Separate Peace Essay: Self-Examination in A Separate Peace :: Separate Peace Essays

Self-Examination A Separate Peace opens as constituent Forrester returns to Devon School, a New England prep school, about fifteen eld after he was in attendance there. World War II had just begun then and he remembers the Summer Suicide Society--an organization founded by his best friend, Finny, which devotes itself to initiating members by having them jump from the tree into the river. Gene and Finny always had to request the first jump from the tree. As time goes on, Gene begins to resent Finny because of his gymnastic talents and on one occasion, he jounces the limb so that Finny will fall. Finnys degree is shattered, preventing him from playing any sports, but Finny refuses to believe that Gene could have through with(p) this, even though Gene confesses. When Finny returns to school, he wants to develop Gene into a good athlete for the 1944 Olympics. As one of the many examples of opposing elements contrasted with each(prenominal) other, Gene tells Finny that sports are not important because of the war, which Finny refuses to believe. A while later, both(prenominal) boys from the prep school take Gene and Finny to a big congregation style, where they want to clear up the matter of Finnys broken leg. Gene realizes that he is being put on trial, Finny refuses to answer any questions because he trusts his friend, Finny leaves the room agitated, slips on the stairs, and breaks the same leg again. At the hospital, Finny has a changed attitude and asks Gene why he pushed him out of the tree. Gene says the act was a trick impulse. Later that day, Finny dies when some Qi bone marrow gets into his bloodstream. Looking brook on the experience, Gene believes that he was never very interested in the war because he was waging his own personal war between the espousal of the clearly defined prep school values and Finnys laid-back values. He had killed his enemy at school. Knowles book focuses on the adolescent period of life. Adolescence is a very con fusing time of life, primarily because a person fluctuates from absent to be a child and being innocent to wanting to be an adult and questioning life. Knowles emphasizes that both worlds of adolescent and adult life section many similarities and overlap often--they are not separate entities. Even in the green, neatly kept paradise of Devon School, there existed some areas of uncontrolled wilderness.