A Separate Peace is John Knowles' first published novel, released in 1959.^[1] The work is Knowles' most widely-known, and is a coming-of-age novel. John Knowles (September 16, 1926 - November 29, 2001), b. ... For other uses, see Coming of Age (disambiguation). ...

Plot summary

One of Finny's ideas during Gene's "Sarcastic Summer" of 1942 is to create a "Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session", with Gene and himself as charter members. He also creates a game called "Blitz Ball", (the name being derived from the term blitzkrieg [lightning attack], appropriate as the story is written in a World War II setting). Finny creates a rite of induction by having members jump into the Devon River from a large, high tree.

As the summer progresses Gene becomes resentful of Finny's constant and distracting presence, which Gene feels causes him to flunk an exam. Gene convinces himself that Finny is deliberately trying to destroy Gene's academic career. That night, Finny decides that he and Gene should jump together. While on the limb, with Finny about to jump, Gene jounces the limb. There is no elaboration; his actions are bluntly stated and regretted soon after they are committed. As a result of Gene's act of jealousy, Finny loses his balance, falls out of the tree, and breaks his leg. It is too late for Gene to realize that he "was not of the same quality" as Finny; that Gene is suspicious and tends to see ulterior motives where there are none. Gene contemplates his action while Finny slowly recovers.

The only time he shows any anger towards Gene is when Gene first tries to confess to knocking Finny off the tree. Finny refuses to believe it, more wounded by that attempted confession in some ways than he was by the act itself. Upon his return, Finny begins to create a fantasy world of sorts around him to avoid facing the war, whose existence he emphatically denies ("Don't be a sap. There is no war."). Finny is "the essence of this careless peace". Because his leg injury prevents him from engaging in sports activity, Finny encourages Gene to build up his own physical strength and athletic prowess. He even trains Gene for the possible 1944 Winter Olympics, which ended up being cancelled due to the war. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... A runner carries the Olympic torch The Winter Olympic Games, Winter Olympics for short but more correctly The Olympic Winter Games, are the cold-weather counterpart to the Summer Olympic Games. ...

The action comes to a head when another student, Brinker Hadley, drags Gene and Finny into a class room and puts them on trial to determine Finny's "casualty". They try to force the two to confront the truth of how and why Finny broke his leg. Leper Lepellier (once soft and quiet, now mentally imbalanced from his experience in the war) is called in, and he recalls the jump as he saw it, saying the two boys moved "like an engine", as in one went up and one went down. Finny runs from the room and falls down a nearby flight of stairs, cleanly breaking his injured leg. Gene tries to go to the infirmary and see Finny, but Finny is furious with him and will not see him. Gene walks around the campus that night as if he were a ghost. The next morning, Gene sees Finny and they reconcile their differences: Gene admits that he made Finny fall, but only because it came from some impulse he could not control. Finny accepts this quite easily and forgives him, but Gene is still unsure of his excuse and is not sure if he purposely caused Finny's fall. Gene leaves Finny, waiting for Finny to come out of surgery to set the bone, and meets the doctor afterwards. The doctor informs Gene that during the operation some bone marrow from Finny's leg went through his blood stream and to his heart, killing him. Gene takes the news as a shock, but never cries about Finny. For the Dir en grey album, see The Marrow of a Bone. ...

Gene reflects that Finny's death was a result of Gene's hatred and jealousy towards him. He explains that there is a point in everyone's life when they realize that there is evil in the world and that they must fight their inner demons to control themselves. It is at that time when one's innocence is lost forever. Only Phineas was innocent, and although this made him unique, Gene believes it eventually led to his demise. For other uses, see Hate (disambiguation). ... Jealous redirects here. ...

Brinker Hadley

Brinker is an elitist student leader. Brinker is, in some ways, a foil to Finny's character. He is also a charismatic student leader, but his devotion is to order and rules, while Finny's is to spontaneity and anarchic fun. While Finny embodied the spirit of the "summer session", Brinker is the king of the winter session, with its return of discipline and constant reminders of approaching war. A noted "joker", he is the first to accuse Gene of causing Phineas's accident. Later in the novel, Brinker organizes a "trial" with his cronies to "uncover the facts" behind Finny's accident. Brinker's name is symbolic, as he tends to push people "to the brink"; this is demonstrated many times in the book, most obviously during Gene's trial. For other uses, see foil. ...

Elwin "Leper" Lepellier

Leper is the isolationist of the novel who was often ridiculed by fellow classmates. He was present when Finny "fell" from the tree. Eventually Leper, surprising his classmates, enlists in the army and then deserts during a mental breakdown (and also to avoid a Section 8 discharge), and returns home to Vermont. He then returns to school to hide as he is suffering from insanity brought on by his breakdown in the military. He is present when Finny slips down the marble staircase and breaks his leg again. His name is symbolic of his personality. Sufferers of leprosy are called "lepers" and are isolated from society. Similarly, Leper is an isolated person, avoiding social interaction whenever possible. After deserting, Leper suffers from the same hallucinations that had brought his mental breakdown to the surface while still in the army. The hallucinations mostly concern transformations: men into women, chair arms into human arms. This illustrates both the turmoil which the war causes in the boys, and the transformation that they face in the Army and the war. The term Section 8 refers to a discharge from the United States military for reason of being mentally unfit for service. ... For the malady found in the Hebrew Bible, see the article Tzaraath. ...

Major themes

The novel also touches on themes of innocence and its loss. Devon is an area of separate peace during World War II. Even after the incident with the tree, Finny thinks that he fell out of the tree by accident, suggesting that one's innocence can (to some extent) remain true in the face of pain and work. His death, caused by bone marrow from his leg moving to and blocking his heart, can figuratively be seen as Gene breaking Finny's heart. Innocence is a term that describes the lack of guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. ...

After Finny dies, Gene realizes that Finny's outlook on life and other people is justified and is superior to his own. He remarks that everyone is in a constant mental state of alert that is unnecessary, and that sometimes this becomes an obsession that hinders their every action.

Allusions and references from other works

• In the movie Sideways, an excerpt from A Separate Peace (in which Gene reflects on Finny's death) is being read aloud in Miles' English class. The film centers on a week-long misadventure of two college-alum friends, Miles and Jack, and a friendship that bears similarities to Gene and Finny; many events in the film are symbolic references to the novel.^{[citation needed]}
• In Paul Russell's novel The Coming Storm, A Separate Peace is used as a text in English class, and falls out of a tree into the Devon River.
• In The Simpsons, the episode "Mother Simpson" features a discussion between Lisa and Grandma Simpson about the book.
• In Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower Charlie reads A Separate Peace for his English teacher.
• In Perfect by Natasha Friend, the main character is reading A Separate Peace for English.
• The book is listed a favorite of businessman Bill Gates.^[2]

Sideways is a 2004 Academy Award-winning and Golden Globe Award-winning comedy/drama film, co-written and directed by Alexander Payne. ... The Coming Storm book cover The Coming Storm, is a 1999 novel by Paul Russell. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... Mother Simpson is the eighth episode of The Simpsons seventh season. ... The Perks of Being a Wallflower (often referred to as TPoBaW) is an epistolary novel written in the 1990s by American novelist Stephen Chbosky. ... For other persons named Bill Gates, see Bill Gates (disambiguation). ...

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article entitled A Separate Peace (TV movie). (Discuss)

• In 1972 it was adapted into a movie starring Parker Stevenson and John Heyl.
  • A Separate Peace (1972) at the Internet Movie Database.
• It was later adapted into a made-for-TV movie by Showtime in 2004.
  • A Separate Peace (2004) at the Internet Movie Database.

Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Parker Stevenson born Richard Stevenson Parker (born on June 4, 1952 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American television actor. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ... This article is about the pay TV channel. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ... Peter Yates (born 24 July 1929 in Aldershot, Hampshire) is an English film director and producer. ... Bullitt is a 1968 action crime mystery thriller film starring Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn and Jacqueline Bisset, with Don Gordon, Robert Duvall, Carl Reindel, Felice Orlandi, Vic Tayback, Pat Renella, Paul Genge, Bill Hickman, Norman Fell and Brandy Carroll. ... Murphys War DVD Murphys War is a 1971 film starring Peter OToole as Murphy. ... A sly comic caper directed by Peter Yates, The Hot Rock stars Robert Redford, George Segal, and Moses Gunn. ... The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a film starring Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, and Alex Rocco. ... For Petes Sake is a 1974 American comedy film that stars Barbra Streisand, Michael Sarrazin and Estelle Parsons. ... Categories: Possible copyright violations ... The Deep is a 1977 film directed by Peter Yates based on the novel by Peter Benchley. ... Breaking Away is a 1979 film which tells the story of a group of local boys from Bloomington, Indiana who put together a bicycle racing team to compete against teams from Indiana University. ... Eyewitness is a 1981 thriller film about a television news reporter and a janitor who team up to solve a murder. ... Krull is a 1983 heroic fantasy film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Ron Silverman. ... The Dresser is a 1983 film which tells the story of an aging actors personal assistant, who struggles to keep his charges life together. ... Eleni is the 1985 film adaptation of the memoir Eleni by Greek-American journalist Nicholas Gage. ... Suspect is a 1987 crime thriller set in Washington D.C. starring Cher as Kathleen Riley, the Defense Attorney for a deaf-mute vagrant, played by Liam Neeson, who is accused of murdering the secretary of a judge who has recently committed suicide. ... This article or section seems not to be written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia entry. ... The Year of the Comet is a 1992 romantic comedy thriller about the pursuit of the most valuable bottle of wine in history: the title refers to the year it was bottled, 1811, which was known for the Great Comet of 1811. ... Roommates is a 1995 film, starring D.B. Sweeney, Peter Falk and Julianne Moore. ... The Saint was a long-running ITC mystery-cum-spy thriller, airing in Britain on ITV between 1962 and 1969. ... This article is about the 1960s TV series which was also known as Secret Agent and shouldnt be confused with the 1990s television series Secret Agent Man. ...

References

2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 80th day of the year (81st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

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