Words   |  5 Pagesgenres. Novels such as Lord of the Flies by William Golding and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky are among some of my most beloved. In my junior year, I read A Separate Peace by John Knowles for my AP U.S. History c lass while I read The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger over the summer. A Separate Peace explores the rivalry that can lie at the heart of many friendships and conveys the concept of individuality rather than conformity. Similarly, The Catcher in the Rye is the story