Sunday, May 4, 2014
Re-read the last paragraph on the bottom of 136 and on to 137. Paraphrase what Gene is saying and interpret the usage of “separate peace.” What is a “separate peace”? Why is included here? What is it’s significance?
In the midst of the winter carnival, Gene is saying how at this moment in time the Devon school has presented an escape, a lapse in the harsh slap of reality that fills the daily life at Devon. The use of a "separate peace" in this part of the book illustrates the meaning of it more than any other place where we see it. We see this moment when time simply fades by into another moment just as impossible to grasp, and yet Gene is lost within them. He is satisfied in being lost in these moments because it provides an outlet from hearing about the war, studying and freezing in cold New England. This moment has become his separate peace, or a place he can escape to where reality cannot touch him. "It wasn't cider that in this moment made me champion of everything he ordered, to run as though I were the abstraction of speed, to walk the half circle of statues on my hands, to balance on my head on top of the icebox on top of the Prize table"(Knowles 136). This quote says quite clearly that reality simply did not play into what Finny was saying. Gene can't run that fast, or walk in circles in the snow on his hands, or balance on his head on top of the icebox on top of the Prize Table but at this moment, it does not matter. At this moment during the winter carnival they feel liberated from "the encroachments of 1943". Genes separate peace is quite literally an peacefulness that is completely separate from his everyday life.
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Ever since Finny’s return, Devon has transformed into a place of peace for Gene. On page 109 after Finny’s return, Gene tells the readers “…peace had come back to Devon for me” (Knowles 109). Once filled with constant reminders of the summer accident, Devon is now a “separate peace.” It is almost as if enrolling the boys at Devon was removing them from the rest of the world. They are in their own universe where partying and adventures are the norm, and the realities of pain, suffering, and wars are distant. The school is in between two rivers– or caught in between two different worlds of adulthood and childhood. The boys may be comfortable in their isolated bubble for now, but I predict that something else will enter into the equation to disrupt this peace.
ReplyDeleteI think that in this novel, Finny represents peace. In the beginning of the book, the students are having tea with some teachers, and Gene says that whenever Finny intervened,"they seemed to be modifying their usual attitude of floating, chronic disapproval." (Knowles 23) This showed that Finny was providing peace wherever he went. Gene also referred to the part of the summer before Finny's injury as a 'lazy, peaceful summer' throughout the book. When Finny is physically hurt, Gene is not in his separate bubble of peace, and he is conflicted in his own mind about committing or not committing the crime of hurting Finny. Later in the book, Gene wears Finny's shirt, and it makes himself feel better and peaceful. Gene says "it gave me such intensive relief." (Knowles 62) The Winter Carnival is something pleasing, and peaceful to Gene because it was something organized by Finny, and Gene feels peace in Finny.
ReplyDelete-Elizabeth
ReplyDelete