Annotated Bib. a Separate Piece
Juan Carlos Garcia Ms. Garcia A. S. English 3-4 20 November 2012 A. S. English 3-4: An Annotated Bibliography Knowles, J. (1959). A Separate Peace. New York: The Macmillan Company In this nonfiction book based in the years of World War 2, the tragedy that happened to Finny during a summer at Devon set the topic for the story about the novel. During a summer at Devon Finny’s best friend, Gene, who is thoughtful and intelligent and had also developed a love-hate relationship with Finny, made a decision that would end in the death of Finny.
They day when Leper, Gene, and Finny were all jumping off a tree at the Devon River there was a serious accident. When Gene and Finny were on a branch in the tree Gene spasmodically decided to shake the branch in order for Finny for all off, although Gene would never admit this to be true. Finny broken his leg and was practically crippled. This “accident” came to be the main aspect of A Separate Peace. Directly after the accident Brinker was interested in what actually happened that day at the river since it was accepted that Finny just fell off.
One day when Gene was alone in his form room Brinker and his friends forced Gene down to the butt room, a room where smoking was allowed. Brinker further investigated that day during the summer by interrogating Gene. Gene felt uncomfortable so he fled. As he returned to his room he saw a very familiar face, it belonged to Finny. Finny had returned from resting at his house after the accident. Life went on and Finny continued to be the leader he was born to be, he instigated a snow ball war and school carnival.
Towards the end of the boys’ final year in high school, Brinker gathered all the seniors in order to find the truth of that summer day. Slowly but surely Finny began to remember more and more of that day. What finally set him off to realize what Gene did was the return of Leper. Leper enlisted and went out to the war but began seeing things so people thought he was delusional, so he ran away to his mother’s house and ended up wandering around Devon.
At the senior boys’ meeting Leper revealed that while by the base of the tree and looking up at the branch where Finny and Gene were, he saw the shape of a body make a sudden move then he saw the other body fall from the trees. When Finny realized what Gene did he broke out in tears and stormed out of the room. While he was leaving Finny fell down a marble stairway and broke his leg again. The doctor said not to worry for this was a clean break and an easy fix.
During surgery on Finny’s leg a bit of marrow escaped from the bone as he was setting it, entering Finny’s bloodstream and stopping his heart. Finny died. This book has a very good theme but was not written to entertain the mind of a high school teen. The theme of friendship and the theme of telling the truth instead of hiding from it can help you overcome problems with your friend helped me out in life personally. I saw how what someone can see as white lie can produce even worse problems than the problems that would occur for telling the truth.
I have been in situations where I could easily get out of a dilemma by lying but it was exceptionally wrong to do so. I thought this story was boring because besides Finny’s death, Finny falling out of the tree, and the “trials” on Gene there wasn’t much action. The writing of Knowles taught me to always do what is right no matter the consequence for it, because there may be greater consequences for not telling the truth.
