A Separate Peace Literary Analysis

Zachary Gibney
Mrs. Chapman
A period- Honors Literature
1-21-15
Hidden Symbolic Messages in A Separate Peace In the novel, A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles there are many hidden symbolic messages or meanings to things in the book, which are messages that are hard to notice without reading between the lines. “Nothing read is ever between what it the lines seems.” This quote makes absolutely no sense just reading it, but if people read between the lines, he or she will understand what it actually says. This quote really says,” nothing is ever what it seems. Read between the lines.” The three main hidden messages in the book are the title itself, Finny’s fall, and the two rivers. The most important hidden meaning and the most difficult to understand in this book is the title itself, A Separate Peace. This novel is about a group of teenagers’ …show more content…
Finny’s fall though, like the title, has its own hidden symbolic meaning. Finny’s fall is symbolic for the fall from innocence. Finny himself is symbolic for the carefree youth in the world. His fall is the start of the winter session, which in turn is the end of the summer session. During the summer session, the teachers were very lenient with everyone, the boys were having great amounts of fun, and they were exceling in their sports and academics. Finny basically made his own world for everyone to live in, where there is only good and excitement in the world. In Finny’s world nobody even thought about the war, it never came to realization for them. After Finny falls and the winter session is in session, the world that he created is destroyed. The teachers become strict; the boys realize that there is a war and that they will have to join the army to fight it in soon. The boys go from carefree children to adults that are aware of the real world and its happenings. So Finny’s literal fall is symbolic for the figurative fall from

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