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.…
In the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles, a fictional genre. The setting reveals Finny’s character in three parts. It reveals his athleticism, his superior way with words, and his excellent ways of distracting people to get out of trouble. So throughout this essay the reader will see how the setting reveals Finny’s character in three different ways.…
One of the most asked questions for A Separate Peace is: who exactly is the protagonist and antagonist? Most would agree that Gene is the protagonist, however is it Gene or Phineas that is the enemy? I believe that the real ‘bad guy’ in this book is Gene. He envied Phineas from the very beginning but didn’t admit it until a little later on. Whether it was getting away from trouble, having a natural athletic ability, or simply being modest and humble about things, Phineas seemed to have been better at almost everything.…
In John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, symbolism is used throughout the story especially in chapter 6. In Ch. 6, Finny, the main character of the novel is describing both of the rivers that are in the environs of the Devon School, the Nagumsett and the Devon River. These descriptions of the two rivers do not just expand our knowledge of the surrounding geography of the Dxevon School, but also symbolize the different stages of Gene and Finny’s lives.…
A Separate Peace is one of John Knowles' most acclaimed works and is based on Knowles' stay at Phillip Exeter Academy in the early-to-mid 1940's. It is set in a New England boarding school for boys known as Devon, and begins in 1958 but quickly flashes back to the years 1942 and 1943. In these years at the peak of World War II we follow through the eyes and mind of first-person narrator and protagonist Gene Forrester, as he copes internally with jealousy and hate, and externally with the oncoming draft. As is the fate of many great novels it quickly hit the big screen, and in 1972 a film version of A Separate Peace made its first debut, directed by Larry Peerce, and starring Parker Stevensen as 'Gene' and John Heyl as 'Finny'. Though the movie…
The novel “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles focuses on numerous divergent themes throughout the book. Some of the themes in the book involve the the coming of age, acquiring responsibility as you grow older, and how you should always speculate before you do, because it could severely change your life for the worse. The author also uses numerous literary elements, techniques, and stylistic choices to convey the central idea he has intended for his work.…
Are all people born with some unknown evil inside them or does the world just slowly corrupt the innocent as they mature. In the novel A Separate Peace, the author, John Knowles uses a dual perspective on certain characters and events throughout the novel to help support the books main theme; the loss of innocence through growth into maturity. One example of this technique is seen through the comparison between the two rivers running on the Devon campus. "The Devon River represents goodness, beauty, even purity" (Mellard 58) while the "Naguamsett, associated with winter, suggests everything contrary to the spirit of Devon: it is ugly, saline, fringed with marsh, ' and it is governed by unimaginable factors '" (Mellard 58). The dualistic symbolism of the two rivers is seen through the contrasting personalities of Gene and Finny, the struggle between war and peace and the conflicting seasons of summer and winter which help to support the theme involving the timeless battle of good versus evil which. The biggest counterpoint in the novel, Finny and Gene, are personality-wise, equal to the two rivers.…
The Teaching Theology and Religion Journal published a peer-reviewed article in April 2014 entitled “Teaching Soren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling.” The author of the article is Jonathan Malesic (2014), an associate professor of theology at King’s College in Pennsylvania. The article discusses Professor Malesic’s attempt to teach his students about Kierkegaard’s very influential work, Fear and Trembling (Malesic, 2012).…
In the novel A Separate Peace there are many symbols, however one of the most powerful is the burning of The Iliad. The burning of The Iliad, a famous tale of war, represents Finny's rejection of the war. Gene says, during the carnival Finny"drew me increasingly ...into a world inhabited by just himself and me, where there was no war at all." Finny is actively rejecting the war, he is removing it from every aspect of his life; he is trying to bring back the carefree summer session through the carnival, training for the Olympics instead of war, and purging every mention of the war from his life. He is desperately trying to create an environment of peace, Finny always found peace in sports; by burning the Iliad he is creating an absence of war,…
There are many well-known themes in the book A Separate Peace. One of the most themes is a coming of age for the boys who live and learn at Devon school. For some boys at this school, a coming of age means more opportunities, and for some others, means a chance to go from being a boy, to becoming a man. A large contradiction in this book is innocence vs. ignorance. For some boys the innocence will be destroyed in order for a coming of age to take place. In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, growing up at Devon school means that each and every boy will be faced with a simple decision, kill off your innocence, or let it destroy you, physically and/or mentally.…
Symbolism started as a loosely organized literary and artistic movement that originated with a group of French poets in the late 1800s. Within a century, symbolism will become a big influence on European and American literature. In the novel A Separate Peace, two rivers that are described are the Devon and the Naguamsett. The Devon river was filled with fresh water, flowed past hills, highland farms, and forests, passed the school grounds, then went over a little waterfall into the Neguamsett. The Naguamsett River was ugly, saline, fringed with marsh and seaweed, and its course ended in the ocean. These rivers and the relationship between the two have many important symbolic meaning in the novel. One interpretation of the rivers is Gene as…
In this section of the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck presents the black Stable Buck, Crooks, as petulant, lonely, yet he is not portrayed by Steinbeck in a stereotypical manor. In the setting description of Crooks’ isolated bunk, it is described that he owns a “tattered dictionary” and a book on Californian Law. This demonstrates to the audience how he is well educated. A working-class black person during the Depression era of 1930s America would have been unlikely to grow up with many educational opportunities, but this interesting detail suggests Crooks’ desire to self-educate and self-improve. It also suggests that he cares about his legal rights as a citizen, which may have been threatened or undermined at various times within his life. The pessimistic adjective “dirty” is ambiguous and could have been intended by Steinbeck for two reasons. Firstly, it could show physical dirt, showing the long length of time that he has owned it for. However, it also suggests that he has spent a lot of time reading the books due to the underlined theme of loneliness. These books, as well as an educational motivation could also act as a distraction from the isolation and impertinent attitudes directed at him by the white ranch hands. This idea of loneliness would make the reader sympathize with Crooks and would give them a better understanding of blacks working on ranches in America during the Great Depression. However it would also aid with the comprehension of eliminating black stereotypes as Crooks character, devised by Steinbeck, contradicts this unjust concept they were stereotyped around.…
A Separate Peace is a novel written by John Knowles that takes place in the 1940's. There are several examples of symbolism that are used in A Separate Peace. One is when the character named Leper is called scarecrow or snowman. Other examples that John Knowles uses are the old buildings outside at the Devon School and also the character Finny. Symbolism is a good thing in this story because it gives the readers a larger advantage to reading the story.…
The novel A Separate Peace takes place at an all-boys Private school called Devon during World War II and a conflict appears between two best friends; Gene and Finny.…
In Utopia, politics divide itself into the categories of crime, punishment and warfare. Crime in Utopia presents itself as it would in any other society, however, unlike the punishment in certain societies of that time period where the death penalty was common, Utopian criminals are put to use as slaves. Unlike in other societies, becoming a slave in Utopia does not depend on your families previous social standing or the colour of your skin. This society reflects the futuristic ideology of an egalitarian society where no one is considered a lesser citizen until given a reason. Furthermore, the only laws that exist in Utopia are comprehensible to all citizens in the society. Laws are interpreted in the simplest sense to project equality for all citizens rather than only to be understood by certain individuals as this would increase inequalities. War in Utopia is only used as a last resort; when such measures are required, Utopians choose to fight with skill over force. It was More’s belief that human beings are inherently evil creatures. This evidence shows us that Utopia is can be considered a satire of political culture of London in More’s time. If we consider humans as More did as evil, we can assume that even Utopians are evil at their cores. Therefor it is the physical landscape and politics of Utopia that must be considered perfect or ideal. Their method of control must be more effective, which makes them a…