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Post by jordanhilker on Oct 28, 2015 0:30:49 GMT
It is obvious that first person point of view is very important in A Separate Peace. This is because the whole story is told through the main character’s point of view. The main character, Gene, goes through childhood, liminal state and adulthood throughout the book and with first person, the reader can see how he gets through it. The reader is able to read how Gene is feeling throughout the story. Also, the reader is informed on why Gene pushed his best friend, Phineas, out of the tree. No one knows right away that Gene was the reason why Phineas fell except for the reader and Gene of course. It is not until later that the other characters find out that Phineas’ accident was caused by his best friend. Without first person point of view, the reader would be confused as to why Gene would push Phineas out of the tree. Because it is first person, the reader knows that Gene did it because he was jealous of Phineas. Phineas was popular and always knew what to do, so this made Gene envy his friend a little bit. The reader is informed with the internal struggle Gene goes through after he pushed his friend. He is faced with the guilt throughout the book when other characters start to realize that Gene could have been the reason why Phineas fell out of the tree. Another part of the story where first person point of view is very important is when Phineas dies. When Phineas dies, the reader can see how Gene feels about it. Gene even thinks that when Phineas died, it feels like he was the one who actually died. Overall, First person point of view is one of the most important literary terms seen in A Separate Piece. The reader is able to read the book through Gene’s point of view and see the thought he felt during different events.
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Post by jillian on Oct 28, 2015 1:16:19 GMT
I completely agree that the point of view in "A Separate Peace" is very pertinent in understanding the story and its meaning. "A Separate Peace" has a first person point of view, which means we get to see everything that Gene does and thinks.
From this point of view, we really get to see the internal struggle that Gene has with himself after jouncing Finny off of the limb of the tree. He feels immense guilt towards the situation and tries on several different occasions to admit to Finny that he intentionally tried to make him fall. One of the themes of the story is internal conflict and dealing with the evil found within yourself. From any other point of view, we would not get to see that torment that Gene goes through when he discovers how evil he can really be. It really adds to his character development as he find his who he truly is.
If we were to read the story through Finny's point of view, we would not see any internal conflict that makes the story what it is. We would read very childish thoughts and emotions since Finny tries to hold on to his childhood for as long as possible. We would see many thoughts that deny that Gene ever did anything and we would not get to see up close how a character develops from childhood to liminal to adulthood in the very descriptive way we see it in Gene. Finny stays in his childhood longer than any character in the story and even tries to regress when he finally does reach his liminal state. We would not fully understand the theme of development and becoming an adult since Finny transitions very quickly at the very end of the book.
If we were to read this from a minor character in the book, we wouldn't even really get a fully detailed account of the tree jouncing, and we wouldn't get to be close up to the conflict. We would see the event, but not have a true understanding of how it contributed to the story as a whole.
Additionally, from Gene's point of view we are able to deeply analyze the theme of discovering ones own identity. We see Gene go through all of the phases of childhood to adulthood. We can get a full detailed account of how Gene develops and deals with the trauma that has ensued.
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Post by jkeeney on Oct 29, 2015 10:18:37 GMT
Going off of Jordan, it is easy to see why Gene did what he did to Finny because we know what he is thinking and feeling. This is important because Gene immediately starts to regret what he did to Finny and the things he thought Finny would do to sabotage him. First person is key here because it shows how guilty Gene is and how he wants to fix it afterwards. As a reader, we do not know what Finny believes to be true at first, but we get to see the struggle that Gene goes through and being constantly reminded of his actions. I think in a way this helps him to grow up slightly and admit to himself and Phineas what actually happened. Another time that the first person point of view is important is when Gene goes to visit Leper. Gene is again questioned about the incident in the tree and he sort of freaks out and kicks Leper over. It is interesting to see how his views change and how he is the one who doesn't want to hear about the war anymore. This is like when Finny tries to get Gene to stop talking about the war and pushes him back. When we see this, it is easy to tell that Gene wants to move forward but doesn't know how. The fact that we can finally see how he feels about the war from the first person point of view shows that when he finally does have the chance to grow up and be included in the war, he freaks out and hides from it because he sees what it has done to Leper.
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sko
New Member
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Post by sko on Oct 29, 2015 22:05:12 GMT
I agree with everything that has been said here, but I wanted to add on:
A first person point of view is important because it feels more personal to the readers. It's also important to note whether or not the narrator is reliable or not. It's assumed that Gene is reliable now because he is an adult, looking back on the past, but we don't really know what's true and what's not true. We don't know if Gene remembers things correctly and/or if he really did "jounce the limb". We also don't know his experiences from the end of his time at Devon to the first chapter (when he goes back). Though better suited for adulthood than Leper, war still could have changed Gene and his view on his past.
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Post by Ms. McGettigan on Oct 30, 2015 0:18:22 GMT
Awesome conversation on point of view here, and you guys are bringing up some great questions for your classmates- is Gene a reliable narrator? How would the story be different if it were from a different point of view, either through another character's eyes or in third person? What happened between leaving Devon and going back to visit-has he been thinking about Finny all these years? Has it haunted him?
Very thought-provoking and interesting- keep it up!
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