The Theme Of Rivalry In A Separate Peace By John Knowles

In A Separate Peace, the author John Knowles explores the rivalry between teenagers in a military boarding school, who are preparing for the looming presence of World War II. The protagonist, Gene Forester and his friends, Brinker, Elwin and Finny, learns about the tribulations that come from leaving the innocence of adolescence and entering into the impure world of adulthood. John Knowles explores how rivalry perpetuates and embeds hatred and jealousy leading to a divide between people. The theme of a rivalry with an emphasis on the journey from innocence to experience in the context of war is shown through the use of setting, symbolism and conflict.
Setting was a very important literary device which was used by John Knowles to effectively
to show the rivalry between students of Devon. Devon is a military school which prepared students for the war that was taking place. Devon instills the mindset of rivalry amongst their students, through encouraging them to compete in sports and academics. By instilling students with a competitive mindset it will benefit them to fight in the war without any fear. The fearless mindset of students is represented through Gene when he said" The war would be deadly all right. But I was used to deadly things in Devon”(Knowles 101). This shows how Gene, a young teenager, was faced with deadly situation in Devon, which created the mindset of him not fearing the war. Furthermore, this story takes place in 1942 during World War II. The war created a sense of rivalry between two nations and this translated into the story. Being able to enlist and fight for your country was a huge honor, for individuals. However not everyone met the requirement in order to get selected for the war. Therefore teenagers were always competing against in order to be selected, to join the army. The completive mindset of students is represented through Brinker, who stated: “Here there were few relationships among us at Devon not based on rivalry” (Knowles 45). This represents how students in Devon did not have any relationships that were not based on contention. This is because they all were fighting for the same goal, which was to enlist into the war, and thus creating a rivalry amongst students. The cleaver use of the World War II and a military school as a setting had created the sense of competitiveness amongst the characters in the novel.
The Naguamsett River and sports are used to symbolize the innocent yet competitive nature of adolescence. In the novel A Separate Peace, sports symbolize rivalry, and this can be seen through the game bliztball. Finny created a game called blitzball after the German blitzkrieg, the battle tactic of an overwhelming attack used in World War II. In playing blitzball, there are no teams; everyone is the enemy. Finny’s ideology of the game was displayed when he said “Since were all enemies, we can and will turn on each other all the time" (Knowles 39). This statement from Finny shows how in a friendly game of blitzball the characters in this novel considered themselves as enemies, and as a result would fight with each other in order to get the victory. In addition, The Naguamsett River was dirty and it was used to portray the ugly rivalry amongst the students. The River was connected with a tree, which was used to differentiate between the boys and the men. Soldiers who were getting ready for the war would jump off the tree, as a military exercise. Gene and his friends were always up for a challenge and even though they were too young, they were determined to accomplish the same task of in adult, by jumping of the tree. A friendly completion to see who can complete the jump would eventually turn into a deadly rivalry amongst the teenagers. The vicious rivalries is portrayed though Gene, when he stated: “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river.”(Knowles 60). This represents how, the dark Naguamsett River turns them individual’s evil this. This was seen through Gene’s action, who had injured his best friend Finny, by pushing him off the tree.
Internal and external conflicts are shown throughout the novel A Separate Peace.
Internal conflicts are portrayed through Gene and Phineas. The main causes of these conflicts were because of the rivalry amongst the two characters. Gene had always saw Finny as his competitor, who is trying to distract him from focusing on school. This internal conflict that Gene had constructed in his head can be seen, when he showed his frustration by saying: “Then a second realization broke as clearly and bleakly as dawn at the beach. Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies.. That way he, the great athlete, would be way ahead of me. It was all cold trickery, it was all calculated, it was all enmity” (Knowles 53). This portrays how Gene had created an internal conflict between him and Finny. Gene explained, Finny’s intentions of them being friends were all a lie, and that Finny was trying to get ahead of Gene. The constant rivalry had created a conflict between the two teenagers, which tarnished their young friendship. Furthermore, the external conflict in this novel was the World War II, which was taking place outside Devon. The external conflict did eventually affect the students inside Devon. The effect of the war was shown through Gene, in 1953 when he was 30, when he revisited Devon and he stated “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at
school; I killed my enemy there.” (Knowles 204).This was a reflection from a more mature Gene, as he described that his war was already fought, and his conflicts were resolved in Devon. This was because he created an enemy of his friends, and tried to outdo them in every aspect. This also shows how conflicts had changed the lives of innocent adolescents as they had already gone through all the struggles of an adult.
The novel A Separate Peace portrayed the rivalry amongst young adolescences, as they gained knowledge of the world around them, by experiencing the effects of war.
The theme was represented through the use of literary devices such as : setting, symbolism and conflicts. The back drop of World War II and being surrounded in competitive school had created a sense of rivalry amongst the characters. In addition, the fascinating symbols of the river and sports had instilled the competitive nature of the characters. As their young minds, are overwhelmed with competition, they turn into evil individuals. Furthermore, the conflicts in the novel were mainly based on rivalry, which was seen inside the student and outside in the war. The contention in Devon amongst the naive teenagers was a lesson of what kids go through during
war.