A Separate Peace

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Tara Nizamov Critical Lens Essay A Separate Peace The quote by Bob Marley, “The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.” is an accurate statement. It means that no matter what, someone is going to get hurt one way or another, so people just need to be able to forgive the person they care about most. It can be proven by comparing it to the books, A Separate Peace and Waiting for Normal. In A Separate Peace, two boys who are complete opposites form a friendship. Gene is a shy, ambition person who would rather focus on his studies. Phineas on the other hand, is spontaneous and would rather break the rules to enjoy life. In Waiting for Normal, Addie is a young girl who faces struggles in her life. These problems force her to grow up and take on responsibilities that she should not have to deal with at her age. A literal element from, A Separate Peace, that can prove the quote true would be irony. In the book, Phineas states that he and Gene are going to sign up for the army together and that he trusts Gene with his life. However, later on when Phineas and Gene were on the limb waiting for Leper, Gene shook the branch purposefully so Phineas would fall. Therefore, Gene was the one who ended up jeopardizing Phineas’ life even more. Another literary element that proves the quote true would be symbolism. In the beginning of the book, Gene visits two places, the marble staircase and the tree. These two places represent significant moments during his time at the Devon School. The tree represents two things to Gene. It was the start of his friendship with Phineas, and it was where he snapped. The marble staircase symbolized the hate that Gene felt towards Phineas and in the end it accidentally got Phineas killed. In the book, Waiting for Normal, conflict would be a literary element that proves
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