A Separate Peace study guide
Chapter 1
A) Gene returns to Devon
Where is Devon ?
When was Gene last at Devon ?
B) Gene visits two places
1) FirstAcademyBuilding
Marble steps
“The worn moons in the middle of each stepwere not very deep. The marble must be unusually hard…It was surprising that Ioverlooked that crucial fact.” (p. 11) Foreshadowing
2) Second place he visits is ______which is a challenge, part of a rite of passage, a temptation, and a place where loss of innocence occurs
The middle of page 14 is where the ______begins
C) Devon as _ _ _ _
Chapter 2
A)______’s Attitude about War
Romantic Vision "I was reading in the paper that we bombed Central Europe for the first time the other day... Well, we've got to do something to celebrate. We haven't got a flag, we can't float Old Glory proudly out the window. So I'm going to wear this, as an emblem." (p. 25) What is “this”?
B)What is the Faculty’s Opinion of Finny? 23-27
C) Tea Party with Faculty
- Finny is totally at ease - Bombing discussion (Romantic)
"This time he wasn't going to get away with it. I could feel myself becoming unexpectedly excited at that." (p. 27)
What is "it"?
D) How does Finny help Gene on page 31?
Chapter 3
A) Summer Suicide Club -Finny creates the rules
B) Gene’s Growing Resentment
C) Finny’s Commandments (p. 35)
A.
B.
C.
D) Blitzball (p. 37)
-Description
-
-symbolism of the name
-another source of envy for Gene
E) Devon during WWII
-Rationing coupons
-plenty of cash but no goods to buy
- clothes and food in short supply
- sacrifice + conservation
F) “Too Good”
Who is A. Hopkins Parker ?
Why does Gene say“ You’re too good to be true” (p. 44)
G) Gene + Finny Go to Beach
-Gene has a test to study for
-Finny’s pronouncement that Gene is his best pal (p. 48)
-What does Gene say in response?
-Gene has to figure out a reason to dislike Finny
Chapter 4
A)Next morning on the Beach
-Finny asleep on beach ( foreshadows fall)
-“Finny was still asleep. Although in this drained light he looked more dead than asleep.” (49)
-Why is Gene angry? (p. 50)
B)Gene + Finny talk
How does Gene figure that he can be “even” with Finny? (52)
Who is Chet Douglass? (52)
What does Gene realize about Finny on the top of page 59?
C) The Fall
-Gene and Finny are planning a double jump.
-As Finny goes out onto the limb, Gene deliberately jounces the limb and Finny falls with a horrible thud.( Foreshadowed when Gene almost fell in chapter 2)
“Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny… swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest…”
-This is Gene’s spiritual fall from innocence
Chapter 5
A) Finny’s injury Shattered leg
B) How is the conversation on page 66 ironic?
C)Gene visits Finny at Finny’s home
Where does Finny live?
Where does Gene live?
“It struck me that I was injuring him again.” (70) How was Gene injuring Finny?
Chapter 6
A) How was Devon different in the fall than it was in the summer?
B) Symbolism of the rivers
Devon
Naguamsett
C) Who is Quackenbush
D) What happens on page 79? How is Gene “baptized”?
E) Finny calls Gene
-Why does Finny call?
What request does Finny make? (85)
What does Gene see as his purpose? (85)
Chapter 7
A) Butt Room
What happens in the Butt room? (88-90)
What words could Gene never say? (90)
B) “Our chore
Is the core
Of the war”
What is the context and significance of these words? (92)
C) What are three signs that the war was starting to impact Devon? (93)
D) ______and ______consider enlisting (100)
Chapter 8
A)Finny returns to campus
B)Why does Gene change his mind about enlisting? (108)
C) ______was a poor deceiver, having had no practice.” (113)
What is the context and significance of this quote?
What is Finny’s view on war? (115)
What is an example of Finny being in denial about the war? (117)
D) Gene’s self-discovery
“You didn’t even know anything about yourself.” (120)
How does this statement from Finny about Gene have 2 meanings?
Chapter 9
A)Leper enlists and is Devon’s first recruit
What causes Leper to enlist? (124)
B) A Test
“ Everything has to evolve or it perishes.” (125)
“ I’ m glad the war came along. It’s like a test, isn’t it, and only the things and the people who’ve been evolving the right way survive.” (125)
Who said these comments? How are they ironic?
C) Reaction to Leper’s enlistment
Who are the Big Four? (126)
D) Winter Carnival
Description:
Site (129):
Finny’s Dance (136)
E) Telegram arrives from Leper to ______
Chapter 10
A) Gene visits Leper in ______(state)
B) What does Gene see in the two windows at the Lepellier house?
C) Gene and Leper Fight
“ You always were a lord of the manor, weren’t you ? A swell guy, except when the chips were down. You always were a ______underneath…like the time you knocked Finny out of the tree…like the time you crippled him for life.” (145)
D) Leper’s Breakdown - Leper can not face reality - he has not evolved (see p. 125)
Chapter 11
A) Finny’s snowball fight (Snowballs now / bullets later)
Finny switches sides
How does this foreshadow an event later in the chapter?
Gene’s concern about Finny’s leg
“Do you think you ought to get in fights like that? After all, there’s your leg…don’t break it again” (155) (foreshadowing)
B) Reality
What news causes Finny to accept the reality of the war? (163)
C) Finny and Gene are kidnapped for trial
What does the Latin inscription on the FirstBuilding say? (165) How is it appropriate for what is occurring?
D) The Trial
“Then they moved like an engine…The one holding on to the trunk sank for a second, up and down like a piston, and then the other one sank and fell” (175-176)
Who said this? Why is it significant?
E) How does Finny react to the “testimony”? What happens in the final sentence of Chapter 11? (177)
Chapter 12
A) Finny’s injury
How do the boys react to Finny’s injury?
How do they carry Finny? (179)
“Once again I had the desolating sense of having all along ignored ______
______.”
B) What is Gene’s reply when Finny says to him, “You want to break something else in me!” (184)
C) What is Finny’s Secret? (190)
D) Why does Finny say the quote below?
“ It was some kind of blind impulse you had in the tree there, you didn’t know what you were doing…Something just seized you. It wasn’t anything you really felt against me, it wasn’t some kind of hate you’ve felt all along. It wasn’t anything personal.” (191)
E) How does Finny die?
How is this symbolic?
F) Finny’s funeral
Did Gene cry at Finny’s funeral? When did he cry about Finny? (194)
Chapter 13
A) Views of War
What is Mr. Hadley’s view on war?
What is Brinker’s view on war? (What did Nathan Hale say?)
What is Gene’s view on war?
B) What does Gene say that shows that he has achieved “a separate peace”? (203)
C) What is a Maginot Line? How does it relate to Finny? (204)
D) What is Gene’s final assessment of Finny? (final 2 paragraphs of the novel) How does this relate to Finny’s demise?
E) Carefully read the final paragraph of the novel. What message does Knowles choose to end the novel with?
*************
Author: John Knowles attended ExeterAcademy (1942-45)
* Loss of Innocence Theme
* Garden of Eden Motif
* Significance of title