Literary Analysis Prompts
Walk Through

Ernest Hemingway’s
A Farewell to Arms
(literary allusion)
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When Frederick Henry deserts from the
Italian army at the conclusion of Book III, he states, “Anger washed away in the river along with any obligation.”
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At the opening of Book IV, Henry asserts:
“I have made a separate peace.”

In many novels, the central setting is highly symbolic and helps to develop the themes and ideas in the novel.
Explain how the setting of A Separate
Peace is symbolic and how the description of the setting helps to develop a theme of the novel.

Microcosm Parallels Macrocosm
Devon vs. Naguamsett Rivers
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(Hint: See pg. 68 which begins “We had never used” . . . and ends “. . . astride these two rivers.”)
Blog Related to Prompt

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Some novels depict a central incident which serves as a focal point for a major theme or conflict. Select a central incident from A Separate Peace (such as the fall from the tree, Gene’s talk with Finny in his home, or the “trial”), and explain how this incident is crucial and what theme or conflict it reveals.

“It had loomed in my memory as a huge lone spike dominating the riverbank, forbidding as an artillery piece, high as the beanstalk” (13).
“The tree was tremendous, an irate steely black steeple beside the river” (14).

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Key symbol
Allegorical
Biblical rendition of original sin
Innocent, prideful Adam
Eats fruit in order to be like God (to know)
Loses paradise or innocence beside river of life
Gains chaos outside Garden of Eden

Adam Mirrors Every Journey from
Innocence to Experience
(Connect with Gene)
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Discovery of evil within self
Knowledge of experience
Gene’s envy of superior friend grows
Gene’s pride leads to one moment in tree
Before healing, Finny re-breaks leg—dies
Gene is radically changed—no longer innocent of his own maliciousness
Filled with guilt—cast out into chaos of WWII

Your Turn
Analyze the Following Events
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Gene’s talk with Finny in his home
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The “trial”
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(Perhaps the beach trip)
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Other events of your choice

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The narrator in A Separate Peace that at Devon, “there were few states relationships . . . not based on rivalry.”
Using your own experience, observations, and reading to develop your position, discuss the validity of the assertion as it applies to relationships/friendships in general.

“I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little”
(25).

Friendship Quotes
(quotes appropriate for this prompt as well as others)
Friendship Quotes from A Separate Peace

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Discuss each season’s metaphorical connection with Gene. (Remember to connect with theme.)

Remember to discuss Gene’s return to Devon as an adult.
“Changed, I headed back through the mud. I was drenched; anybody could see it was time to come in out of the rain.”

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In A Separate Peace , numerous characters escape from reality. Select a character or characters and discuss the significance of these escapes in portraying a theme in the novel (perhaps man’s inhumanity to man).

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Gene
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Finny
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Leper
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Others?

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Discuss Gene and Finny as the personification of conformity and nonconformity. (Be sure to address the implications—thematic.)
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Evidence
Themes

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Compare and contrast the treatment of the haven versus the wilderness motif in A
Separate Peace and Dead Poets Society.
(Explore theme.)
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Be sure to qualify your interpretation of wilderness and haven.

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A Separate Peace?
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Dead Poets Society?

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(interesting connection with A Midsummer
Night’s Dream )

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Write an essay in which you discuss the role of adults in A Separate Peace
Dead Poets Society.
and

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Discuss the incorporation of one or more of the following motifs in A Separate
Peace and/or Dead Poet’s Society to convey theme—savior motif, twin motif, innocence to experience motif.

See Handout on Exploring Theme
(Motifs are discussed.)

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Can we consider Gene and Finny to be, allegorically, the same person(ality)?
Do they or can they, in fact, exist totally separate from one another?
When the story begins, does Gene represent one extreme and Finny another?
If so, what are those extremes?

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Can you accurately define Gene’s “Phineas filled” personality and explain why
“becoming Finny” he is actually able to avoid constructing his “Maginot Lines” and attain A Separate Peace ?

Ma
⋅ gi
⋅ not
[mazhuh -noh; Fr.
ma-zhee-noh] –noun
André, 1877–1932, French minister of war
1929–32: backed construction of Maginot Line.
French politician who as minister of war (1922-
1924 and 1929-1932) proposed a line of fortification, called the Maginot Line, along
France's border with Germany. Thought to be impregnable, the line was bypassed and later captured by the Germans (1940).

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Discuss the incorporation of allusions— biblical and/or mythological—in A Separate
Peace to convey theme.

Biblical/Mythological Allusions to
Consider
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The Tree—Original Sin
Cain and Abel (see my web site for synopsis of biblical stories)
Finny as the Savior (Christ Figure)
Finny as Apollo (lecture notes)
Finny as Dionysus (lecture notes)

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Write an essay in which you analyze John
Knowles’ title A Separate Peace

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What are the possibilities?
Escape experienced by students in the winter carnival?
Escape from reality like Leper’s?

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Does title relate more to Gene or Finny?
How does the title relate to war?
What does the title mean in terms of human relationships?
Is it possible that the title was taken from
Ernest Hemingway’s book A Farewell to
Arms ?

Ernest Hemingway’s
A Farewell to Arms
(literary allusion)
When Frederick Henry deserts from the
Italian army at the conclusion of Book III, he states, “Anger washed away in the river along with any obligation.”
At the opening of Book IV, Henry asserts,
“I have made a separate peace.”