A novel review on A Seperate Peace
Summary





A Separate Peace is written by John Knowles. It is published by First Scribner and copyrighted in 1959 by John Knowles. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.



Gene Forrester is a quiet, intellectual student at the Devon School in New Hampshire. During the summer session of 1942, he becomes close friends with his roommate Finny, whose vibrant words consistently allows him to get away with mischief. Finny convinces Gene into making a dangerous jump out of a tree into a river, and the two start a secret society based on this ritual. Gene gradually begins to envy Finny’s athletic abilities, in Finny’s breaking a school swimming record on his first try. He thinks that Finny, in turn, envies his superior academic achievements, and he suspects that his friend has been taking steps to distract him from his studies. Gene’s suspicions transform into hatred, but he carefully maintains an appearance of friendship. Gene realizes that he has been grievously mistaken about the existence of any rivalry between them when, one day, Finny expresses a sincere desire to see Gene succeed. He accompanies Finny to the tree for their jumping ritual. When Finny reaches the edge of the branch, Gene’s knees bend, shaking the branch and causing Finny to fall to the bank and shatter his leg. The tragedy was an accident, and no one thinks to blame Genem. But when the doctor tells Gene that Finny’s athletic days are over, Gene feels a sense of guilt. He goes to see Finny and begins to admit he caused Finny’s fall, but the doctor interrupts him, and Finny is sent home before Gene gets another chance to confess. The summer session ends, and Gene goes home to the South for a vacation. On his way back to school, he stops by Finny’s house and explains to his friend that he shook the branch on purpose. Finny refuses to listen to him. There, Gene attempts to avoid true athletic activity by becoming assistant manager of the crew team, but fights with the crew manager and quits. World War II is on at the same time, and the boys at are all eager to enlist in the military. Brinker Hadley suggests to Gene that they enlist together, and Gene agrees. That night, however, he finds Finny has returned to school. He abandons his plans to enlist, as well as Brinker. Finny expects Gene to take his place as the school’s sports star now that he is injured.. Finny tells Gene that he once had a dream to go to the Olympics, so Gene agrees to train for the 1944 Olympics in his place. All the boys are surprised when Leper Lepellier becomes the first one in their class to enlist. Gene and Finny go on training. Brinker, who has suspicions that Gene might have been partly responsible for Finny’s accident, wants to prove or disprove them.. He organizes an after-hours hearing of school boys and has Gene and Finny attend. The boys on the makeshift question the two about the events surrounding the fall. Finny’s flashback of the incident remain blurred that he cannot speak correct about it. Gene states that he doesn’t remember the details of it. The boys now bring in Leper, who was sighted earlier in the day spying about the bushes, and Leper begins to tell Gene. Finny yells that he does not care about the event and rushes out of the room. Hurrying down the stairs, he falls and breaks his leg again. Gene sneaks over to the school’s infirmary that night to see Finny, who angrily sends him away. The next morning, he goes to see Finny again, takes full blame for the tragedy and tries to explain that his action did not happen because of hatred. Finny accepts these statements and the two are reconciled.



A Separate Peace makes you realize what being envy of something can do to you. John Knowles wrote his novel A Separate Peace, after experiencing what he deemed as "perfect summers" at Phillip's Exeter Academy, and being a part of the air force for eight months. Both of these experiences are dealt with in his novel. Through his characterization, John Knowles reveals it is only after you have fought and won your own personal war, that you can truly understand the cause of war. Brinker is a character we are introduced to early on in the novel. He views the war with an air of general resentment, being of the opinion that the older generation is to blame for the turn of events that lead to the war, but he is forced to fight it. He enlists, not for the glory, not for loyalty, or adventure. He merely enlists, to remove monotony. " I'm enlisting...I'm going to 'serve' as he puts it, I may even get killed. But I'll be damned if I'll have that Nathan Hale attitude of his about it...I'm not any kind of hero." (pg 193)



On the opposite end is Brinker's father, Mr. Hadley. The war excites him and he is thrilled to see his son, and his son's friends enlisting. He sees the war for glory, but more importantly, to gain people's respect. He considers a man defined by his war experiences. In his mind, the war is a chance to gain an impressive military record, to gain a sense of pride. When Mr. Hadley was in the World War I, he was not fighting for himself. He was fighting his country's war. He never fought his own, only someone else's. He imagines that the his son’s generation are just like he was. It would be hard for him to imagine that they could not want to fight. In his mind, the goal of the war is pride. If you fight in it, you are defined, you have earned your manhood.




Phineas has a view of the war similar to Brinker's. Phineas would, and never could understand war. He is between wanting to deny it completely, and wanting to be a part of it completely. And neither is possible for him. He never had to confront the beahvior of the world, the violence brought with the war.. Gene explains to Phineas, " Phineas, you wouldn't be any good in the war, even if nothing had happened to your leg...you'd get things so scrambled up nobody would know who to fight any more. You'd make a mess, a terrible mess, Finny, out of the war." (pg 182). This statement is irony, because what is war but a violent mess? Gene, is the only character who shows an understanding of the reason and cause of war. This is because he had already fought his own war. He has come to this realization of himself. He fought, and won, his war against himself. This brought him deeper understanding, and the ability to see the true cause of war. " It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but by something ignorant in the human heart." (pg. 193) Gene, had overcome his fear. Of all the characters in the novel, Gene is the only one who understands the cause of war.



John Knowles states his message well in his work, through the thoughts of his characters. Many people go to war, without understanding why. Some refuse to understand why, others aren't capable. Mr. Hadley knows the war as man's sense of pride in himself and the chance for greatness. Brinker denies it because he doesn't understand. Mr. Hadley encourages, because he doesn't understand. Phineas denies, because he doesn't understand. But Gene understands the root of the matter because he had fought his own world war. Knowles allowed none of his other characters this ability because they had not faced a war of their own. Knowles' message is that, the comprehension will arrive only after enduring a battle within, after triumphing over your personal enemy.
Critique



A Separate Peace took place at the significant Devon School in New Hampshire in 1942. This was also during the time of World War II.




There are four main characters in the story: Gene Forrester who is the novel’s narrator who tells the story as a flashback. He is fairly athletic but academically talented. He is the source of all the reader’s information. He enters the story as an older man but has flashbacks of when he attended Devon School. Finny as the Greek hero athlete always excels in physical activities, mischevious, spontaneous, friendly, and verbally adroit. Elwin “Leper” Lepellier is a quiet, peaceful, nature loving boy. He shocks his classmates by being the first to enlist in the army and deserting soon after. Brinker Hadley actions always contrast or foils with Finny’s. He was the leader of the Devon boys and sticks to law and order.



In the arrangement of the plot, the exposition is quite in the beginning of the book where the boys start the “suicide summer club.” The rising actions occurs when Gene’s jealousy of Finny starts to add up but at the same time start to envy him. The climax occurs when Gene and Finny climb up the tree and Gene attempts a crazy stunt by shaking the branch allowing Finny to lose his balance and shtter his leg causing him to retrieve from sports, the one thing he’s good at. Falling action would be when Gene is terrified of his actions which sparks up his confession. And the resolution is when Gene admits to Finny.



The main struggle in the story would be finding and being comfortable with indentity. As Finny demonstrates his physical powers, Gene feels the need to progress on his academic powers. However, Gene’s dark feelings for Finny stirs into a different direction changing being envy of him to helping him. From that point on, Gene and Finny come to depend on each other for psychological support.



For the theme of the story there were a lot of transformations and symbols. A main transformation would be Finny from a healthy athlete into a cripple after his accident and transforming Gene into an athlete to take place for Finny. A main symbolism would be Finny’s Fall. And that symbolizes an end the summer session, the period of carefree innocence, and into the dark winter session. Knowles' message is that, the ability to realize will arrive only after enduring a battle within, after triumphing over your personal enemy.
Biography of the author



John Knowles was born in 1926 in Fairmont, West Virginia. He left home at fifteen to attend Phillips Exeter Academy, an exclusive boarding school located in New Hampshire. After graduating from Exeter in 1945, he spent eight months as an Air Force cadet before enrolling at Yale University, from which he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1949. Over the next seven years, Knowles earned his living as a journalist and freelance writer, traveling in Europe and publishing a number of short stories. The plot and setting of A Separate Peace were largely inspired by Knowles’s experiences at Exeter. Like Gene Forrester, one of the novel’s two principal characters, Knowles was a student from the South studying in New Hampshire during World War II—although he graduated a year too late to serve overseas during the war. Like his characters, Knowles also attended two summer sessions in 1943 and 1944, and even participated in a club whose members had to jump out of a tall tree into a river as an initiation stunt—a club much like the “Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session” founded by Gene and his friend Finny in A Separate Peace. He has told interviewers that he modeled the character of Finny after another member of this club named David Hackett, who later served under Robert F. Kennedy in the Department of Justice.


After reading this book, it made me realize what being sucked in to being envy over something can do to you. It always leads towards the negative direction. Starting with a tiny incident ends up deep and as big as evil itself. You can always do good in return but you have to live with the guilt. The book is also about revealing ones identity and accepting it. Overall, the book was well written.