A Separate Peace Book Review Essay

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A Separate Peace Book Review It only takes one look at the cover and you will be enticed into reading A Separate Peace which is about a friendship between two boys that turns into the ultimate betrayal. A Separate Peace by Knowles was his first published novel in 1959 and his most well-known work. Every teenager can relate to the characters of both Gene and Finny within the novel. The story is told through the eyes of Gene, the protagonist, as he returns to his boarding school, Devon, in New Hampshire over fifteen years later. The novel takes place during World War II and tells the tale of a friendship between two teenage boys and delves into the themes of loyalty, malice, and betrayal. Gene represents the life of a young boy who is intelligent and finds himself envious of his best…show more content…
The struggle they face at Devon in the summer of 1942 force them to grow up and lose the innocence of their youth. Gene states “I couldn’t help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal.” (Knowles 25) Each turn of the page takes you deeper into Gene’s world from when he bent the branch while Finny was jumping off the tree into the river, to the fall of Finny down the marble steps. Each of these tragic events limits the athletic ability of Finny. The story draws you in like a kid to a candy bar and you feel Gene’s agony as he realizes his jealousy of Finny is unfounded. The author shows Gene’s growth throughout the novel as he tells Finny that he is the one who shook the branch and pushed him out of the tree and caused his leg to break. The author uncovers the darker side of humans in a mere two hundred pages that is riveting. Gene realizes his resentment towards Finny and his natural charm are unsubstantiated and that Finny has always wanted the best for Gene. The intensity of the novel escalates with each turn of the page as one dives deeper into its pages. Ultimately, Gene is a survivor and pulls through after he
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