Mitch-A+Separate+Peace

 **A Separate Peace**  **-John Knowles-** ** John Knowles (1923-2001) ** John Knowles was born in Fairmount, West Virginia on September 16th, 1923. When Knowles was about 15, he left home to go to Philips Exeter Academy (Language). After graduating from Exeter in 1945, Knowles was then accepted into Yale University where he obtained his bachelor's degree (Language). " The best teaching I ever experienced was at Exeter. Yale was a distinct letdown afterward" (Knowles). After graduating from Yale, Knowles worked as a journalist and a free-lance writer from the about 1950 to 1956 (Language). A free-lance writer is someone who doesn't work for an employer and works when ever and however they want. During this period, he traveled Europe and began to write short stories. "In 1957 Knowles became an associate editor at Holiday Magazine" (Language). His first published novel, A Separate Peace, had so much success that he was able to quit his position at Holiday Magazine and devote the rest of his life to traveling and writing fiction (Language). A Separate Peace was based upon John Knowles’ own experiences and acquaintances that he had when he went to PhillipsExeterAcademy (Knowles). Knowles has published eight other novels, a travel book, and a collection of stories. He was the recipient of the William Faulkner Award and the Rosenthal Award of the National Institute of Arts and Letters (Knowles 205). Knowles also was given the position of writer-in-residence at both Princeton Universityand the Universityof North Carolina, and has also given lectures at schools across the country. He died on November 29th, 2001 (Language). __ The information in the biography of John Knowles was found in these sites: __ Knowles, John. __A Separate Peace__. New York: Scribner, 1959. Knowles, John. "A Special Time, a Special School" __Phillips Exeter Academy__. February 24th, 2009. Phillips Exeter Academy. March 9th, 2009. http://www.exeter.edu/libraries/4513_4621.aspx#top Language Arts: Novel Guides-John Knowles. __ClassZone.__ CLASSZONE. March 9th 2009 http://www.classzone.com/novelguides/authors/knowles.cfm 

 Gene Forrester and Phineas (Finny) are best friends at Devon Prep School. It is their senior year and it is almost all fun and games until the accident. W ith friends leaving for the war, and a friendship in jeopardy, Gene doesn’t know what he can do to keep his friendships at Devon last. ** Summary of the Book **  <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #07771a; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">__A Separate Peace__ is the story told by Gene Forrester as he returns, after 15 years, to Devon Prep School in New Hampshire and recalls the events that took place during the summer of 1942. As a 16 year old in a boarding school, Gene, the smart, quiet, and obedient one spent most of his time with his best friend, Phineas, also known as Finny. They are an inseparable pair and are faced with many challenges during their last year at Devon School including being drafted into WWII and keeping their friendship together. The book starts with Gene Forrester as he returns to his old high school, 15 years later, in New Hampshire, where he was a student with his best friend, Finny. During this time WWII had just begun. He went to places that brought up large memories. After this the book goes back 15 years into the past when Phineas and Gene were both 16. They and their friends were daring each other to jump off a massive tree into the river. Finny and Gene were the only ones who did it. Jumping out of the tree became a tradition between Finny and Gene. <span style="font-size: 110%; color: #07771a; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">In Chapter 2, Finny and Gene created the “Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session” which is a group of kids that does dangerous things and holds a meeting every night. At the beginning of each meeting members have to jump into the river off the tree. When Finny and Gene jumped off together, Gene slipped and Finny caught him. Later Gene realized that Finny saved his life without wanting anything in return.
 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Plot Synopsis   **

In Chapter 3, Finny convinced Gene to go to the beach with him. They were there all day and by the time they returned Gene had no time to study for his exam the next day which he failed. That night Finny said that Gene was his best friend. Gene couldn’t say the same thing back. He thought that Finny’s reason to go to the beach was to make Gene fail his exam so that there wouldn't be anything that Gene was better than Finny at. <span style="color: #07771a; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"> Finny was the best athlete and Gene was the best at academics at Devon. But since, Finny always took up a lot of Gene's time, his grades started to drop. When Finny tried to get Gene to stop studying to watch their friend, Leper Lepellier, jump out of the tree, in Chapter 4, Gene yelled at Finny for the first time because he thought that it was another way of Finny’s to sabotage Gene’s grades. However, Gene finally ended up going to the tree with Finny and when him and Finny prepared to jump out of the tree together, Gene shook the branch causing Finny to lose his balance and fall off and brake his leg. <span style="font-size: 110%; color: #07771a; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">In Chapter 5 Dr. Stanpole informed that Finny’s leg had been shattered and he will never be able to do sports again. When Gene went to the infirmary, or hospital at the school, Gene was about to tell Finny the truth and how his leg really broke but he never had the chance. Finny was sent home to heal. Finny called Gene later and convinced him that if he wasn't doing sports, than Gene was. Summer Session at Devon ended and Gene returned home.

Pressure of enlisting came over Gene and his friends and Gene feelt like he should enlist in the war. Finny returned to Devon early him and Gene got into arguments about enlisting in the war and Gene not doing sports like he said. It all amounted to Finny wanting to train Gene for the 1944 Olympics. Every morning they woke up and Finny had Gene run laps. Soon Gene discovered that athletics came easy to him as well as Finny.

In Chapter 9, Leper Lepellier decided that he would enlist in the American Ski Troop and leaves the next week. He is the first of Gene and Finny’s class to go. A few weeks later, Gene received a telegram from Leper saying that he escaped from the war and needed to see Gene as soon as possible.

When Gene went to see Leper he found out that the war drove him crazy and he left because he was about to be discharged because of mental helath. When Gene got back from Vermont, Brinker confronted him about Finny's accident, and said they should get everything into the open, which Gene disagrees with. Later that night, Brinker dragged Gene and Finny to a builing where Brinker and his friends were holding a cross-examination on the accident where Finny broke his leg. When Finny or Gene wouldn't say anything, Leper was brought and revealed the truth about what actually happened and how Finny fell out of the tree. In a rage Finny ran out, fell down the stairs, and broke his leg again.

Much happens in the next few chapters of the book that twists and alters the story. Tragedy occurs leaving readers astonished and surprised. To find out what happens, read the book! __ All of the information in "Summary of the Book” was found in: __ <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Knowles, John. __A Separate Peace__. New York: Scribner, 1959. ** There were many things that made this book great. One of the reasons why the book is great is the way that Knowles starts the book off with the main character as an adult. Then as the book progressed, the reader could see how the main character grew up and why he went to the places where he went when he visited his old school when he was older and what the significance of these places were to the main character. It is also a good thing that the author had this at the beginning because it foreshadowed, a little bit, what was going to happen later in the book. An example of when he foreshadows is when he said “nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even death by violence” (Knowles 14).
 * What worked?

Another thing that worked well in __A Separate Peace__ is that the reader knows that all of the information given about the school is accurate because the author, John Knowles, also went to a boarding school and many of the characters were based upon his friends (Knowles). So the reader knows that what they are reading is the actual feelings and emotions that are going through the characters’ minds and not something made up.

One last thing that was good about the book was Knowles’ use of religion in the book. Even though Finny doesn’t do what he is told or follow the rules he still takes the time to pray every night (Knowles 20. This is an example to Gene who does the same. This worked in the book because it shows that even through the war and everything that is going on they still have hope for the future and it shows that someone can be a careless rule-breaker and still do things that they believe will help them in the long run. __ Some of the information in "What Worked" was found in:   __  Knowles, John. "A Special Time, a Special School" __Phillips Exeter Academy__. February 24th, 2009. Phillips Exeter Academy. March 9th, 2009. http://www.exeter.edu/libraries/4513_4621.aspx#top **  What didn’t work?  **<span style="font-size: 110%; color: #07771a; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Although the book is very good, there are still some things that could be changed to make it easier to understand or a better, more interesting story. For example, the way that Knowles portrayed Finny’s death was not very interesting. It said in the book that a piece of bone marrow got into his bloodstream killing him (Knowles 193). <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #07771a; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Another thing that didn’t work well is how Gene’s temper started to elevate and he got angrier as the book progressed. An example of this is when he got into a fight with another student because the student was ignorant and said something about Finny and Gene that he knew nothing about (Knowles 79). That didn’t work well because it showed that as Finny and Gene got farther and farther separated, it became easier for Gene to lose control. However when the reader first learns about Gene, he seems like a very reserved and in controlled person.

**<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #000080; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Literary Information ** __ Book: __ __A Separate Peace__ __ Author: __ John Knowles __ Type of Work: __ Novel __ Genre __ : Coming-of-age-story; tragedy __ Narrator: __ Gene Forrester __ Point of View: __ First Person __ Setting: __ The story starts in 1958 but flashes back to 1942-1943. Takes place in the Devon School, a prep school in New England __ Protagonist: __ Gene Forrester __ Symbols: __ WWII, Finny’s fall __ All of the information in “Literary Information” was found in: __ <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Knowles, John. __A Separate Peace__. New York: Scribner, 1959. “A Separate Peace (Key Facts)”. __Spark Notes.__ 24th March 2009. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/separate/facts.html Good Quotes from the Novel ** “Plus c'est la même chose, plus ça change” (Knowles 14). (The more things remain the same, the more they change)
 * <span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #eaff00; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">

“When you truly love something, then it loves you back, in whatever way it has to love” (Knowles 111).

“It wasn’t the cider that made me surpass myself, it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special, and separate peace” (Knowles 137).

“One wave is followed by another even larger and more powerful, when the tide is coming in” (Knowles 110).

“ I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there. Only Phineas never was afraid, only Phineas never hated anyone” (Knowles 204).

“Wars were not made by generations and their special, stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart (Knowles 201).

__All of the information in "Good Quotes from the Novel” was found in:__ <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Knowles, John. __A Separate Peace__. New York: Scribner, 1959.  **<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #28482d; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"> Why is this Book Outstanding? ** __A Separate Peace__ is an outstanding book because it is a book that many can relate to, especially 10th graders who are in the same age group as Finny and Gene were. It is a story of friendships, adventure, and tragedy. People can relate because a lot of people have a best friend or had one and knows what it is like to share experiences with that friend and make memories. The book also appeals to a large audience of people.

This was chosen for the “Outstanding Books for the College Bound” because of its writing style, plot, and knowledge. Knowles uses many large and confusing words that are definitely at a college level. Words like infinitesimal, cordial, and entrenched (Knowles 75, 35, 33). The plot of the book is that people need to overcome the monsters inside of them. These monsters include wars (WWII for instance), personal wars, hate, envy, fear, and pride. In the sense of knowledge, the reader can tell that Knowles is a very knowledgeable person by the way he rights about the war and the things that are going on at the time that Finny and Gene were at school. The reader needs to know and be educated in these kind of things to fully understand __A Separate Peace.__ __Some of the information in "Why is this book outstanding” was found in:__ <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Knowles, John. __A Separate Peace__. New York: Scribner, 1959. ** Why Read __A Separate Peace__? ** There are many reasons to read __A Separate Peace.__ People should read this book because it appeals to a large audience, it teaches great lessons, and it has a great storyline and plot. People who would find interest in this book would be people looking into a military career, people who were once in the military, teenagers who have best friendships like Finny’s and Gene’s, people who have lost someone close to them, or people who are looking for a great book to read to pass the time! __A Separate Peace__ is a good book because it teaches great lessons like always look at what you’re qualities are and not someone else, it is important to have close friends, life is short so be sure to get all there is to offer out of it, and don’t push your friends out of trees. This book is a good read because it teaches many great lessons, it appeals to a vast audience, and because it is a great book with a great plot. There are many great wikis that can inspire readers to try some different books or give readers more reasons why they should read __A Separate Peace:__ __A Separate Peace:__ __http://park204.wikispaces.com/Kyle+G+Knowles+A+Separate+Peace__ __http://park204.wikispaces.com/Kelsey279+Knowles+A+Separate+Peace__
 * Great Wikis: **

__A Death in the Family__ http://park204.wikispaces.com/Melissa+Agee%27s+A+Death+in+the+Family http://park204.wikispaces.com/Alyssa+K.+-+A+Death+In+The+Family

__The Chosen__ http://park204.wikispaces.com/Annika-The+Chosen%C2%A0

__Dracula__ http://park204.wikispaces.com/Dracula

__The Catcher in the Rye__ http://park204.wikispaces.com/Lisa+Catcher+in+the+Rye

__Great Expectations__ by Charles Dickens __Catcher in the Rye__ by J.D. Salinger __To Kill a Mockingbird__ by Harper Lee __The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn__ by Mark Twain __A Tree Grows in Brooklyn__ by Betty Smith __ Some of the information from “Books of the Same Genre” is found in: __ Lombardi, Esther. “Top 9 Coming of Age Novels”. __About.com: Classic Literature__. About.com. 24th March 2009. http://classiclit.about.com/od/novelbookreviews/tp/aatp_comingofag.htm
 * Books in the Same Genre (Coming-of-age genre): **

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