Summary Of John Knowles 'A Separate Peace'

Words: 590
Pages: 3
Open Document
The Effect of Harmony A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, demonstrates what it is like being a college student who is just a year from graduating. From being close to join the war, one student named Gene Forrester develops the three levels of war. They are him trying to figure out who he is, his inhumane attitude to others, and his guilt. To start off, Gene first develops the feelings that he doesn’t know who he truly is. He figures out that he doesn’t just enjoy learning and his academics, but sports as well. For example, it states, “I reached a marble foyer, and stopped at the foot of a long white marble flight of stairs... It was surprising that I had overlooked that, that crucial fact”(11). In part of this quote it is to be reported that some time in his …show more content…
Although, this is not a proud moment of Gene’s life, one night Gene’s best friend, Finny, stumbles down those flight of stairs and has broken his leg again with a clean break. Gene not knowing what to do, doe nothing at all as he watches Finny be carried by the doctor and the wrestling coach. He insteads stands the back not showing any emotion to care. From it, it affects Gene’s emotion and takes a big chunk of his soul. Next, Gene as a human being gains an inhuman attitude to his friends and those who are closest to him. One quote that proves this states, “I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me...he tumbled sideways, broke through the branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud”(59-60). From this quote, Gene gains extreme emotions toward Finny because in his mind, he views Finny as a rival. Although, Finny doesn’t view it like this, just as a really good friend of his. Gene, out of jealousy and frustration, jounced the limb Finny was on and Finny takes terrible fall. After this incident, Finny is not able to participate in sports anymore and feels inhumane for
Show More

Related Documents: Summary Of John Knowles 'A Separate Peace'

Summary Of John Knowles A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the late 1950’s, a few years after graduation, Gene Forrester comes back to his old prep school Devon in New Hampshire. In school Genes roommate Phineas (nicknamed Finny) jumped off a tree limb that was forbidden from the Devon boys, Gene also jumped but is frightened. Finny makes the Suicide Society, and asks the Devon boys to join to test their fears. Gene was always distracted by Finny during school, because he always wanted to do something new to test his and…

Words 211 - Pages 1

Summary Of John Knowles A Separate Peace

hold onto peace? The year is 1942 and World War II is just beginning for the United States. Facing conscription when they come of age, a group of sixteen year old boys hit the books, rather than the training ground. Despite living with constant reminders of their looming fate, Gene, Finny, and their friends will not give up their chance at normal teenage life. During an eventful school year these boys grasp at an eluding calmness. The title of John Knowles’ most famous work, A Separate Peace, refers…

Words 1551 - Pages 7

Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

A Separate Peace (Chapter 1) is a novel excerpt written by John Knowles. The protagonist of the story, Gene, returns to Devon School, a military high school he once attended fifteen years ago during WWII. Gene begins describing his memories of when he was a young boy in high school, messing around with his best friend, Finny, the antagonist. Gene’s character is intelligent and shy, while Finny’s character is outgoing and athletic, their opposites are what bring them closer as friends. The author…

Words 354 - Pages 2

Summary Of John Knowles A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a story of innocence to experience. Gene Forrester is a boy who goes to a rather painful but necessary transition of adulthood. A journey of understanding his responsibilities and opening his eyes to see the world in a different perspective. Gene, in the beginning of the story, did an immature action because he envied his best friend Finny. When he and boys went to the tree again for jumping Gene affirms this, “I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone,”…

Words 230 - Pages 1

Summary Of John Knowles 'A Separate Peace'

Superiority comes to light in John Knowles’ emotional novel, A Separate Peace, as readers delve deep into the emotions of Gene Forrester, the passive protagonist who narrates the story. As a smart student and hopeful valedictorian, Gene sees his roommate Finny, a charismatic and popular athlete, as a direct threat to his academic success. Many times while Gene studies, Finny encourages him to partake activities such as jumping off of a tree into a river. One day while jumping into the river, Gene…

Words 120 - Pages 1

Summary Of John Knowles A Separate Peace

A History of the Supreme Court - Bernard Schwartz A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking Amusing Ourselves To Death - Neil Postman A Separate Peace - John Knowles My Beloved World - Sonia Sotomayor Sotomayor, the third female and fist Latino justice to sit on the Supreme Court, discusses her past in a poor, fatherless family. Through passion, an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and an unstoppable work ethic, she escaped from a crime-filled, drug-plagued neighborhood in the Bronx to sit…

Words 171 - Pages 1

Summary Of John Knowles 'A Separate Peace'

In John Knowles, A Separate Peace, Finny organizes his own Devon winter carnival, which leads to create “a separate peace”. The boys, few months away from being drafted into service, forgot all sorrows as the carnival hides the reality of war from the boys. Finny, hosts a winter carnival to revive memories from the glorious summer days. The carnival takes the boys back to the summer as they forgot about the reality as they go back to the “summer session” to relive it for one last moment. The "peace"…

Words 254 - Pages 2

Summary Of John Knowles 'A Separate Peace'

In life, growing up is necessary for one to develop into an adult. The act of peer pressure is traumatic, and it can cause others to do unimaginable things. Gene Forrester, of A Separate Peace by John Knowles, is a teenager who gives into pressure. From the moment he meets Finny, he feels demoted. Even when Gene pushes Finny out of the tree limb, Finny still forgives him because he thinks it was impossible for him to jounce him. It is only during the night the boys get dragged into the Assembly…

Words 223 - Pages 1

Summary Of A Separate Peace By John Knowles

personalities of whom we must all cope with and learn to love them for who they are and not what we want them to be. People will never find someone just like them and need to be able to change and adapt to the way that others act. In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles; though they may not live up to the worldly definition of friendship, Gene and Finny have a relationship unlike anyone else, which ends in a disaster. In order to compare Finny’s and Gene’s relationship to the normal definition, we must…

Words 723 - Pages 3

Summary Of John Knowles 'A Separate Peace'

Kilroy J. Oldster once wrote that, "Every encounter with the external world presents a conflict with a person’s cherished inner world." This idea of separate internal and external worlds was also an underlying theme in John Knowles novel, A Separate Peace. In the story, Gene struggled with accepting his "external world", which for him was adulthood, and leaving behind adolescence at Devon. The two rivers and the change of seasons at Devon are symbols of the divide between innocent adolescence and…

Words 773 - Pages 4