A Separate Peace Research Paper

In the novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles revealed a very strong idea through one of his characters.

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Eden In A Separate Peace Essay, Research Paper In his novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles follows the experiences of Gene Forester during two very profound years of his life.

A noteworthy aspect of his writing is his imaginative and thoughtful use of symbolism throughout his novels.

Just below the surface of Gene s pleasant facade, there is a deeper evil. Perhaps I was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth. You are even in enmity …You did hate him for breaking that school swimming record, but so what?

I should have told him then that he was my best friend also and rounded off what he had said. Gene s deeper evil is shown as conniving, like the snake, as he thinks to himself a little while before he causes Finny to fall. …He hated you for getting an A in every course but one last term.

Devon was a separate peace, cut off from everything else, just as the Garden of Eden was.

A Separate Peace Research Paper

One minor correspondence is that both Devon and the Garden of Eden were between two rivers.Also noticeable is that each location had an important tree that caused the downfall of major characters.These similarities help to establish that the Garden of Eden was symbolic of the Garden of Eden.You would have had an A in that one except for him. This underlying savagery and the snake in the Garden of Eden can be regarded as representative of each other.The fall of Finny can be regarded as symbolic of the fall from grace of Adam and Eve.In A Separate Peace, one can observe several symbolic patterns.A prevalent set of these symbolic patterns is the Garden of Eden.The tree was tremendous, an irate, steely black steeple beside the river.The black steeple implies that tree was evil and almost satanic by nature, just as the tree of knowledge was.John Knowles revealed this idea through Gene’s perspective; symbolism; and also Gene’s speech/action.Gene had proved many things through only his perspective. 25) This quote exposed that Gene was in the middle of his mental metamorphosis. Gene became stronger by realizing the reality, he now had realized that there was no use in competing with anyone.