A Separate Peace And A Real Wa
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In his book A Separate Peace John Knowles communicates what war really is. He uses a number of complex characters in a very complicated plot in order to convey the harsh, sad, cruel, destructive forces of war. The Characters Gene and Finny are used as opposing forces in a struggle between that cold reality of war-that is World War II in this story-and a separate peace. A peace away from the real war and all of the terrible things that come with it. Through their relationship, that is a struggle on both sides form the beginning, Knowles establishes the reality of war in all of its essence.
Gene Forrester is established as the force of reality which is the war. This idea is established ...
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forever. (32)
This statement explains that Gene must have something that is his “stamp.” This stamp appears to define an individual-exemplifying what he stands for. It is found that this is true in the next paragraph where Gene continues, “For me, this moment-four years is a moment in history-war the war. The war was and is reality for me. I still live and think in its atmosphere” (32). Later in the same paragraph he goes on to say:
America is not, never has been, and never will be what the songs and poems call it, a land of plenty. Nylon, meat, gasoline, and steel are rare. There are too many jobs and not enough workers. Money is very easy to earn but rather hard to spend, because there isn’t very much to buy. . .The war will always be fought very far away from America and it will never end. Nothing in America stands still for very long, including the people, who are always either leaving or on leave. (32)
This is what Gene stands for in the story of A Separate Peace. Gene ...
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first. Finny allows Gene to jump first. This is where there is a foreshadow of the fall from the separate peace:
We were standing on a limb, I a little farther out than Finny. I turned to say something else, some stalling remark, something to delay even a few seconds more, and then I realized that in turning I had begun to lose my balance. There was a moment of total, impersonal panic, and then Finny’s hand shot out and grabbed my arm, and with my balance restored, the panic immediately disappeared. (24)
In this instance Finny is able to save Gene from falling out of his world into Gene’s “reality.” The idea of Gene understanding that this is really Finny’s world comes at the ...
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A Separate Peace And A Real Wa. (2007, December 6). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Separate-Peace-And-Real-Wa/75426
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"A Separate Peace And A Real Wa." Essayworld.com. December 6, 2007. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Separate-Peace-And-Real-Wa/75426.
"A Separate Peace And A Real Wa." Essayworld.com. December 6, 2007. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Separate-Peace-And-Real-Wa/75426.
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