In John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, a text-to-world connection can be made as World War II is actively being fought around the world during the events of the novel. The war is very much a part of the boys’ lives evident through the rigorous physical education classes, lack of maids, and the many absent seniors, and some younger professors, that have already enlisted into the war. Gene Forrester, the novel’s protagonist, is affected by the war in many ways. He sees the changes around him and rightfully assumes that he too along with his fellow classmates will be required to enlist when the time comes.
Another connection, a text-to-text connection, can be made to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Gene is a prime example of the innate savage in human beings, his actions of jealously and hatred that indirectly lead to Phineas’ death support just this. In Lord of the Flies, school boys are stranded on an island without parental supervision giving them the utmost freedom. With this freedom the savages inside the boys are allowed to run wild and subsequently it results in the deaths of many of the boys. Both titles reinforce the natural brutality of some persons.
I think connecting A Separate Peace to Lord of the Flies is a really good connection! In a way, in both novels, a group of boys are secluded in their own world, whether it be an island or a boarding school, and they deal with the trials of adolescence as well as war and discontent between countries on a national level. The level of freedom the boys in both scenarios are given definitely adds to their experiences and how they cope with the issues they face. The deaths of characters in both novels correlate to represent how too much freedom and childhood without constraints, when provoked by external distress such as war, leads to negative repercussions as extreme as death itself.
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ReplyDeleteYour comparison of Gene to that of the savage kids in the Lord of the Flies was great in that the complex character of Gene can be compared to that of the lost children in the Lord of the Flies. This is a great way to demonstrate the author's purpose in making the main character complex and with many internal conflicts and how that conveys the main theme. I too compared the novel to world events in that World War II was mentioned greatly due to it's significance in the 1940's. I think you did a wonderful job in making your text connections and analyzing them more than some might have.
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