Analysis on a Separate Peace

Analysis on A Separate Peace

Telgen states John Knowles was born on 16 September 1926, in Fairmont, West Virginia. At the age of fifteen, Knowles attended New Hampshire's prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy. The Devon school, where most of the actions of A Separate Peace take place, is based on Phillips Exeter.

After graduating from Exeter, Knowles entered Yale University for the 1944 fall term before going into the U.S. Army Air Force. After being discharged from service, he returned to Yale and continued his studies. In 1449 Knowles graduated with a B.A. in English. In 1953, Story Magazine published his first story, A Turn in the Sun. During the 1950's Knowles started to work on the novel that would become his most famous, A Separate Peace. However, getting the book published did not come easily at all. Turing the manuscript over to a literary agent, Knowles saw his book rejected by eleven publishers. Finally, in 1959, the London publisher Secker and Warburg agreed to put out the British edition of the novel. Following A Separate Peace, Knowles went out to publish other novels, including Morning in Antibes, The Paragon, and A Vein of Riches. In 1981, Knowles published Peace Breaks Out; the sequel to A Separate Peace.

Although A Separate Peace did not become an instant "best-seller", it has gradually become a commercial success, selling more than nine million copies (Telgen 241).

Gene Forrester returns to visit the campus of Devon School, an all-boys preparatory school in rural New Hampshire. Two locations bear a mysterious significance to him, the first being a marble staircase inside a classroom building. The second is beneath a tree growing near the Devon River. After standing outside, time moves back fifteen years to when Gene had still been a schoolboy standing near that same tree. His friend Finny urges him to climb its branches and jump off to simulate abandoning a torpedoed ship. At the time, World War II is waging on in the outside world. Despite his fear, Gene jumps out of its branches and into the river with Finny.

During a class session in the summer of 1942, Gene becomes increasingly paranoid of Finny who is also his roommate. He is the best at every sort of sport while Gene excels in academics and is not very athletic at all. Finally, he decides that Finny is just as jealous of him as he is of Finny. As this conflict unfolds within Devon's campus, the war continues in the outside with a greater fury. Gene's obsession with Finny becomes so overwhelming that, while jumping out of the tree again later in the summer, he shakes the branch to intentionally knock Finny out of the tree. Finny's leg is broken and he is unable to play sports again. Gene feels guilty about what he has done and tries to confess to Finny but he refuses to believe that Gene, his best friend, would ever hurt him.

Devon school becomes more disciplined and orderly as the Winter Session begins and, with Finny's absence due to his injury, Gene decides that he will leave Devon early in order to enlist in the military and fight in the war. But he wants to fight not for patriotism, but rather for the sake of committing violence. Finny returns to school unexpectedly on the crutches and discourages him from doing this. Their friendship becomes stronger as the two open up to one another. Gene tutors Finny in academics and Finny teaches him about sports. They both make great progress and forget about the war for a little while.

As the spring begins, Brinker Hadley suspects Gene of causing Finny's fall from the tree during that previous summer and holds a trail for the two. Finny realizes that his best friend really had knocked him off the branch purposely and is so upset that he falls down the same marble staircase that Gene visits fifteen years later. His recovering leg is broken again. Gene speaks to him in the school's infirmary and apologizes for what he has done. Finny forgives him and regrets that he himself can not enlist to fight in the war because of his leg. Gene assures him that he would be a terrible soldier anyway since he is so friendly and innocent. Finny then dies after a marrow leaks from the broken leg, causing his heart to stop.

A Separate Peace is associated with the concept of adolescent's failure to evil. Through Biblical allusion and character development, Knowles is able to demonstrate how easily it is for one to fall into the hands of evil without ever knowing.

Knowles is a master of characterization, which is best seen in his creation of Gene. Gene at fist is portrayed as a young innocent adolescent, but with time is perceived as a cold-hearted adolescent. The first session at school the boys forget about the war that is happening and enjoy the liberty they are given by the professors. They take full advantage and break just about any rule they can. As Halio states, "within this experience, another kind of war subtly emerges, a struggle between Gene, who is a good student and an able competitor in sports, and Finny, who is the school's champion athlete but poor at studying" (Halio 247). The crucial experience, which subdued Gene's innocence and permitted his evil side