Novel Project Blog 1 (A Separate Peace)

1.       a general statement of the literary work’s content, a summary or a paraphrase (only allowed once)

In A Separate Peace by John Knowles a war is in the midst for New England. A few boys at the Devon school are learning and preparing for war and other scholastics. They take part in sports and activities that all relate to the war more than for fun. The boys stay in dormitories, only making contact with their hometowns on occasions. A boy named Gene and Phineas are roommates that summer at Devon and had many fun times together. The boys were completely different. Phineas was an athlete and Gene was a scholar. The excelled in the aspects the other did not, however Gene was also able to take a good part in sports as well. After a short amount of time in the sun, an unknown rivalry takes place between the boys. Gene suspected that Phineas was trying to take away his chances at becoming valedictorian. However, this was not so. Phineas was only trying to spend time with his friend and show him a good time, just because that was his personality. The unknown rivalry took a turn for the worse when the Suicide Society, developed by Phineas himself, called for a meeting. Phineas and Gene always took an oath to start out the meeting by jumping out of a tree into the river. Phineas gets a “good” idea to jump together with Gene as a since of showing their friendship and equality of power within the club. Gene decides to do a very disturbing and unfriend like thing, which was jouncing the limb and causing Phineas to fall off the branch and into the shallow water close to the bank. Phineas’s leg and athletic career were both shattered at that very moment.  As soon as this occurrence happens one can see the Gene knew he made a mistake. He exclaims “…This is the worst thing in the world, and I’m sorry and I hate to tell you but I’ve got to tell you.”