A SEPARATE
PEACE
By:
John Knowles
John Knowles
 “All
of my books are based on
places, places I know very well
and feel very deeply about. I
begin with that place and then the
characters and the plot emerge
from it.” A Separate Peace began
with a playing field at Exeter
Academy.
John Knowles

What do we know about the author?

This story is somewhat biographical.
Born in 1926
 Knowles went to a prep school –
Exeter
 Unlike Gene, he had a very
positive experience at school

Information on Knowles

Entered Phillips
Academy when he
was 15 yrs. old and
was there during
the four years of
WWII ( 1941-45);
the period included
in the novel
Seal and translation



NoN sibi (“Not for
oNeself.”)
Finis origine
peNdet (“the eNd
depends upon the
begiNNiNg.”)
Xapiti oeot (“by
the grace of
god.”)
Phillips Exeter Academy






Private boarding school;
co-ed 9-12
1068 total; 858 boarding;
203 day
203 Faculty; average
class size: 12
Located on 619 acres
Harkness table: oval table
in each classroom with
teacher and students
engaging in education
Located in Exeter, New
Hampshire
PLOT

A young man trying to
find out about his
world and himself. In
times of peace it is
hard enough to change
from adolescence to
maturity, but in war
time, the conflict may
be greater because the
values of the world
and society are
changing.
Types of Narrators





First Person Narrator
 Uses “I” or “We”.
 Views action/events of the story from their own
perspective.
First person observer
 Tells story form the sidelines.
First person participant
 Tells story while involved in the action/events.
Gene Forrester is a First Person Participant
 One theme is the affect of time and events on
memory
 Is Gene always reliable in his recounts of the events?
Story telling technique:
 Flashback, we start in 1958 and reflect back to 1942.
Setting

New England Prep School


Devon in New Hampshire
Gene Forrester is from the south


Never says exactly where he is from
He makes up a false and romantic identity for himself


He is an outsider at Devon.
World War II is omni-present.


The war encroaches on Devon and the students’ lives.
The war as a threat to peace is a main theme.
Characters



Stories seek to reveal character: either a
particular individual or of human nature in
general.
Protagonist
 The main character
 Display a complex set of both good & bad
traits
 Face: moral crisis, physical or emotional
challenge
 Readers usually sympathize with
protagonist
 Is it Gene or Phineas?
Antagonist
 Some one opposed to the protagonist and
who impedes his progress.
 Is it Brinker, the students at Devon, the
world at war, or Gene himself?
Finny
Plot

Structure
 Equilibrium
 Protagonist’s life is in relative order, although he
may not be satisfied
 Gene is a young man.
 Follows the rules, likes order, hard worker.
 Has a perfect best friend in Finny
 Complication
 Something disrupts the status quo and creates
conflict
 Finny is a foil for Gene, upsetting Gene’s life
 Gene perceives that Finny is jealous of Gene,
whereas the opposite is true
 Gene’s jealousy consumes him.
Plot

Having resolved the
conflict, a new state of
equilibrium is achieved.
 Gene understands
and somewhat
forgives his nemesis,
Brinker Hadley.
 Gene goes to war.
 Gene comes back to
Devon years later to
get closure on the
big event in his life.
Characterization




Round
 Are emotionally changed by the challenges
they face and the decisions they make
Flat
 Do not emotionally develop during the course
of the story
Dynamic
 Their actions impact the course of events in
the story
Static
 They participate in the story but do not alter
the chain of events
Characterization Grid
High impact on events
Gene
Significant emotional
development &
change
Finny
Brinker
Leper
The Deans
Low impact on events
Little emotional
development &
change
Literary Devices - Metaphors

World War II

The internal war that each student fights
within himself. The focus of the novel is
internal and on the young people.


Finny

Peace. lost during war.




Gene’s mind becomes a battle ground for
conflicting emotions like jealousy, fear, love
and hate.
WWII
When Gene cannot acknowledge his feelings
and is at war with himself.
Finny is a victim and a casualty
Winter Carnival


A reckless celebration during the dead of
winter
Joy and peace in the midst of war and
conflict.
Literary Devices - Metaphors




Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a
comparison between two unlike objects
is suggested or implied.
Blitzball:
 A sport without competitors
 Life at Devon. individual struggle or
every man for himself
 Finny triumphs at this game
Snowball Fight:
 Similar to blitzball, but this time
Finny is defeated.
 It brings an end to Finny and the
peace he represents.
The surf at the beach.
 The control that Finny had over Gene
Literary Devices - Symbols

Symbols: The use of one object to
represent or suggest another. They
embody universal suggestions of
meaning.

Summer & Winter sessions at Devon



Summer sessions are times of anarchy and
freedom. The innocence of youth.
Winter sessions are dark, disciplined and
filled with work. They also represent the
shift from youth to the responsibilities of
adulthood and the war.
Finny’s fall from the tree.


End of the summer session.
A fall from innocence, like Adam & Eve,
who are exiled from the Garden of Eden.
Flashbacks




Shifting backward in time
Writers use this to achieve different
purposes.
For example, an author might flash back
to a character’s past experiences and
current thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
Knowles uses this through Gene as he
remembers what happened at the tree.
Motifs – recurring themes






War
 We see war through out the novel.
 WWII is a key element of the setting
 It encroaches on life at Devon
 Students like Gene at war with themselves
Peace
 Amidst the competition among students
Competition among the students
 In and out of class
Athletics
 Tree climbing, swimming, skiing, crew
 Competitive sports
 Blitzball
 Non-competitive
Jealousy, Envy
 Particularly Gene and Brinker
Rash Actions
 Gene, Leper, Brinker
Themes – Ignorance & War

Ignorance in the human heart leads to
conflict or war.


Gene looks back later in life and says “Finny
had escaped this hostile world…nothing broke
his harmonious unity so at last I did.”
Gene was, “on active duty all my time at
school; I killed my enemy there.”
Bildungsroman


Coming of Age story
The journey from innocence to
experience.



Gene breaks out of his comfortable,
predictable life by following Finny.
Gene is frightened by Finny’s freedom and
then threatened by it.
Discomfort leads to suspicion and
jealousy.
Bildungsroman

Conflicting and confusing emotions.
 Gene:
 unjustified jealousy.
 Mixing love and hate.
 Rash behavior. Gene injures Finny.
 Finny:
 Denies the war because he can not participate in it.
 Brinker:
 Models Gene
 He is jealous of Gene’s devotion to Finny
 He seeks to bring down Gene in a manner similar to the way
Gene brought down Finny.
 Leper:
 Acts rashly and is the first student to enlist in the service.
Forming an Identity

Seeking to establish, but being uncomfortable
with one’s identity.

Gene is from the south and does not quite fit in.

He makes up a false identity.


Gene’s desire to blur his own identity with Finny’s.


The pictures of the old south on his walls.
Wearing Finny’s clothes.
After accident they depend on each other.




Gene does sports for Finny.
Gene lets Finny coach him.
Finny live vicariously through Gene.
Gene finds happiness in losing himself in Finny.



Gene does not like himself.
Gene likes Finny very much.
In the end Gene feels as if Finny’s funeral is his own.
Literal Meaning of “A Separate
Peace”



Refers to the withdrawal of one of a group
of combatants, though the total war
continues.
Finny makes a separate peace and
removes himself from the war atmosphere
by refusing to accept the existence of
conflict.
He call it a myth and denies the reality,
and by doing so achieves a separate
peace of his own.
Winter and Summer Sessions
Summer is allied to peace, the winter
is engulfed by war.
 There was a freedom and joyousness
in the summer session.
 In winter, a sterner regimen takes
control and harsher values emerge.
 Finny, allied to summer, has brought
with him the sense of freedom and
pleasures.

Symbolism of the tree and Devon
River

The setting of the book is beautiful,
but one thing is forbidden –
jumping out of the tree. It is as
much a forbidden one as the
Biblical tree. The boys do climb the
tree and they do jump. Gene is
overcome by his jealousy and
driven to harm Finny. Finny fall
physically, but Gene falls spiritually.
Like Adam, he brings sin into his
world
Microcosm

A microcosm is a little world. It is a
miniature of a larger happening. The
conflict between Gene and Finny is a
reflection of the larger conflict between
nations. The distrust and jealousy which
instigated Gene’s jealousy also instigated
WWII. Knowles stresses that the evil that
stems from within the human heart, and
that the nature of the conflicts is identical
although the size and scope may differ.
Comparison of Gene and Finny


Gene is a good athlete and superior student. He
is very serious and preferred studying to other
activities. He wouldn’t admit that Finny is his
best friend. He build resentment toward Finny.
Gene faced the war and saw evil and hatred in
men’s hearts.
Finny is a superior athlete and average student.
He enjoyed fun. He was honest and open about
his true feelings. He admitted Gene was his best
friend. He refused to accept the reality of a war.
He was totally good and felt no hatred toward
others.
The excellent exterior
acoustics
recorded his rushing
steps and
the quick rapping of his
cane
along the corridor and on
the
first steps of the marble
stairway.
Then these separate
sounds
collided into the general
tumult
of his body falling
clumsily
down the white marble
stairs.

From my locker I collected
my
sneakers, jock strap, and
gym
pants and then turned
away,
leaving the door ajar for the
first time, forlornly open
and
abandoned, the locker
unlocked.
This was more final than
the
moment when the
Headmaster
handed me my diploma. My
schooling was now over.
Tone



Does the author focus on the innocence of
youth or the difficulty in growing up?
Is the tone hopeful or dark?
Are people basically good or evil?