... found not only those, but a bond of friendship that can not be broken, not even by death. ESSAY ON "A SEPARATE PEACE" John Knowle's A Separate Peace is novel that focuses in on characters and their reaction to the world around them. Since the book was written in the forties the reader knows that the backdrop is WWII. The author uses the backdrop of war to show ... found not only those, but a bond of friendship that can not be broken, not even by death. ESSAY ON "A SEPARATE PEACE" John Knowle's A Separate Peace is novel that focuses in on characters and their reaction to the world around...

• Word Count: 65255
• Approx Pages: 261
• Grade Level: High School

Separate Peace In John Knowles book A Separate Peace he communicates how the war in him was taking its toll on him. He uses the characters in a complicated plot to show the destructive forces of war. The characters, Gene and Finny, are the opposing forces in a struggle between the reality of war (World War II) and a separate peace. A peace ... long, including the people, who are always either leaving or on leave." (Knowles, 32) This is what Gene stands for in the book A Separate Peace. Gene appears to understand the reality of war and how it affects people. Throughout the entire story Gene is...

• Word Count: 2418
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... detailed architecture. The trees and buildings create a class of respectable grandeur. One can almost feel the hardness marble staircases and the intricateness of the wooden detailing. Devon is the boys' separate peace, because it is a world away from the war, where only radios and newspapers tell wartime stories. Finney says that there is no war, that everything is staged. This causes ... far from the truth. I believe that had the characters lived in another part of America during World War Two, they would have matured into slightly different men. Writer's Style A Separate Peace is a boo...

• Word Count: 3096
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

... two summer sessions in 1943 and 1944. This book vaguely outlines his experiences at Exeter with himself as the main character but under the name of Gene Forrester. Knowles' novel tells the somber story of a young man's struggle to escape from himself and his world; to achieve a special and separate peace. The primary setting of A Separate Peace is at the Devon School. The exact location ... the years of 1942 through 1944 at the same time as World War II, but the beginning and end of the book consist of Gene looking back on his years at the Devon School 15 years after he had attended it....

• Word Count: 1130
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... two summer sessions in 1943 and 1944. This book vaguely outlines his experiences at Exeter with himself as the main character but under the name of Gene Forrester. Knowles' novel tells the somber story of a young man's struggle to escape from himself and his world; to achieve a special and separate peace. The primary setting of A Separate Peace is at the Devon School. The exact location ... the years of 1942 through 1944 at the same time as World War II, but the beginning and end of the book consist of Gene looking back on his years at the Devon School 15 years after he had attended it....

• Word Count: 1113
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... as being the best athlete in the school, and he is honest and likable, yet he also lacks academic skills. Finny transforms throughout the book until his untimely death. Finny starts to realize a rivalry with Gene when Gene talks about thriving to become valedictorian. Finny normally wasn't very ... from being a great athlete to a cripple, and he went from being a bad student to a good student. Other transformations that occur in the book are that of everyone else at Devon school. Brinks goes from being highly involved in class politics, to shunning his duty as a school politician. Leper ...

• Word Count: 1458
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

War touches everyone in some way; however, very few prefer to describe their involvement with it; yet John Knowles, the writer of A Separate Peace, touches upon many themes involving war. Knowles displays these themes and attitudes of war in his book, A Separate Peace. These attitudes are best displayed through the characterization of the main characters - Gene, Finny, and Leper. Leper is the least important of the ... enemy. He creates a game, blitzball, which symbolizes this characteristic of Finny. There are no teams, no allies, and most of all, no winning. Furthermore, in the last paragra...

• Word Count: 1091
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... contrasts are something dealt with everyday. They build character and bring out who people really are. In the novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, Gene and Finny are the two teenage boys that are the main characters. The book takes place at a prep school in New Hampshire during the 1940's. Although Gene and Finny are best friends, ... the best in the class and he always tried to put his studies first. Obviously this was quite a contrast. Furthermore the Devon School had two separate sessions. The book began in the summer and continued through the winter. They were two very different...

• Word Count: 908
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... flashbacks, Gene, the main character, recollects his experiences at Devon School where he was a student some fifteen years prior. I feel that the novel A Separate Peace is truly focused on two wars. One war is the internal struggle that Gene faces daily, the battle within himself in his mind. The other war ... the path to adulthood. World War II functions as a background of the novel. I think it is interesting that John Knowles named his novel A Separate Peace. "A separate peace" refers to the Devon School that Gene attends. Although in a secluded New England atmosphere, it is obvious th...

• Word Count: 605
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The Similarities Between "Nothing Gold Can Stay" and "A Separate Piece" The novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles and the poem titled " Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost are both very interesting and similar pieces of ... boring and people would not have to deal with things that actually require action and thinking. A Separate Peace and "Nothing Gold Can Stay" are very similar and show the same message that not everything is perfect. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles the story is told through the perspective of Gene, the main character who ... dream of being an athlete and he has to l...

• Word Count: 682
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

John Knowles's A Separate Peace was a wonderful story about friendship and life. This novel was a great book to read during the summer before starting at a new school. I thought it was creative the way Knowles uses a flashback as the plot. In the first chapter, when Gene is visiting ... to him. I could see that he had memories of sadness and of happiness there. This was a great way to grab the reader attention quickly. I didn't really have a "favorite part" of A Separate Peace, nor did I have a favorite character. I did think one character was more like me than any other. I believe that I am...

• Word Count: 358
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... as being the best athlete in the school, and he is honest and likable, yet he also lacks academic skills. Finny transforms throughout the book until his untimely death. Finny starts to realize a rivalry with Gene when Gene talks about thriving to become valedictorian. Finny normally wasn't very ... from being a great athlete to a cripple, and he went from being a bad student to a good student. Other transformations that occur in the book are that of everyone else at Devon school. Brinks goes from being highly involved in class politics, to shunning his duty as a school politician. Leper ...

• Word Count: 1475
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

A "Separate Peace" (published in 1960) takes place during the Second World War in a New England Prep School called Devon (based on Phillips Exeter Academy). This is around the year 1943, the time ... enlist or wait and be drafted. In this novel the author John Knowles gives a good understanding of the war. The main characters Gene and Finny are always struggling between the "separate peace" and the real war. Even thought the story doesn't take place in a war battlefield, it just takes place in school. The war in Europe took away the ... wouldn't hate anyone the same way. Finny was affected by...

• Word Count: 686
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... book is entitled A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles. The copyright date is 1959, and this book contains 196 pages. The scene takes place in the Devon School, in New Hampshire. It is the summer of 1942 (World War II) and America is at war. The plot is about a sixteen year old boy, Gene Forrester, the narrator of the book ... the heart killing Finny immediately. At the end of the novel, Gene realizes that he is not responsible for Finnys death. The significance of the title A Separate Peace is that there are two wars going on. There is the real war, World War II, and the war between...

• Word Count: 708
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... characters and the reader. John Knowles develops a relationship of disgust between the narrator, Gene and the reader as well as creating a strong relationship between Phineas and the reader. While reading "A Separate Peace", I developed my own opinion of Gene and Phineas through their choices, character traits, flaws, and sympathy and by hearing Gene as he tells the story in first person. The author ... . At the very end of the novel when Gene says, "I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy," I thought I was going to rip the book in half. I wa...

• Word Count: 622
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... to anti religion in schools, the bible is not used for instruction, however seeps in through other ways. Perhaps, we can learn valuable lessons from this book. In John Knowles book A Separate Peace the author's focus on the tree, mans sinful nature, and Phineas as a Christ like figure are all biblical allusions that add a rich meaning to ... the novel. The fall of Adam and Eve is strikingly similar to Gene's "fall" in A Separate Peace. In the book of Genesis, the Bible relates the story of Adam and Eve and their life in the Garden of Eden. Eden was a beautiful place in which there ... t...

• Word Count: 591
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... is why John Knowles uses Biblical symbolism so heavily in his book, A Separate Peace. In the book, the tree from which the boys jump represents the "tree" on which Christ was crucified. Gene represents Judas and Finny represents Christ. Finny, the central character of the book, symbolizes Jesus in a number of ways. First, he had ... soldiers on the other side if he were in the war. This is similar to the way Christ greeted all sinners with his message of peace and salvation. And when Finny is pushed from the tree he symbolically dies and carries the sin of war away for the other boys. Ju...

• Word Count: 561
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... and evil are related to religion, sin and science; creating pieces of work that are both contemporary and complex. Likely, John Knowles's novel A Separate Peace highlights the two extremes of personalities and the idea of war as a struggle between good and evil. One of Hawthorne's most frequently anthologized works ... them is defying the power of God, leaving only despair. John Knowles also portrays good and evil in a different perspective. His novel A Separate Peace shows the destructive forces of war. A war between man against man and man against himself. Both characters, Gene and Fin...

• Word Count: 849
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Finny's Prominent Attributes and Qualities A Separate Peace by John Knowles describes a childhood story in the perspective of a character named Gene Forester. Gene speaks about his adolescent life and the incidents he endured at Devon Prep ... the individual of Finny. There are an abundant amount of incidents where Finny uses his sly kind of innocence to sneak him out of getting in trouble. Early in the book, Gene and Finny travel off to the river and miss the dinner. At school the next morning, Mr. Prud"homme, a substitute teacher for the day, thinks of a ... assumption that others possess ...

• Word Count: 989
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the narrator and protagonist, given Gene Forrester's obsession for order and excellence, he would make the better soldier. Early on in the novel, Gene's relationship towards Phineas, ... by Gene throughout the novel. As the characters in the novel were introduced, it was clearly shown that Gene was jealous of Finny at numerous times throughout the duration of book. Finny was the one who had always strived profusely to be the leader of the group as stated by Gene that "Naturally Finny was going to be the first to ... in any situation given his m...

• Word Count: 719
• Approx Pages: 3

Gene's Changing Mind In A Separate Peace, author John Knowles portrays Gene Forrester, the main character, as a person whose feelings towards people and events are always changing. These changes are best shown through friends, including Finny and ... lived in, which must mean that in the interval I had succeeded in a very important undertaking: I must have made my escape from it.(p2) This quote is from early in the book, while Gene is looking back on his time at Devon. He now realizes that he was living in great fear of the war he was fighting within himself during his ... aligned in perfec...

• Word Count: 1118
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... A in that one except for him. Except for him."" This is what Gene Forrester thought of Phineas (Finny) in John Knowles book, A Separate Peace. Gene absolutely hated Finny, but continues to pretend to be Finny's best friend. At the end of the book, Gene learns that it was not Phineas who was his enemy, but the inner demons of hate, envy, and jealousy. Gene ... away with everything. So, he kept working harder in school and to become the best scholar. Gene finally goes off to fight in the war at the end of the book because he recognizes he has already battled his enemy, and beaten it. Gene...

• Word Count: 1067
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Who was Gene's Enemy: Finny or Himself? Rough Draft In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the main character and narrator Gene was living a life full of war. All events in Gene's life were now being effected by the war going on around ... says that in that summer he fought his own war and killed his enemy, leaving one to wonder if the enemy spoken of was himself or Finny. By reading the book, one can tell that Gene did in fact have a large amount of envy towards Finny, but it is obvious that it his himself that is the true enemy. Gene envied ... an inner-enemy with himself, Gene tried to pla...

• Word Count: 488
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School