Introductory Paragraph must include:
Opening sentence: Attention-getting “hook”
Other elements: Minimal plot summary & [optional] researched fact(s)
Last sentence: Thesis statement (underline/highlight)
A. A Separate Peace is a symbolic (allegorical) narrative in which its characters
represent truths about human nature.
Three characters who are symbolic and what they are symbolic of.
● Gene is symbolic of mankind who sins - he’s a flawed hero.
B. The setting of A Separate Peace is important to the development of the plot; the
novel could not have taken place anywhere else or at any other time.
Three reasons why the setting is important, or three settings that are important
● WWII
C. It was necessary for Finny to die for Gene to reach his own ‘separate peace’ and
achieve the growth and harmony he sought.
Three reasons why Finny had to die in order for….
● Gene, at the start, does not have an identity without Finny
Sample Introduction
Phineas survives his first fall like Lazarus and rises again, but that doesn’t stop his best
friend from harming him further. Gene, Phineas’s best friend and the protagonist of A Separate
Peace, struggles with separating himself from his Phineas and ‘coming of age.’ The adult
narrator, Gene Forrester, reflects on a crucial time during his high school experience in the
midst of World War II. At the opening of the novel, Gene and Finny spend all of their time
together; they even belong to a secret society at their all-boys prep school, Devon, in New
Hampshire. Interestingly, the author, John Knowles, based the Devon school on his own boyhood
school, Phillips Exeter – such idyllic schools where young men live in close quarters often hide
conflicts. Throughout this novel, conflicts within and between the main characters move the
plot forward; unfortunately, in the end, Finny has to die in order for Gene to reach his own
‘separate peace.’
Body Paragraph
Finny is allegorically shown as a "Christ figure." A Christ figure could be
described as someone who is similar to Jesus in a spiritual way. Finny also shows godlike characteristics such as always being filled with energy, outstanding athletic abilities,
and his leadership abilities. When he invented a “suicide society,” others joined without
question; when he invented Blitzball and made up the rules as he went along, everyone
played; when he again invented the Winter Carnival, everyone followed along in same
way that people follow Jesus without question. Further, the events that led to Jesus’s
death resemble Finny’s. When Finny died, he absorbed Gene's "war" and the pain that
Gene was suffering from. This relates to Jesus' crucifixion when he died for all our sins.
At the end of the novel, Gene says of Finny that, "He possessed an extra vigor, a
heightened confidence in himself, a serene capacity for affection which saved him.
Nothing...at Devon, nothing even about the war had broken his harmonious and natural
unity" (194-195).
Gene concludes that Finny was, like Christ, a figure too superior
for this flawed, often hate-filled world and so he had to die.