A Separate Peace
Each book has its own focal point. This event or situation allows the book to become more developed and forces the characters to react to it. A Separate Peace has one clear central issue: World War II. Every event in this book happens as a result of the boys' preparation for being drafted. They jumped out of trees, trained for the Olympics, and the boys feel it's their duty to enlist in a section of the army, thus altering their educational careers for the time being. The war is all the boys talk about, whether they're eating a meal or talking in their dorm rooms. The war drives them to athletic excellence and forces them to choose if they will be drafted for the front lines or enlist once they turn eighteen. A world war would affect anyone's life, especially if they were about to be drafted and put on the front lines. It took a lot of confidence for these boys to overcome the fear of death and focus on their studies. Although they did do a fairly good job at that, the war still impacted their lives greatly. The first and most important way that the war had an impact on the action of Finny and Gene is the fact that people jumped out of the tree in preparation for the war. This prompted Finny to feel the need to jump
The third way that the action of the characters became changed was the fact that they all felt it was their duty to enlist in some branch of the military. As Finny so elegantly put it, "The real reason, sir, was that we just had to jump out of that tree. Perhaps if they had focused on one particular event, Finny's story would have been more believable, but they didn't. This shows that the war did impact what they did. Another way the war impacted Finny and Gene's lives is that Finny found it prudent to train Gene for the Olympics. The students at Devon were no exception. It makes sense that Finny was training Gene for the war. Because there is a war going on, not only did they jump from a tree, but also the headmaster bought their story and let them go without punishment. Although this seems logical at the time, they never train for one specific event. Because of this, their educational careers at Devon were cut short until the time they came back, if they even returned alive. Today you would not expect that, but one can never by sure.
Common topics in this essay:
Finny Gene's,
Finny Gene,
War II,
According Finny,
,
jump tree,
Separate Peace,
preparation war,
world war,
drafted front lines,
war boys,
leave school,
duty enlist,
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educational careers,
1944 olympics,
finny gene,
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