A Separate Peace John Knowles English Literature Essay

B. I don’t think this place the story could take place at any other time because the timing of this was perfect because the timing tied in with the story and so if you had it during like the Vietnam War it couldn’t have tied in with the story.

C. Yes, the setting does change throughout the story the story goes from the school Devon, to the beach, to when Gene left the school to go back home, to when he went to Finny’s house, and then he went back to Devon.

D. The reason for the changes are that Gene and Finny decided to go to the beach even though they weren’t allowed to and the reason Gene left school was because it was a break and Gene went to Finny’s house because he wanted to explain why he jounced the tree limb, and lastly he went back to Devon to finish his school year and graduate.

6. The basic plot of the story is that a boy named Gene who is smart and there is an athletic boy named Finny. Gene and Finny become best friends. Eventually, Gene gets jealous of Finny’s athletic abilities and so he thinks there’s a rivalry between them. Then he finds out that there isn’t one between them and when he finds that out he is about to go jump off the tree for his secret club and so he shakes the branch that him and Finny are on and so Finny falls of the tree and break his bone. Then, Gene finds out that Finny can’t play sports anymore and then he feels bad. Then the summer session is over and so Gene goes home and when he is coming back to Devon he goes to Finny’s house to say sorry to him but Finny denies that Gene did it on purpose. After that, Gene comes back to Devon. Then Finny decides that Gene is going to take his place in athletics and so Finny starts training Gene for the Olympics. After that happens Brinker holds a trial because he thinks Gene did push Finny off the big tree. While the trial is going on Finny realizes that Gene really did push him off the tree on purpose and so Finny is walks out of the room and as he is walking he falls on the staircase and breaks his leg again. Then Finny dies while being operated on because some of his bone marrow goes into his blood stream. Then Gene thinks about all the things Finny had taught him and then the book ends.

7. A. The opening scene of the book is Gene that is older having a flashback and thinking about how his life was during his school years. Also, the opening scene includes Finny and Gene not coming to dinner and then being caught for skipping dinner but then Finny talks his way out of trouble.

B. What is most important about the opening scene is the part where Gene says that he was changed at Devon because that is a fundamental part in the story because it shows that Gene likes this school a lot and that he has been through a lot at this school.

C. The opening scene does set the stage for the rest of the book because in the opening scene it tells you about how Gene was at Devon and how he went through many difficult times at that school and so you know that the school is going to be an important part in the story.

8. A. The closing scene of the book is when Finny dies from the bone marrow getting into the blood stream. The rest of the closing scene is when Gene thinks about all the things that Finny had taught him and how he wouldn’t be the same if he hadn’t met Finny.

B. What is most important about the closing scene is the part where Gene thinks about all the things Finny had taught him. The reason for this being the most important is because since he was remembering things about Finny it shows that he really does like Finny and that he doesn’t hate Finny it shows that he does feel guilty about causing Finny’s death.

C. I think the closing scene does fit with the theme of the work because the theme of this book is dealing with having feelings that you never thought that you had and this fits with the closing scene because in the closing scene Finny dies because of his broken bone’s bone marrow and the reason Finny had broken his bone again was because he realized that Gene did negative feelings towards him and that Gene had pushed him off the tree on purpose and when he was deep in thought about that he didn’t notice he was on by the staircase and he fell down it because he had been too busy thinking about Gene’s true feelings.

9. A. The main characters in the story are Finny and Gene. What distinguishes Finny from everyone else is that he is very athletic and what distinguishes Gene from everyone else is that he is much more intelligent than most people.

B. The characters are believable because there are many people in the world who are much more intelligent than others and there are also many people who are much more athletic than others so they are believable characters.

C. An important minor character is Brinker. The purpose Brinker serves is to be like a literary foil of Finny and he is the one who decides to have a trial about the cause of Finny’s accident. Another important minor character is Leper who is a peaceful guy and because of him going to war early and coming back “insane” Finny is forced to believe in the war and that is his purpose in the story.

10. A. The basic conflict in this book is that Gene becomes jealous of Finny and then makes Finny fall off a tree and break his bone because he is jealous. The reason Gene is jealous of Finny is because of Finny’s amazing athleticism and his great personality.

B. The major conflict in this story is an internal conflict.

C. There are many other conflicts in this story. One minor conflict in this story is World War II. World War II goes on all throughout the book and it is constantly used by the author. Another minor conflict in this story is that Gene doesn’t want to enlist in the war and so he is the only one in his grade who hadn’t enlisted.

11. The theme of this book is betrayal.

12. The major symbols of this book are the big tree that Gene and Finny jumped off of

B. The big tree stands for revenge to me because the big tree is where Gene made Finny break his bone because Gene was jealous of Finny.

13. The title means that there are different types of peace you can have. For example, you can have peace like when you end a war and there is peace or when you are calm and nonviolent that can be peaceful too. I think this title means that there is going to be a separate type of peace apart from the peace after the war that is going on.

B. The significant clues that the title gives to the meaning of the story are that from the title you know that the story isn’t going to be about the peace after the war it is going to be about peace between something on a smaller scale like between two people.

C. Yes the title is related to one of the aspects of the book. The aspect of the book that the title is related to is the setting because the setting is Devon during WWII and when there is a world war going on in the book you would think that the peace was going to be about the war but the title says separate so then you understand that it means a peace that is not from the war.

14. A. The tone of the book is a sad and guilty tone.

B. The tone of the book changes from being happy in the beginning to sad and guilty after the climax to resentment at the end of the book.

C. The passages that you can figure out the tone of the book are the passage after Finny falls off the tree and the passage at the end where it talks about how Gene remembering all the things he had learned from Finny.

15. The time of this novel is mostly flashbacks because from page fourteen to about the end of the book because in the beginning he goes to the school and then he remembers all the things that he had done in the school and everything he remembers is one big flashback and that flashback is the book.

16. The main characteristics of the author’s style are varying sentence length, using similes, and only having a first person point of view.

17. I think the author wrote this book because he wanted to entertain readers and because he wanted to teach people about how people really are even though. I think he is trying to say that even if people seem nice you can never really tell if they are or not.

B. The ultimate purpose the author hoped to accomplish by writing this book is to show the reader that during the war was going on there were many other struggles people were going through.