A Separate Peace By John Knowles

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Everyone faces conflict as they evolve, it’s how we learn more about ourselves and those around us. In “A Separate Peace”, a work of historical fiction by John Knowles, the main character struggles with the truth about his life and his self. The book starts with the main character, Gene, returning to his school and reminiscing about his time there and what happened. It all starts with the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session and their playful antics by the tree overhanging the lake, that soon turns into an omen of anguish for Gene. As the book goes on it describes, in great detail, the struggles he faces and the challenges he faces as he navigates his way through school full of guilt, doubt, and resentment. To add to the pressure put …show more content…
A major theme in “A Separate Peace” is the accident of Gene’s best friend Phineas, who fell out of a tree and shattered his leg, causing his permanent damage and disability. Gene, struggles with the thought that he is responsible for Finny’s accident. Countless times he find himself trying to admit to what he did or figure out exactly what happened. He attempted to tell Finny what happened while he was visiting him over vacation when he says he “was thinking about it… about [him] because” “ [he] caused it.” (69). Right after admitting to this Finny shoots him down and tells him that he fell, that it wasn’t his fault. Even though Finny insists that Gene didn’t hurt him, Gene finds no closure in this, it actually just causes more doubt, and throughout the book Gene constantly fight himself over how he feels and what he did. Gene becomes his own worst enemy, and he fights his battle before Finny falls, the first time, and after Finny dies, until he leaves Devon. When he leaves Devon he graduates with a sense of peace, and victory over his war. Gene leaves with a clear conscious and a does well in the navy because “[he] never killed anybody and [he] never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because [his] war ended before [he] ever put on that uniform. [He] was on active duty all [his] time at school; [he] killed [his] enemy there.” So while many character could have added fuel to the fire of his turmoil, they were not in competition enough to be his enemy, but they did act as a foil to
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