A Separate Peace Essay, Research Paper

A Separate Peace Essay

Can a person really trust their friends? It does not matter how well a person thinks they know their friend. Their friend could still turn on them at any given time. This essay will analyze the novel ” A Separate Peace”, by John Knowles. In this essay I will discuss the theme, plot structure and why friends can not always trust each other. The novel “A Separate Peace” is a story about the lives of teens and how friendship and truth affected their lives, and why friends can not always trust each other.

After having read the novel ” A Separate Peace,” I am choosing irony as its plot structure. The reason why I chose this plot structure is because irony can relate to friends turning on each other. At the beginning of the story it looked like Gene looked up to Finny and idolized him. The outcome was actually Gene secretly hated Finny, he was envious and despised him. ” It was a courageous thing to say. Exposing a sincere emotion like that at the Devon School was the next thing to suicide. I should have told him then?. Perhaps I was stopped by that level of feeling deeper than thought, which contains the truth”(40). This quote shows how Gene could not tell Finny he was his “best pal” therefore showing how he secretly hated Finny.

The setting in the summer at the tree by the river is ironic because it is when we first find out Gene hated Finny and turned on him making Finny fall out of the tree. This is important because it shows how much Gene despised Finny. ” Holding firmly to the trunk? my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone? broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening unnatural thud”(52). This quote shows the importance of the setting at the tree by the river. The tree is the most important setting (scene) because after the incident at the tree the whole rest of the story evolved around that.

In the beginning I saw Gene on the same level as myself until he turned on Finny, then I changed my views. It was ironic because I was not expecting Gene to change. Now I look down upon Gene because of what he did to Finny. A reason why I look down on Gene is because of this quote: ” Over my cot I had? taped pictures?weepingly romantic views of plantation mansions, moss hung over trees by moonlight, lazy roads winding dustily past the cabins of the Negroes. When asked about them I had acquired an accent appropriate to a town three states south of my own?”(148). This quote shows how Genes life was a lie. Gene was making up a background of where he wanted to be, not where he was originally from.

The theme I came up with for the novel ” A Separate Peace” is friendships can come about just as often between people who don?t seem to have anything in common as between people who seem to enjoy and care about many of the same things. The comradeship between Gene and Finny is based on opposites. Even though what happened between Finny and Gene, they were still friends. ” I noticed something about Finny?s own mind, which was an opposite from mine”(26). This quote is ironic because Gene and Finny appear to be friends even though they are opposites and actually Gene secretly hates Finny.

A symbol that is ironic is the marble stairs. The stairs is where Finny fell and rebroke his leg which eventually caused him to go into surgery and die. If Gene had not turned on Finny none of this would have happened. This is ironic because Gene did not want Finny to die, but he made Finny fall out of the tree and brake his leg. If Gene did not make Finny fall out of the tree he would have never fallen down the stairs and rebrake his leg which caused him to go into surgery and die. ” Then these separate sounds collided into the general tumult of his body falling clumsily down the white marble stairs”(169). This quote shows Finny falling downstairs making him rebrake his leg.

In this essay my thesis was, “A Separate Peace” is a story about the lives of teens and how friendship and truth affected their lives, and why friends can not always trust each other. What I have gained from reading the novel ” A Separate Peace” is, no matter what a friend appears to be like on the outside there could be something they are hiding from you. I also learned that this novel relates to everyday society. No matter how good of friends you have you never know if they are holding anything against you.