Literature Analysis #1

A Separate Peace by John Knowles
(one of my favorites tbh. I read this book freshman year and wanted to dive deeper into it in a literature analysis. It was one of the six or so books that I've cried reading [It started at remembering three, but then I started to think back at all of the 'cry books' and saw how large the list actually is]. I'm not going to lie, I started this analysis way, way, way too late. Although I have not given myself much time to complete, I have stopped to read the book again and with a much better understanding than before. It's amazing what three years can do.)

1. Inciting incident: page 52 Gene shakes the tree branch
2. Theme:  Competition brings out the best and the worst in people. Gene and Phineas were never really competing with one another, and even though Gene thought it was some big thing he knew that Finny was just amazing and didn't have to try at anything. It's all about jealousy and trust. I cringe at some of the things Gene tells Finny that are lies. He knows the truth about him causing the fall (page 59)and at Finny's hospital bed he denies being at fault. 
3.  
4. Edition: Bantam  1975

      "The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session!" page 24. Alliteration: It showed me the darker side of the story after reading back through it. Gene and Finny created a fun social group for friends of theirs to hang out with during the summertime. There's sarcasm and infliction of the tone in this. This book is pretty dark when you think about it. Humanity can be dark and cruel, but disguised as something full of pleasure.
     "If he jumps out of that tree I'm Mahatma Gandhi." page 49. Allusion: So obviously Gene wasn't Gandhi and he was basically saying what we say all of the time, kind of like "when pigs fly". Leper was supposed to jump off the tree branch into the water for his initiation into the society that evening and as Gene pointed out before, he was a chicken.

     "At his touch I lost all hope of controlling myself. I burst out crying into my hands; I cried for Phineas and for myself and for this doctor who believed in facing things. Most of all I cried because of kindness, which I had not expected." page 57-58. Gene shook the tree branch to cause Phineas to fall and shatter his leg. It was all his fault and he has the guilt and blame for it all, but nobody accuses him so he must live with it all, not even having to defend himself which is worse than denying it.

     "It would not be just a thunderbolt." page 61. Metaphor: Gene is talking about breaking the news to Finny that he was the one who did it. He can't just come out and shock him, he needed to ease it in the conversation somehow.
     "Listen, pal, if I can't play sports, you're  going to play them for me," and I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas." page 77. Phineas couldn't play sports again and was going to live through Gene. It's a big part of the story because it transitions from the boys being separated to almost one.
     "Not that it would be a good life. The war would be deadly alright. But I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me; there was always something deadly lurking in anything I wanted, anything I lived. And if it wasn't there, as for example with Phineas, then I put it there myself." page 92. 

 CHARACT "Finny in a light blue polo shirt and I in a T-shirt. I noticed that people were looking fixedly at him, so I took a look myself to see why. His skin radiated a reddish copper glow of tan , his brown hair had been a little bleached by the sun, and I noticed that the tan made his eyes shine with a cool blue-green fire." page 39

"Edlwin 'Leper' Lepellier" page 49