A seperate peace

At the age of fifteen John Knowles started attending school at Phillips Exeter Academy. This was a well-known boarding school in New Hampshire. Exeter was very similar to Devon, the fictional school he describes in his novel "A Seperate Peace". Knowles graduated in 1945; however, he did not attend college immediately afterwards. He joined the war effort instead as a part of the U.S. Army Air Force's Aviation Cadet Program. Afterwards he went to Yale and graduated in 1949, when he traveled to Europe and worked as a journalist. Then in the mid 1950's he returned to the U.S., where he began working on "A Seperate Peace".

John Knowles wrote "A Seperate Peace" in the 1950's while in the United States. World War II had just ended and that played a major role in what he wrote his book about.

The story is set in the 1940's at an all boys school in Devon, New England.

-Gene Forrester was the narrator of the story, a student at Devon during World War II. His best friend at school was Phineas, a superior athlete, while Gene was better known for his academic skills. Gene has a definite dark side lurking beneath the surface, thoug

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- "Quackenbush was studying me to see if he could detect a limp. Finny and Gene transform into different people by the end of the book. He becomes, for a short while, the symbol of American victories abroad; but this is dashed when he deserts the service in a panic. - "Nothing enduring, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence. The most obvious transformations were that of the main characters, Gene and Finny. Sometimes change happens for the better, sometimes for the worse.

- "Yea, I guess there's a real war all right. " This was said by Gene, he is saying that Quackenbush wouldn't detect Gene's problem because it wasn't a physical problem, but that it was something inside. He and Gene get into a fight, which means the end of Gene's days as assistant captain, though it is no loss. He had a way of talking to people that would help him get away with anything. " Finny says this and finally achnowlegdes the reality of the war. He was highly involved in school politics.

Approximate Word count = 1186
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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