Transcript Document

Introduction to
A Separate Peace
By John Knowles
A Separate Peace
• Today’s presentation
– Author
– Setting
– Plot
– Characters
– Literary Elements
About the Author
John Knowles
• Born in West Virginia on
September 16, 1926
• Knowles was educated at Phillips
Exeter Academy, which served as a
model for the setting of A Separate
Peace.
• A Separate Peace was Knowles’
first work, which earned him the
Rosenthal Award of the National
Institute of Arts and Letters. This
established Knowles as a
successful author.
Phillips Exeter Academy
• Devon School, the setting of A Separate Peace, is based
heavily on the Phillips Exeter Academy.
Phillips Exeter Academy
Plot Overview
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Story is told as a flashback to 16 years ago from Gene Forrester’s
perspective
Gene was a quiet, intellectual student at the Devon School in New
Hampshire.
During the summer session of 1942, Gene becomes close friends
with Finny, his daredevil roommate
Finny prods Gene into making a dangerous jump out of a tree into a
river, and the two start a secret society based on this ritual.
Gene becomes jealous of Finny’s athletic accomplishments and
convinces himself that Finny is trying to distract Gene from
achieving academically. While Gene’s jealously turns into hate, he
carefully maintains a relationship with him.
Gene admittedly watches as Finny falls from the tree, breaking his
leg and ending his athletic prowess
A Separate Peace
Characters
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Gene Forrester
Finny
Elwin “Leper” Lepellier
Brinker Hadley
Cliff Quackenbush
Chet Douglass
Mr. Ludsbury
Dr. Stanpole
Mr. Patch-Withers
Gene Forester
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Unreliable Narrator/protagonist
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Gene is in his early thirties, visiting the
Devon School for the first time in years.
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Flashbacks to a story of his childhood from
the vantage point of adulthood.
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Has love-hate relationship with his best
friend Finny
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Gene is also often jealous of Finny because
he is good at everything and so carefree
Finny
• Honest, handsome, energetic, selfconfident, best athlete in the school
• Extremely likable – able to talk his
way out of any situation
• Gene describes Finny like that of a
Greek hero (always excelling physically,
always spirited.)
• Finny loves the thrill of competition
and does not care about
winning/losing
• Always thinks the best of people,
counts no one as his enemy, and
assumes that the world is a
fundamentally friendly place.
Ellwin Leper Lepellier
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Quiet, peaceful, nature-loving boy
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Shocks his classmates by being 1st in
Devon to enlist in the army
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Shocks them again by deserting army
shortly after joining
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Leper has hallucinations that reflect
the fears and angst of adolescence
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He fears transformation of boys into
men—and, in wartime, of boys into
soldiers, which causes anxiety and
inner turmoil.
Brinker Hadley
Cliff Quakenbush
• Manager of the crew team
• Boys at Devon have never
liked Quackenbush
•frequently takes out his
frustrations on anyone whom
he considers his inferior
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straight-laced and
conservative.
complete confidence in his own
abilities
believes in justice and order
and goes to great lengths to
discover the truth when he
feels that it is being hidden
from him.
Chet Douglass
• Gene’s main rival for the
position of class valedictorian
• excellent tennis and
trumpet player and possesses
a sincere love of learning.
Dr. Stanpole
• Devon’s resident doctor
• Caring man who laments the
troubles that afflict the youth of
Gene’s generation.
• Operates on Finny after his fall
out of the tree
Mr. Ludsbury
The master in charge of
Gene’s dormitory
Stern disciplinarian
Mr. Patch-Withers
• The substitute headmaster
of Devon during the summer
session.
• Runs the school with a
lenient hand
Literary Context
• A Separate Peace belongs to a
genre of literature called
Bildungsroman. This is a German
term which describes a novel
whose main character matures
over time, usually from childhood.
• The novel is based on events that
happened during Knowles’ years at
the Phillips Exeter Academy.
• Similar to Lord of the Flies, A
Separate Peace deals with children
coming to terms with their identity
set against the backdrop of World
War.
Main Themes
Loss of Innocence.
The plot is dominated by Gene’s progression toward maturity.
The relationship between war and peace.
The backdrop of the war plays a vital role in the novel.
The nature of friendship.
The relationship between Gene and Finny is the novel’s focus.
People’s ability to change.
Is change really possible?
Biblical allegory.
Finny = Christlike
Gene = Judas, betrayer
Historical Context
World War II
• Began in 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland, and officially
ended in August 1945, when the Japanese surrendered.
• A Separate Peace takes place during the summer of 1942, directly
in the center of World War II.
In America:
In order to cope with the war, America instituted rations on books,
sugar, coffee, and other goods.
• To conserve gasoline, a national 35 MPH speed limit was
implemented, and driving for pleasure was banned.
•Most young women either dated older men, or didn’t date at all!
• By the summer of 1942, many Americans realized that the war
was far from over.
The Axis Powers
Four Faces of Aggression:
Japan
Italy
Germany
FASCIST ITALY:
MUSSOLINI
• Extreme nationalism
• Militaristic expansion to restore
Roman Empire
• Charismatic leader
• Belief in private property with
strong government control
• Anti-communist
• Installed in 1922
• Made a pact with Hitler to
exterminate Jews
NAZI GERMANY:
• HITLER
Extreme nationalism and
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racism
Militaristic expansion
Charismatic leader/ played on
fears and pride
Belief in private property with
strong government control
Anti-communist!
Gained power in 1933
Hitler
• He believed that the blond haired, blue eyed Germans
were the dominant race. (Aryans)
• He blamed the Jews for Germany’s problems and
situation
• He ordered the boycott of Jewish shops, the burning
of books written by Jewish authors, and the
imprisonment of Jews in concentration camps.
(beginnings of the Holocaust)
JAPAN: TOJO
AND HIROHITO
• Tojo became
militaristic Prime
Minister for Emperor
Hirohito
• Militarism, Nationalism
and Racism
• Sought Asian empire
for imperialist efforts
Prime Minister Hideki
Tojo (above) and
Emperor Hirohito
(below)
Pearl Harbor
• Japan was desperate for oil.
• They wanted to dominate the eastern world, and
the Pacific, and guess who was standing in their
way??
• They launched a secret attack on Pearl Harbor
on Dec. 7, 1941.
• The attack destroyed 5 battleships, 3 cruisers,
and several smaller vessels.
• Nearly 2400 people died.
• Fortunately, the Pacific fleet’s aircraft carriers
were elsewhere.
• Roosevelt called for Congress to declare war on
Japan, they did.
Pearl Harbor - Dec. 7, 1941
• 2,400 Americans killed when Japanese war
planes bomb Pacific Fleet to take out
battleships and carriers
• 20 Warships sunk & 150 planes destroyed
• Japan also struck American bases in Pacific
• FDR asks Congress for declaration of war “Day of Infamy” - the next day
• Germany & Italy declared war on U.S.
Hitler’s acts of aggression
• Hitler was determined to return Germany to
a dominant power and invaded the
Rhineland- a section of Western Germany
lost in the Treaty of Versailles.
• Hitler joins forces with Mussolini and
becomes known as the Axis Powers
• 1938 Hitler annexed Austria and demanded
possession of Sudetenland- a section of
Czechoslovakia inhabited by Germanic
people
Japan
• Japanese had lost most of their gains in China at the
Washington Conference in 1921
• 1924- U.S. joined other Western nations banning Chinese
immigrants
• 1931- Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria in northeastern
China
• League of Nations demanded they get out, Japan pulled out of
the League
• Continued aggression- seized Shanghai, Nanjing, Bejing, and
other Southeast Asian countries.
Allied Forces- The Big 3
Winston
ChurchillEngland
Franklin D.
RooseveltU.S
Joseph
StalinU.S.S.R.
• England and France were terrified of becoming
involved in another war, and adopted a policy of
Appeasement.
• They gave into the demands of Hitler, and assumed
that he would be satisfied
• Munich Conference-they agreed to allow Hitler to
annex part of Czechoslovakia in return for the
promise that he would make no further territorial
demands.
• He took ALL of Czechoslovakia.
• The Soviet Union under Stalin had originally
signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler, but
after Hitler invaded Poland, Stalin joined the
Allied Forces.
• Nov. 1942-Soviets counter attacked Germans
and by Feb. the German forces were depleted
to 1/3 of what they had been- they then
surrendered.
• In the Atlantic the allies used radar and sonar
to find and destroy German subs, without these
the German forces would be without food or
weapons.
Africa in 1942
• American and British forces worked to push
Rommel and his Africal Korps into Tunisia.
• Led by Major General Lloyd Fredendall and
Major General George S. Patton
• By May, Rommel had fled and nearly 250,000
Axis troops surrendered.
• After victory in North Africa, Allies turned toward
Italy.
• July 1943, 82nd Airborne jumped into the toe of Italy.
• The invasion was a success and they pushed toward
Rome.
• At this point, the Italians were sick of Mussolini and
overthrew him.
• They killed Mussolini, hung him in public, then
dragged him behind a horse.
• The Germans fought to the bitter end against the
Allies
• Americans had gained knowledge of the Japanese
attack on Midway island through the code breaking,
and were well prepared for the attack.
• June 4, 1942-Admiral Chester Nimitz sent planes out
from the island to attack the Japanese as they were
approaching, but most of them got shot down.
• At 10:42, the Japanese thought they had seen the last
of the American planes and were refueling for a final
attack on the island
• A group of dive bombers who had gotten lost found
their target.
• 3 of the 4 Japanese ships were destroyed.
• This was Japan’s last offensive move in the war
• The last two major battles in MacArthur’s
island hopping were Iwo JIma and Okinawa
• Iwo Jima measures only a few miles, but there
were 20,000 American casualties
• Japan starting using Kamikaze pilots
• During the invasion of Okinawa, they made
279 hits on American ships
Operation Overlord
• Aim was to drive the Germans out of France
and defeat the Third Reich
• It was the greates amphibious invasion in
history
• 176,000 troops carried on 5,000 vessels
crossed the English channel to land along a 60
mile stretch of Coastline, Normandy, France.
• They landed June 6, 1944-D-Day
• The Germans knew the attack was coming, but
expected it to be near Calais, where the
English Channel is the narrowest.
• The Allies under the command of General
Dwight D. Eisenhower landed safely on the
beach of Normandy
Updated 2007
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• August 6, 1945 atomic bomb dropped on
Hiroshima and destroyed 60% of Hiroshima
• Japan still refused to surrender, and 3 days
later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on
Nagasaki. August 9, 1945.
• The 2 attacks took out about 150,000 lives
immediately, and more with the after effects of
the bombs.
V-E Day and V-J Day
• V-E Day May 7th, 1945
– The Allies close in on Germany, Britain and the U.S.
from the west and the Soviets from the east
– April 30th, Hitler commits suicide
– One week later, Germans surrender
• V-J Day September 2, 1945
– The U.S. drops two atomic bombs on Japanese cities
– Threaten future attacks
– Japan surrenders aboard the Missouri to Gen.
Douglas MacArthur September 2, 1945
African Americans
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One Million served in segregated units
Tuskegee Airmen – first black flying unit
African Americans served in support roles
Faced discrimination
1.5 million left South to find work out West
NAACP membership increased
Smith v. Allwright (1944) SCOTUS ruled
unconstitutional to deny blacks party
membership to exclude them from primaries
Mexican Americans
300,000 Mexican Americans served in white
units during the war
• More worked in War Industry
• 1942 deal with Mexico allowed farm workers
to cross the boarder during harvest season
(braceros)
• Caused white resentment (Zoot Suit Riots in
Los Angeles summer of 1943
Minority Participation in WWII
• Additional contributions of minorities:
– Navajo communication codes (oral, not written;
could not be broken by the Japanese)
– Mexican Americans also fought, but not in
segregated units
– Minority units suffered high casualties and won
numerous unit citations and individual medals for
bravery in action
Native Americans
• 25,000 served in military
• Navajo Indian language used as a code against
Japanese (spoken-not written)
• Thousands Native Americans worked in war
industry
• More than half never returned to reservations
Home Front Industry
• Many Businesses converted their businsseses
to war product industries
• Henry Ford turned to making B-24 liberator
bombers
• The Government established the cost-plus
system in which they paid all development and
production costs plus a percentage of those
costs as profit on anything a company made
for the war.
Home Front
• Coca-Cola said that every man gets a bottle of
coke for 5 cents.
• Henry Kaiser introduced mass production that
could assemble a ship in 14 days.
• His ships were called Liberty ships
• The jeep got it’s name from G.P. for General
Purpose vehicle. It was established during
WWII and 650,000 of them were produced.
Home Front
• Ration stamps were given out to attempt to
distribute essential goods fairly. (Meat, butter,
sugar and gasoline)
• Unemployment fell drastically
• Wages went up
• People joined unions
Costs of War
• Federal Spending went from 9.4 billion dollars in
1939 to 95.2 billion in 1945
• The GNP more than doubled
• A raise in taxes paid for approx 41% of the cost of the
war
• Revenue Act of 1942 increased the number of
Americans who paid income taxes.
• It levied a flat 5% tax on all incomes over $624 per
year. The rest of the money to pay for the war came
from banks and private investors, and the public
Women and the War
• While the men were off at war, women frequently
worked in factories making war items.
• A popular symbol for this was Rosie the Riveter
• Boyfriend at war, young, Middle classed and a Patriot
• Posters were created telling women it was their
Patriotic duty to work during the war
• Women made up 36% of the workforce
Home Front Society