A Separate Peace By John Knowles Essay Example for Free

A Separate wild pansy By John Knowles EssayIn A Separate Peace by John Knowles, it is unvarnished that Finny and Leper undergo the most traumatic experiences from the Class of 1943. Through these experiences, both characters lose some(prenominal) of their innocence and naivety. Finny, upon knowledge of the existence of the war and ingredients moment of hatred, learns to tackle realities and perceive the world as it is, not as the unblemished childlike image he wants it to be. However, when Leper enlists in the army, he quickly begins to have hallucinations because the universe is too much for him to handle. Nevertheless, he eventually overcomes his insanity and seems to be fairly mentally stable by the end of the novel. Although Finny and Lepers traumas argon the source of a major loss of purity and childhood, they are also the cause of post-tramautic growth and a necessary increase in maturity.Finny goes through several perception-changing events during the course of t he novel, but the event that cements his departure from childhood is the acceptance that cistron deliberately shook Finny off the tree. This shock was caused by his own inability to accept the truth in the first place. Despite the ease of denying unwanted information and living in a dream world, it is mentally unhealthy for Finny because of the shock caused upon finally believing the truth. Immediately after Genes confession of jouncing the limb, Gene remarks that Finny looked older than I had ever seen him (62). Finny, however, does not yet comprehend feelings of jealousy and betrayal, as he has scarce had any himself and finds it difficult to think of anothers intimate of view the information registers on his face, but before he has term to process it and mature he rejects the idea entirely. Gene states it occurred to me that this could be an even deeper dent than what I had dvirtuoso before (62).The reality of adult themes such as jealousy, betrayal, and hate is what hurts F inny most, not the crippling injury itself. Another reality that takes away from Finnys nescience is the war (when he finally believes in its existence). The most salient and stunning war in recent history, World War II had a huge encounter on millions of lives worldwide. Yet Phineas refused to believe in the war, and instead created a fantasy in which he was the one of the moreover people who knew that it was all a hoax. When Gene, in disbelief from Finnys opinion, questions Finny on why he is the only person who is aware of the stuffed shirts (107) plot tosuppress happiness, Finny emotionally bursts divulge it is because he has suffered (108).Apparently, Finny has visualized this hoax to eggshell himself from the disadvantages of his disability, such as enlisting. Nevertheless, Finny quickly accepts the truth of the war after seeing Leper in a mentally disturbed state of mind. The image of what the war did to someone who used to be close to him shook him out of his dream worl d and spurred his emotional growth. When Finny, at the end of the novel, learned to accept the realities and avoid using defence to cope with shock, he lost the last of his childhood innocence.Leper is easily one of the most naive and unacquainted(p) characters during the Summer Session. His good-naturedness and passive fascination with nature is such an ideal image of innocence that it seems almost get down to see him in the traumatized state of mind after enlisting. Even while everyone is volunteering to shovel snow to aid the war effort and discussing their plans for which division to enlist in, Leper is only concerned with the beauty of nature and skis to a silk hat dam to watch the beavers develop and build their dam. He is moved to join the army not for worthless images of glory and glamor like the other students, but rather for the beauty of skiing down a mountain. Obviously, he soon finds that the army is too much for him, and while absent from the ongoings at Devon he loses every shred of innocence and guilelessness that previously surrounded his character. When Gene meets him, his psyche is obviously changed to such a point that he has hallucinations and other symptoms of schizophrenia, caused by his rapid ascension into adult matters.He does not accept reality nearly as well as Finny does because his character was far more innocuous at the wampum of the novel. So many of his images of the world are shattered that it can be seen that he feels like he has little familiarity to hold onto. He grasps to every gleam of regularity and unchangeable function, which explains his preference for spending measure in the dining room of his house simply because he knows that three daily meals will be served there on a consistent basis. However, his time at home seems to have given him time to cope with the images of matureness. Upon his return to Devon, he seems mentally well and a much more decisive pledge than ever before. He accurately and forcefully c onvicts Gene of jouncing the limb in his new, confident voice (166).Gene describes Leper during the trial as all energy (165). Evidently, Leper has dealt with the loss of innocence caused by his abrupt initiation into maturity and has become a more confident, self-assured person in spite of it.Knowles makes it apparent throughout A Separate Peace that while the loss of innocence may often seem to be a sad or tragic event, it is necessary to pave the way for maturation and a transition into adulthood. Had Finny never accepted the truth of the tragedy that occurred to him, he would have never matured beyond his carefree pass days. And had Leper kept living in his own world of vivid imaginations, he would have never create into the sanguine individual he becomes at the end of the novel. While the loss of innocence is partly a lugubrious experience, John Knowles portrays it as a necessity a part of maturation and growth that leads to adulthood and self-fulfillment.