Post by Emily Werkheiser on Oct 29, 2015 20:24:42 GMT
The use of first person narrative in A Separate Peace heavily contributes to how the meaning of this coming of age story is relayed to the reader. Throughout the story, Gene experiences a lot of confusion and internal conflict pertaining to his purpose as a male during the time of war, his relation to his peers, and human nature/ people’s intentions. He constantly struggles to cope with and comprehend the different feelings that he begins to experience, such as jealousy, guilt, and anger. Because Gene does not frequently discuss with others how he is truly feeling and the internal conflicts that he is trying to figure out how to overcome, the first person narration is crucial to one’s understanding of Gene’s coming of age. This in turn gives greater understanding to the meaning of the novel. Gene’s long and complex internal process of coming to terms with the reality of life is all part of his experience in the liminal state. Therefore, the use of first person narration to explicate this state contributes to one of the overall meanings of the novel that adulthood is most successfully achieved when one makes an attempt to understand what is going on around them, why people do what they do, and what kind of person they want to be in life.
