Symbolism In A Separate Peace
A Separate Peace is one of John Knowles' most acclaimed works and is based on Knowles' stay at Phillip Exeter Academy in the early-to-mid 1940's. It is set in a New England boarding school for boys known as Devon, and begins in 1958 but quickly flashes back to the years 1942 and 1943. In these years at the peak of World War II we follow through the eyes and mind of first-person narrator and protagonist Gene Forrester, as he copes internally with jealousy and hate, and externally with the oncoming draft. As is the fate of many great novels it quickly hit the big screen, and in 1972 a film version of A Separate Peace made its first debut, directed by Larry Peerce, and starring Parker Stevensen as 'Gene' and John Heyl as 'Finny'. Though the movie
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For example in chapter six Knowles entrances us in a symbolic representation of two rivers: the Devon and the Naguamsett. The Devon clean and pure directly relates to the boys life at school - secluded, peaceful, tranquil - while the harsh Naguamsett is ruthless and unsympathetic "It was ugly, saline, fringed with marsh mud and seaweed." These represent the dangers of life outside of Devon and the draft which is seen to the boys as "governed by unimaginable factors like the Gulf Stream, the Polar Ice Cap, and the Moon. This depth and complexity cannot be shown embodied in the movie because of the lack of first person narration. Yet another lack of significant imagery between movie and book is when Gene visits Leper after leaving the army, and is told of the madness that overcame him, Knowles creates a scene that directly reflects Leper's insanity:"The crust beneath us continued to crack and as we reached the border of the field the frigid trees also were cracking with the cold. The two sharp groups of noises sounded to my ears like rifles being fired in the distance."This is a much more visual showing then the movie in which Leper is pushed down, and rolls into a fetal
For example in chapter six Knowles entrances us in a symbolic representation of two rivers: the Devon and the Naguamsett. The Devon clean and pure directly relates to the boys life at school - secluded, peaceful, tranquil - while the harsh Naguamsett is ruthless and unsympathetic "It was ugly, saline, fringed with marsh mud and seaweed." These represent the dangers of life outside of Devon and the draft which is seen to the boys as "governed by unimaginable factors like the Gulf Stream, the Polar Ice Cap, and the Moon. This depth and complexity cannot be shown embodied in the movie because of the lack of first person narration. Yet another lack of significant imagery between movie and book is when Gene visits Leper after leaving the army, and is told of the madness that overcame him, Knowles creates a scene that directly reflects Leper's insanity:"The crust beneath us continued to crack and as we reached the border of the field the frigid trees also were cracking with the cold. The two sharp groups of noises sounded to my ears like rifles being fired in the distance."This is a much more visual showing then the movie in which Leper is pushed down, and rolls into a fetal