Although many similarities exist between A Turn with the Sun and A Separate Peace, both written by John Knowles, the works are more dissimilar than alike. A Separate Peace is a novel about the struggle of a senior class in the face of World War II, and it focuses on two best friends, Gene Forrester and Phineas. A Turn with the Sun is about a young man who struggles to fit in as a freshman in the closed microcosm of a senior dominated school who struggles, vainly, to make a name for himself.

Knowles wrote A Turn with the Sun in the third person. His character, Lawrence is trying to make a name for himself as an underclassman. He suffers from a poor self image, as "Lawrence sensed once again that he was helplessly sliding back, into the foggy social bottom-land where unacceptable first-year boys dwell." (A Turn with the Sun:12) He sees his achievements and failures as analogous to his worth as a person. He feels that he is a failure, yet is thankful that, "...the hockey captain had never invaded his room, as he had Fruitcake Putsby's next door, and festooned his clothes through the hall; he had never found a mixture of sour cream and cereal in his bed at night, n

They play down Lawrence's death at the end, "I don't think he cared," Bruce remarked suddenly. The headmaster straightened sharply. "What do you mean?" Bruce's thoughts doubled over this instinctive statement, to censor it or deny it..." (A Turn with the Sun:30) Not well liked, "...he marveled again at his own failure, after seven months, to win a single close friend." (A Turn with the Sun:12), Lawrence is quickly transformed from someone they reproach, "...he threw his small steamer trunk, filled with shoes and books, down the long flight of stairs under which the housemaster lived...they concluded that he was strange." (A Turn with the Sun:20) to someone they have forgotten.

o one had ever poured ink into the tub while he was bathing. The victims of such violations were genuine outcasts." (A Turn with the Sun: 12) The other boys see Lawrence as an annoyance rather than an exile, while he feels that he is better than the other boys at Devon. This is reinforced when he thinks, "When he plunged from the railing he had been just another of the unknown new boys, but when he broke the surface of the water in that remarkable dive, one that he had never attempted before and was never to repeat, he became for his schoolmates a boy to be considered." (ATurn with the Sun:13) The dive serves as an inauguration into the school's social system. It is symbolic of risk, achievement and imperfection; it brings together the gap between the river, which represents the unknown, and the bridge one stands on, the tangible world where the boys feel secure. Lawrence, like Leper who will be discussed later, "...merely inhabited the nether world of the unregarded, where no one bothered him or bothered about him." (A Turn with the Sun:13). Lawrence is not in fact so much despised as viewed with disdain.

Further, Phineas' injury is due to Gene's belief that Phineas is taking him to the river to distract him from his studies. Gene in his guilt rationalizes, "It was just some ignorance inside me, some crazy thing inside me, something blind, that's all it was." (A Separate Peace:183) Gene has the sense to question his motivations, which allows him to better himself, or at least recognize his mistakes and attempt to make an amends. The truth is simpler in A Turn with the Sun as, "Lawrence felt dizzy at the barefaceness of this lie." (A Turn with the Sun:16) Gene continues to question his motivation for moving the branch while Lawrence, "...felt himself more thoroughly aware than he had ever been of how the world went, of who fitted where, of what was grand and genuine and what was shoddy and fake." (A Turn with the Sun:16) Lawrence sees what he believes to be the truth

Some topics in this essay:
Separate Peace, Barron Lawrence, Sun Knowles, Phineas Sun, Fruitcake Putsby's, Sun12 Leper, Separate Peace139, World War, Gene Finny, Separate Peace16, separate peace, sun separate peace, senior class, hence distorted, bright image, world war, genuine outcasts, image lawrence, sun separate, third person, contrast sun,