Journal Assignments for A Separate Peace
Journal Entry #1: To what extent do you feel obligated to assist your nation? Do you feel like it’s
okay for the government to ask for your money, time, or even your life during a crisis? How much
would you be willing to give?
Journal Entry #2: At one point in the novel, the narrator interrupts the story and pulls us back to his
present to discuss his feelings about the war. What do you think about someone who interrupts their
own story to explain their feelings? What purpose do you think this interruption serves?
Journal Entry #3: List the traits of the important characters in the novel.
Journal Entry #4: Describe a game/sporting event you watched or participated in. Use language that
is more suggestive of war than sports.
Journal Entry #5: Discuss the situational irony in Ch 6 where Quackenbush calls Gene “maimed”
and the irony of the narrator’s description of Brinker.
Journal Entry #6: Compare the scene with Leper’s skiing to the boys work in the railroad yard. What
conclusion can be drawn from the comparison?
Journal Entry #7: Consider the scene in Ch 10 when Leper tells Gene, “You always were a savage
underneath.” What does Leper mean? Do you agree with him? Furthermore do you think we’re all
“just savages underneath”? What types of situations do you think could bring out the savagery that is
buried within us?
Journal Entry #8: What do Brinker’s actions in the Assembly Room reveal about his character?
Journal Entry #9: Reread the paragraph in Ch 12 beginning, “After a short, silent examination.” How
does the imagery in this paragraph reveal the way in which the narrator sees Finny at this point in the
story?
Journal Entry #10: Gene has a realization that wars are made “by something ignorant in the human
heart”. How does this realization connect with themes from the novel? How many different ways can
this statement apply to Gene?