Shelby Gagneau Mrs. Brammer AP English 10-8-14 Choice #4 In the novel “A Separate Peace”, there were many examples of betrayal between characters. One of the most influential acts of betrayal throughout the novel was when Gene jounced the limb, causing Finny to fall, eventually ruining his career in sports forever. In Finny and Gene’s friendship there is so much betrayal between the two of them. It shows exactly how Gene and Finny really are as individuals, too. The setting, being during World War II, also plays a roll in how the characters think and react.
When is loses its power, chaos occurs. For example when Jack states, “And the conch doesn’t count at this end of the island−” (Golding, 166). They have an argument and begin a chant. Jack leads the chant and Simon crawls out of the forest to be brutally murdered by the boys. This shows that when a once huge symbolism of power loses its significance, mayhem takes place.
“[…] Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true wise friend called Piggy” (182). This quote shows that Ralph has realized that he will never be the dame since he lost his innocence and learned that evil is in all human beings. In Golding’s Lord of the Flies a group of boys gets crashed onto an island and struggles to survive. Ralph is entitled leader, but the Jack disagrees and decides to run his own group. The boys start to fight and have mini war.
So Gene is left with no other solution, but to forget about the accident. When Gene finally came back to the academy he decided to be an assistant senior crew manager, because he felt guilt and decided not to play sports. The usual crew managers are often kids with disabilities. So, when Quakenbush made fun of Gene, and he believed that his ignorance over those summers’ events was somehow insulting to Finny. So, Gene decided to take matter into his own hands and got into a physical confrontation with Quakenbush, for that moment he was Finny‘s protector.
While he entered the school hoping to achieve high grades and befriend many new people, his actions caused grief and guilt. Rooming at the school with his best friend Phineas, Gene becomes jealous of his very own friend. Finny’s perfect nature, athleticism, and ability to shrug off life all seemed crazy to Gene. The author characterizes Gene as a goodie two shoes; always following the rules and attempting to exceed in academics. The protagonist’s affection for his friend soon transformed into hate and spite.
Ponyboy just had to see Johnny kill Bob and that was enough to make him lose his innocence. People like Randy and Steve just resent and hate the world so much that that would cause them to lose their innocence as well. Someone could lose their innocence just by thinking bad thoughts. S.E. Hinton definitely does not agree with William Blake’s poem: The Lily because in The Lily, William Blake is saying that innocence cannot be abolished or destroyed.
In the book a Separate peace, rivalry negatively changes relationships throughout the characters actions. There are many characters in this book that face jealousy, rivalry and betrayal throughout the novel. The major character that faces jealousy is Gene; he got jealous of Finny throughout the novel which ends bad. Throughout the book Genes jealousy of Finny, results in death. First of all Gene’s first sight of jealousy of Finny was when he realized that Finny got away with everything he did.
A Separate Peace John Knowles is the writer of a Separate Peace. It is a book written in a unique style, its an old man coming back to his childhood school and the whole book is a flashback. His meaning of writing it was to show friendship verses the evil nature of man and how they intertwine. Gene and Finny had a intimate relationship Gene was a follower of Finny, Finny was the most athletic, daring, handsome kid in the school he was training for the Olympics. Jealousy overcame Gene one day and caused him to jounce a tree limb he and finny were jumping from therefore having finny land on the ground with a fractured leg.
This is one of the reasons for his mental break down. Holden sees the world as corrupt and wants to protect the children’s innocence. Holden cannot find a place for himself in the world. All of this leads to his downfall, consisting of his parents abandoning him, him not fitting in, and nobody wanting to be around him. A symbol from this novel is Holden’s red hunting hat.
Frankenstein’s Creature and the Elephant Man are both outcasts, thrown into a world where all despise and run in terror upon seeing them. When the creature tells his story of the day he escaped, he was confused and stumbled upon civilization where everyone screamed “monster” in horror. John Merrick was also ridiculed throughout the movie from being a circus act and later a peep show for local drunks. The book and the movie both take place in bad weather such as rain and knight to create a mood of fright. They are both abused by their owner, the creature was abandoned to learn for himself and Merrick had a Circus master who would beat him.