H/W 9/11 A Separate Peace

“We were careless and wild, and I suppose we could be thought of as a sign of the life the war was being fought to preserve….They noticed our games tolerantly. We reminded them of what peace was like, of lives which were not bound up with destruction.” (Knowles, 24). When Gene states this, it expresses the theme of freedom that will be carried on throughout the novel "A Separate Peace." Phineas, Gene, and all the other boys at the Devon School are considered lucky at this time in history, considering most others their age were off to fight in World War II. They are still young enough to have the freedom of choice, choosing to either join the troops or stay in their comfort zone and continue school. Although this sense of freedom wont last long because once they turn 18 they are bound to be drafted, they completely take advantage of the time they have left with each other in a place that, even though they may not always admit, they love. Finally, this quote expresses the war as a reality, saying that it is being fought to simply preserve a "sign of life." The boys at Devon are constantly being seen as reminders of life before the chaos of the war.

HW 9/10 ASP Summer Reading

There are many different ways in which the novel "A Separate Peace" is affected by World War II. The fact that this war was going on during such a vital time in these young boys lives unquestionably changed their outlook on many different aspects and made them think very differently about otherwise simple things. The characters in this book all had somewhat different ways of looking at the war, whether choosing not to believe it was even going on, or diving right in and enlisting as soon as possible. Finny had come up with his own way to look at the war, in some type of denial, saying it was only something made up by those in charge and able to convince others to go along with it. Even though his natural physical abilities had made him a perfect candidate for war, because of what he had always told himself, he didn't enlist until it was too late. Although Gene never truly believed Finny's theory, he went along with it until the war became so real to him that it couldn't be avoided. During this time, they saw many of those around them leave for war and things beginning to change.These are only a few examples of external conflicts the characters faced due to the war, but looking more deeply you will be able to see the internal conflicts that are also involved. Many boys in their time were unsure of what to do with their lives, like many teenagers even today, which caused them to turn to the only obvious choice, war. Those who felt they were "incapable" of certain things tended to join in order to find their "inner hero" which is somewhat what Gene tried to do throughout the whole novel. He searched for something that would make him rise above Finny, which proves the internal conflicts were greatly linked to the external conflict of war, although most were fighting wars against themselves. This novel is only a peek into the many ways war affects people of all ages, whether mentally or physically, even those in places that war seemed only to be a distant and irrelevent thing to their everyday lives. Without the war, in no way would this novel be considered a "masterpiece" of great depth and creativity.