A Separate Peace Background Notes

1. A Separate PeaceBackground Notes

2. John Knowles • A West-Virginia native • Educated at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, which serves as the prototype for Devon School. • A Separate Peace was his first novel and is based on a short story he wrote earlier in his career. • It won him instant recognition and earned him several awards.

3. Historical Context • His first novel was published in 1960, when the Cold War was in full swing • There is an anti-war thrust in novel • It reached its greatest success in the classroom during the height of Vietnam

4. Point of View • The first-person narrative encourages an exploration of some of the major concerns of the novel– most importantly the relationship between memory and truth. • Gene Forrester tells the story fifteen years after his experience, which affords plenty of opportunity for irony. • Only at the beginning of the novel and during occasional interruptions is the reader reminded that the story is being told from such a distance. • At these times, the confessional flavor of the narration is most apparent

5. Setting and Environment • The major aspects of setting are time and place • Devon school represent the isolated, insulated private school world, and serves as microcosm America • A place where vital young athletes train for soldiering, where slim youths learn the rudiments of becoming “fat, old men.” • The school hovers between good and evil, innocence and knowledge

6. Setting and Environment • The major action takes place in 1942-43, during the middle of America’s involvement in WWII • The time of the narrator’s recounting, around 1958, is in the middle of the Cold War, and takes into account as well the aftermath of America’s having dropped the atomic bomb. • Both time and place work together to frame the central issue of the novel: war.

7. Setting and Environment • Another factor of setting is seasonality. • The seasons not only serve to propel the novel forward and as a backdrop against which its actions revolve, but also are used metaphorically throughout.

8. Issues • Central issue is war • Brotherhood: both positive and negative aspects seen through camaraderie and competition, trust and betrayal • Search for belief system: the characters are looking for a way to relate to their world throughout the novel; a way to believe in what has always been trustworthy and in oneself. • Becoming ‘civilized’: the natural world is shown in opposition to the world humanity has created. We will see an innate savagery in all human beings, and a the killing-off of natural, childlike parts of oneself in order to survive in the real world.

9. Themes • Inside/Outside: how a character appears to his or her society– the “outside” self– is often quite different from what he or she thinks, feels, and senses in the inner life. • Opposites: Primitive vs. civilized, natural and idyllic versus barbarous and realistic, good vs. evil, impulse vs. premeditation • Memory: the effect of memory on truth

10. Themes • Confession: the effects of confession, and how it enables us to draw memory and truth together • Relationships: relationships are often founded on destructive and impulsive acts as on good deeds and love • The Dark Side of Human Nature: the dark side of human nature can, through impulsive acts, destroy the civilizing bonds by which a person chooses to restrain it

11. Journal • Describe what you consider a good friend to be– list qualities a good friend must have. Do you consider yourself to be a good friend? Why? How? • What would a friend have to do in order for you to break off the friendship? What do you consider betrayal? Explain.