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Post by Emily Werkheiser on Oct 27, 2015 20:43:45 GMT
The setting in A Separate Peace has a large influence on the events and meaning of the novel. The story takes place in the early 1940s, at the Devon School in New Hampshire. During this time period, America had just entered World War 2. Although the book does not discuss the specific events of the fighting, the concept of the war and its effects on society loom over the characters and steers the direction of the novel. Seeing as though the novel is a coming of age story, the overarching concept of war was imperative to the meaning of the novel. It created a world that would present many heavy, complex, and adult-like topics, such as death or one’s purpose in society, which the adolescent boys would have to learn to grasp and come to terms with, and in turn would serve as grounds for their maturation. Blitzball for example, demonstrates this concept and the boys’ struggle to understand and cope with war, seeing as they attempt to address this adult topic by turning it into a game, a childlike approach. This setting also laid a foundation to show how different methods of coping and search for understanding in the world could turn out for a person, which is an idea that can be further understood when analyzing the character Leper. The Devon school also has a significant impact on the characters and meaning of the novel as well. At this school, the students had no parental figures or relatable men that they could look up to or seek out for advice. All they had was each other, and because the boys had yet to develop a certain wisdom about the world and it is difficult to open up to one’s peers about internal conflicts, they were essentially left on their own to figure things out. Therefore, the setting at the Devon school during World War II played a large role in the meaning and events of the novel.
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amyyu
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Post by amyyu on Oct 28, 2015 2:27:31 GMT
Emily, I completely agree with the points that you mentioned about the boys having to figure things out on their own due to the lack of parental guidance at the school. I also liked how you brought up the concept of war as a force which presented adult-like challenges to the two boys that eventually had a heavy impact on their maturation. Adding on to what you said, I believe that Devon can also be said to be a safe haven where Gene and Finny are able to grow up and mature into adults in the midst of the chaos during World War II. Even though plainly aware of the war going on around them, Gene and Finny are protected from the dangers and horrors of the war in the campus of Devon where it is safe and peaceful unlike the outside world. Given this opportunity, the two boys have the chance to reach "adulthood" and discover their role in society in a secluded area where the war has no direct effect on them. Gene even says that "Bombs in Central Europe were completely unreal to us here, not because we couldn't imagine it-- a thousand newspaper photographs and newsreels had given us a pretty accurate idea of such a sight-- but because our place here was too fair for us to accept something like that. We spent that summer in complete selfishness, I'm happy to say. The people in the world who could be selfish in the summer of 1942 were a small band, and I'm glad we took advantage of it" (Knowles 30).
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amyyu
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Post by amyyu on Oct 28, 2015 2:28:52 GMT
Not only that, but the change of seasons, from summer to winter, throughout the book also parallels with the three stages of a coming of age story. During the summer, Finny and Gene are evidently still stuck in the Childhood stage with their Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session, tree jumping, and spontaneous beach trips. Both of the boys are also seen to be extremely innocent and oblivious to the war happening around them during the summer. They aren't quite worrying about enlisting in the army yet and continue to enjoy their lives as if nothing was going on. For Finny, the childhood stage also extends further into the winter time whereas Gene transitions into the liminal state during the winter. After falling out of the tree and getting a broken leg, Finny seems to almost go back further into the childhood stage when he creates a false illusion inside his head that the war is fake and is only a scheme set up by fat, old men. He also displays his denial about the condition of his leg when he participates in the snowball fight, acting as if everything was normal and he had never even broken his leg. Likewise, Finny tries to train Gene for the Olympics by making him run around the track when in fact, he should have realized that the Olympics was not a possibility with the war happening around them. On the other hand, Gene is unlike Finny and as winter approached, he felt the atmosphere at Devon changing from light and carefree to a more serious and somber environment. He states that "Peace had deserted Devon. Although not in the look of the campus and village; they retained much of their dreaming summer calm... But all had been caught up, like the first fallen leaves, by a new and energetic wing. The Summer Sessions-- a few dozen boys being force-fed education, a stopgap while most of the masters were away and most of the traditions stored against sultriness-- the Summer Session was over... this was its one hundred and sixty-third Winter Session, and the forces reassembled for it scattered the easygoing summer spirit like so many fallen leaves" (Knowles 72). As school started once again, Gene developed a sense of loyalty to the war effort and in turn, he started to mature into an adult. During the liminal state, he displays his change in character when he volunteers to help shovel the snow near the railroad. Not only that, but he also even considers enlisting when Brinker brings up the idea. We can really see the excitement that the idea of enlisting invokes in Gene when he says "I felt a thrill when he [Brinker] said it... I think I had been waiting for a long time for someone to say this so that I could entertain these decisive words to myself" (100). We then finally see Finny move to the liminal state when he realizes how much he has suffered at the trial when he decides to point out that Leper, who always recalls even the slightest of details, was there when he fell out of the tree. Towards the end of the novel, Finny finally reaches the adulthood stage when he realizes his own disability and comes to terms that the war is indeed real. Gene also reaches the adulthood stage at the end when the enlists in the navy.
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Post by Emily Werkheiser on Oct 29, 2015 20:41:26 GMT
Amy, I think that you make a very good point about Devon also serving as a safe haven for Gene and Finny. As you stated, although the war is currently going on, the school protects the boys from the real dangers of battle. For example, Leper enlists in the war with a sheltered and innocent perception of what he is getting into, seeing as though he thinks it will be a good chance to ski and tour the countryside. As Leper goes off to war, the other boys remain in the safe boundaries of the Devon school where they think of war in a glorified and Hollywood-like manner. It is not until Leper returns after having experienced the war and outside world firsthand that Gene is exposed to the harsh reality of what war really does to a person.
Additionally, your parallel between the change in seasons and the three stages of maturation is very insightful. I especially agree with your observation about how the starting of school after the summer session correlates to when Gene moves firmly into the liminal state.
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Post by Ms. McGettigan on Oct 30, 2015 0:23:07 GMT
This is a really great and thorough analysis of the importance of the setting- well done, ladies! Setting works on so many levels in the novel, and you have definitely brought a lot of them to light here.
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Post by ryanwalchonski on Oct 31, 2015 19:16:16 GMT
What I think is interesting is that the boys spend the entirety of the book thinking about, discussing or playing war. By the time they graduate, the war was coming to a close. Although it wasn't finished yet, it takes months if not a year to train new recruits to be ready for battle or whatever their occupation will be. As Gene states, when he enlisted, he was never even in the war because it ended soon after the boys graduated. The same would go for Brinker who enlisted in the Coast Guard to drive the Amphibious Boats that was used to bring men from the staging ships to the landing beaches. At this point in the war, there were not any big amphibious-to-beach landings that would require mass conscription of drivers.
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