Life's 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, they are constantly trying to figure each other out. The theme of this book is life's contrasts and this is made evident with contrasting characters, contrasting seasons, and good vs. evil.
First of all, Gene and finny had to deal with the fact that they are very different people. Gene was a very intellectual person, and Finny was very athletic. Finny was a superior athlete. This is very obvious when Finny broke the 100meter swimming record on his first try. " he had broken A. Hopkin Parker's record by .7 seconds"(35). This was an amazing feat. He had never practiced or swam competitively in his life. On top of this Finny was a very good overall athlete. .
He had won and been proud to win the Galbraith Football Trophy and the contact Sports Award, and there were two or three other athletic prizes he was sure to get this year or next (43). .
On the other hand, Gene was a very good student. He was one of 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 times at the school. During the summer session school everything was very relaxed. The whole attitude towards school was more laid back. In the winter months everything was much more organized and the teachers were stricter. This is mostly because many of the teachers and masters were substitutes. Gene let this be known when he said, .
This was the way Masters tended to treat us that summer, they seemed to be modifying their usual attitude of floating, chronic disapproval.
In John Knowle's A Seperate Peace , the main characters, Gene and Finny have a unique friendship that transforms throughout chapter four. ... In the book A Separate Peace, the main characters Finny and Gene transform into different people by the end of the book. ... It is up to the reader to decide whether the changes in A Separate Peace?? ...
A Seperate Peace-Finny How Things Change In the novel "A Separate Peace," by John Knowles, a boy named Gene visits his high school 15 years after graduating in order to find an inner peace. While attending the private boys' school during the second World War, Gene's best friend Phineas died and ...
In John Knowle's A Seperate Peace , the main characters, Gene and Finny have a unique friendship that transforms throughout chapter four. ... Regardless of the nature of this act, it is obvious that in A Separate Peace, Gene's thoughts and behavior in this chapter create a problem of sympathy that persists throughout the novel. ...
In John Knowle's A Seperate Peace, the main characters, Gene and Finny have a unique friendship that transforms throughout chapter four. ... In the book A Separate Peace, the main characters Finny and Gene transform into different people by the end of the book. ... It is up to the reader to decide whether the changes in A Separate Peace"" were for the better or for the worse....
Apartheid: The racial policy of the government of South Africa, under which whtie, African, Asiatic, and Colored communities live seperately, in principle, so that each group may develop to the full its own society and culture. ... Hally wants to teach Sam academics and politics, while Sam wants to teach Hally to see the beauty and simplistic peace in life and how to treat other humanely. ...
SYMBOLISM OF A SEPARATE PEACE By Jeremiah Noack Thesis: John Knowles uses symbolism in the novel A Separate Peace to show the coming of age, in young people in high school. ... Hardy Symbolism 04/18/2001 Symbolism in A Separate Peace John Knowles" A Separate Peace attracts many young readers because of its high school setting. ... Knowles uses symbolism as the main components in his novel A Separate Peace. ... John Knowles" first published novel, A Separate Peace, now a decade old, is a minor but very nearly perfect piece of work: a tight, cohesive account of the corruptio...
This quote by Gene Forrester, a character in John Knowle's novel A Separate Peace, depicts Gene's personal turmoil during his high school years. Throughout the entire novel Gene had an emotional quest for his own separate peace. ... Upon acknowledging his own guilt, Gene could ride himself of the black empty hole inside of him, and truly find his own separate peace. ...
While reading any peace of literature, a significant event in that story can lead to a further understanding of the characters involved with the incident, and/or the novel itself. In the book A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, one character makes a horrible mistake that not only advanced the reader's understanding of the novel, but also leads to that characters fall. ... In the novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, one character made a mistake that not only led to more problems for him, but also to the death of his best friend. ...
