Innocence Lost
What comes to mind when the word 'innocence' is brought up? Does it conjure images of carefree boys playing together in a game they concocted themselves? Would one think of best friends laying upon a beach and watching a sunset together, their hearts devoid of malice and ill intent? The pictures the mind paints when people speak of 'innocence' are singular to the person imagining. If one can pinpoint innocence to a few images, what happens when those images are shattered as if they were a spiteful mirror? Innocence could be called a mirror of illusions. We see what is there and added in to the background are the serene and peaceful selfless scenes of In A Separate Peace the broken shards of this mirror litter the ground that the characters tread upon. Gene seems a blameless enough protagonist. Striving for success at school through his academics and fitting in to a group of friends easily, who would think him to intentionally cripple the boy he calls his best friend? Reading the words "Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and a I jounced the limb" breaks the fragile sense of Gene's naivete to the reader completely.Gene says
I will leave out the names to protect the sinful and the sinless since they are not relevant to my yarn. The days are dreary as Finny is no longer there to 'paint' the serene and comforting pictures that Geneclings to. If only the character had heeded the wise man, who an adult who had lost his freedom from guilt long ago, who wished to only save him from sorrow and woe. His harmlessness drowns when he realizes, after jouncing Finny off the limb to crash into the riverbank, he has a strongcapacity for violence and destructiveness. Finny tells him, his last words to Gene: "I believe you. You've already showed me and I believe you. Unfortunately, unlikeGene, I still cannot find my "separate peace. Immediately, I ended the relationship. The wise man advises him once again that "the heart out of the bosom/was never given in vain;/ 'Tis paid in sighs a plenty/ and sold for endless rue. I will leave out the details even though it went no further. Why would he? He is "one-and-twenty" and sees his opinions as the most valid; his own advice the most valuable. I can relate to Gene, with all his human flaws. Housman portrays the loss of innocence in the most visual and touching genre of literature. to himself "You and Phineas are even already You are even in enmity.
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