A Separate Peace Literary Analysis

Analysis on A Separate Peace Telgen states John Knowles was born on 16 September 1926, in Fairmont, West Virginia. At the age of fifteen, Knowles attended New Hampshire's prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy. The Devon school, where most of the actions of A Separate Peace take place, is based on Phillips Exeter. After graduating from Exeter, Knowles entered Yale University for the 1944 fall term before going into the U.S. Army Air Force. After being discharged from service, he returned to Yale and continued his studies. In 1449 Knowles graduated with a B.A. in English. In 1953, Story Magazine published his first story, A Turn in the Sun. During the 1950's Knowles started to work on the novel that would become his most famous, A Separate Peace. However, getting the book published did not come easily at all. Turing the manuscript over to a literary agent, Knowles saw his book rejected by eleven publishers. Finally, in 1959, the London publisher Secker and Warburg agreed to put out the British edition of the novel. Following A Separate
Gene at fist is portrayed as a young innocent adolescent, but with time is perceived as a cold-hearted adolescent. The first session at school the boys forget about the war that is happening and enjoy the liberty they are given by the professors. They take full advantage and break just about any rule they can. As Halio states, "within this experience, another kind of war subtly emerges, a struggle between Gene, who is a good student and an able competitor in sports, and Finny, who is the school's champion athlete but poor at studying" (Halio 247). The crucial experience, which subdued Gene's innocence and permitted his evil side to take over, came with his failure to accept the fact that it was impossible to emulate Finny in sports. This incident leads to Gene's revenge on Finny and that turned him into the "wicked"