A Separate Peace
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- A Separate Peace - A Separate Peace Confidants in A Separate Peace People often change...
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- A Separate Peace - A Separate Peace A Separate Peace One of the most revered and...
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- A Separate Peace - A Separate Peace A Separate Peace by John Knowles begins 15 years...
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- A Separate Peace - A Separate Peace A Separate Peace John Knowles uses many different...
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- Separate Peace - Separate Peace In A Separate Peace, the main characters are foils of one...
Submitted by freefortermpapers on 06/24/2008 03:00 PM
- Category: Psychology
- Words: 651
- Pages: 3
- Views: 16
- Popularity Rank: 1072
A Separate Peace
There are several themes in the book A Separate Peace written by John Knowles. Some examples are loss of innocence, growing pains, and the phony world. It is easy to see how the main character losses innocence during summer school at Devon High. Some things that lead to the loss of innocence are self-responsibility, the loss of friends, and fighting for ones you care for. Some of the causes that led Gene to the loss of innocence are as follows.
Gene is afraid to be himself and take responsibility for his own actions just like a lot of teenagers today. "Otherwise I would have lost face with Phineas, and that would be unthinkable." (Gene, 26) For a person who has a friendship with someone and depends on them a lot to lose their friendship and reputation would be the least wanted. If Gene didn't jump out of the tree then he would start losing Finny as a friend. To Gene, his friendship with Finny is very important. If Gene loses it he will have to find for his own relationships and reputation. "Going there risked expulsion, destroyed the studying I was going to do, . . ., blasted the reasonable amount of order I wanted to maintain in my life, and it also involved the kind of long, labored bicycle ride I hated. All right.' I said" (Gene, 37) Going to the beach was risky, destroyed study time, blasted order in life, and the ride was long and tiring. Yet he gave in. Even though there were so many negative factors he still put Finny as his main priority. Gene is trying to avoid the fact that he has to stand for himself and what he wants and should do.
If a friendship is not equal on both sides than it is bound to crumble. "He minded, despised the possibility that I might be the head of the school. There was . . . one certainty after another blasted up like a detonation went the idea of any best friend, up went . . . sticking by someone and relying on someone absolutely in the jungle of a boy's school, up went the hope that there was anyone in this...
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