A Separate Peace

Long time.  No see.  It’s been a long time since my last blog, but don’t worry… I’m back!!!!

                                        

Below is some extraneous music that you can listen while reading my blog.  I feel that it will augment the experience and help make this an A+ effort!

This blog will be about A Separate Peace—the novel that we are currently reading in my English class—by John Knowles.

                John Knowles was born in Fairmont, West Virginia on September 16, 1926.  He attended Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, graduating in 1945.  Then, Knowles served in the Air Force in World War II for eight months.  After his service in the military, he furthered his education by attending Yale University for four years.  At Yale, Knowles was a record-holding varsity swimmer during his sophomore year and he served on the Board of Yale Daily News during his sophomore, junior, and senior years.  Knowles made a career in writing; he wrote for two magazines and completed seven novels, one of which was A Separate Peace.

A Separate Peace takes place at an austere boarding school, Devon School, in New Hampshire.  The main character, Gene Forrester, is quiet and intelligent, while his roommate and close friend, Phineas (Finny), is very out-going, athletic, magnanimous, and charming.  During the summer session of 1942, Finny convinces Gene to help him create a secret society based on the ritual of jumping out of a tree into the river.

                Gene becomes increasingly jealous of Finny’s athletic abilities.  This leads Gene to believe that Finny, in turn, envies his superior academic success and has created the secret society only to distract him from his studies.  Due to this heinous belief, Gene begins to abhor Finny; however, he maintains an appearance of friendship.  One day, he accompanies Finny to the tree for their jumping ritual.  When Finny reaches the end of the branch, Gene’s entire rancor towards Finny comes out in one moment; Gene jounces the limb, which causes Finny to fall to the bank and shatter his leg.  Later, the doctor tells Gene that Finny will no longer be able to participate in sports.  This adds to Gene’s contrite and guilt; however, he is unable to tell anyone the truth, especially Finny.  Instead, everyone believes that Finny’s tragedy was just an accident.  To make things worse, Gene discovers that Finny has had no foul intentions toward his academics.

Gene and Finny

                Meanwhile, World War II is in full swing.  All of the boys are consumed by the war; it often determines their actions.  However, Finny has convinced himself to inanely believe that the war is a heinous duplicity made up by old, fat men in order to secure their jobs.

Collage of WWII

                Furthermore, one of the schoolboys, Brinker, harbors the suspicion that Finny’s tragic incident wasn’t an accident and decides to hold a meeting to prove or disprove this definitively.  He organizes an after-hours tribunal of schoolboys and has Gene and Finny evoked without warning.  At this meeting, they question both Finny and Gene in hopes to expound the details of the event; however, Finny’s perceptions of the incident remain so blurred that he can’t speak conclusively on the matter, and Gene acts as if he doesn’t remember the details of it.  Finny declares that he doesn’t care about the facts and leaves.  Hurrying on the stairs, Finny falls and breaks his leg again.

                This is as far as my English class has read.  My prediction is Gene will tell Finny the truth at some point.  When this time comes, I think Finny will be very forgiving, and they will move on with their lives.  If you are interested in the basic content of this story and would like to read this novel, then you should.  It is very well written, and I would highly recommend it.

                Along with reading the novel, we also must write an essay on A Separate Peace using one of the following essay prompts:

1.       Major Theme

·         Explain how this theme evolves

·         In argument, discuss both character (connecting each to the theme) and plot development

2.       Major Character

·         Discuss both character’s internal and external conflicts

·         Explain how this character develops

 

3.       One Facet of Knowles’ Writing Style

·         Possibilities: use of symbolism, figurative language, dialog, allegory, history

Although we haven’t finished the novel, I have a good idea of which prompt I will choose.  I think that I will write my essay on prompt #2; I will explore Finny’s copious conflicts and how his character develops throughout the novel.

Finny