Summary of A Separate Peace by John Knowles Essay examples -- A Separa

Summary of A Separate Peace by John KnowlesAs the novel opens, ingredient Forrester returns to Devon, the New Hampshire boarding domesticate he attended during World War II. Gene has not seen Devon for 15 years, and so he notices the ways in which the school has changed since he was a student there. Strangely, the school seems newer, but perhaps, he thinks, the buildings atomic number 18 just burst taken care of now that the war is over.Gene walks through the campus on a bleak, rainy November afternoon, revisiting the buildings and fields he remembersand especially two places he recalls as fearful sites. At the First Academic Building, he enters the dorm to look closely at the white marble steps. Then he trudges across the moulding fields to the river in search of a grumpy tree and finally recognizes it by its coherent limb over the pee and the scars on its trunk. The tree, he thinks, is smaller than he remembers. The chapter section ends with Gene presence back to shelter through the rain.The second section opens during the summer of 1942 when Gene is 16. He is attending a special Summer Session at Devon, designed to speed up education to prepare the boys for the military lottery in their senior year.Gene stands at the same tree with his better friend and roommate, Phineas (nicknamed Finny), and three other boys, Elwin Lepellier (Leper), Chet Douglass, and Bobby Zane. The tree seems enormous to Gene, but Finny perfectly decides to climb it and jump into the river, just like the Devon 17 year olds, who are training for military service. Finny jumps and dares Gene to follow. Against his better judgment, Gene climbs the tree and also jumps, but the three others refuse. .The shared danger of jumping brings Finny and Gene closer. epoch the rest of the boys hurry ahead at the sound of the bell for dinner, the roommates playfully wrestle until they are tardily for the meal. They slip into the dormitory, where they read their English assignments and p lay their radio (against school rules), until it is time for bed. Ch 2The morning after the boys scratch jump from the tree, Mr. Prudhomme, a substitute Master for the summer, scolds Gene and Finny for missing dinner. Finny tells Mr. Prudhomme that they were late because they were jumping out of the tree to prepare for military servicea far-fetched excuse he weaves into a long, funny explanation. Finnys friendly piffle c... ...e he prefers. Gene explains that he is planning to join the Navy in order to avoid being drafted into the infantry, while Brinker, too, has made a conscientious choice, deciding on the relative safety of the Coast Guard. This disgusts Mr. Hadley, who urges them to think active how their military service will sound when they talk about it in the future. The safest choice may not be the wisest choice in the long run, he explains.Afterward, Brinker complains of his fathers hearty enthusiasm for war service, especially since the older generation will not face any adventure in the war that Brinker insists they caused. Brinkers thinking reminds Gene of Finnys conjecture about the fake-war conspiracy of fat old men. But for himself, Gene decides that the war arose from something ignorant within humanity itself.As Gene empties his locker to leave alone Devon for military service, he thinks of Finny and their friendship, which still remains a vital embark on of his life. Later, from his adult perspective, Gene believes that his war actually ended before he ever entered military service. He sees now that he killed his enemy at Devon, while Finny, always unique, never saw anyone or anything as his enemy.