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Like we did for To Kill a Mockingbird, we will explore another timeless novel, A Separate Peace, with a class blog. You will be required to write every night. Remember, just like listening in class, on the blog you also need to be "listen." You want to write with depth and insight and do your best to push the conversation. Inspire each other. In this time of "on-line" learning this is more important than ever. Make sure your writing is perfectly polished. Have fun.

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On pages 52-54, how does Gene’s view of their relationship change? (Be sure to explain his usage of enmity). What does he think of it? How do you know this? Why does he feel this way? Do you think it is accurate? Why or why not? - Medina

In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene see’s his friendship with Finny differently after he had some thoughts about whether Finny was actually his friend or if Finny was just trying to bring him down. Gene see’s Finny as someone who is trying to prevent him from getting good grades in school rather than as his best pal like he viewed him before. Gene believes that all the things Finny would do with him was just meant to take away time from him studying. Gene thinks to himself, “That explained Blitzball, that explained the Nightly meetings of the Super Suicide Society, that explained his insistence that I share all his diversions.”(53) This shows that Gene thinks that Finny invited him to these things just so that Gene could do worse in school. Gene convinces himself that Finny calculated all of this just so that he could get ahead of Gene. It is clear that Gene thinks this due to what he thinks to himself. Gene thinks to himself that, “It was all cold trickery,...
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Chapter 8: What does the conversation about enlisting reveal about Finny and Gene’s relationship (p107-108)? Provide at least two specific examples. - Ollie McNamara

In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, while Finny is out of school due to  his leg injury, Gene decides that he wants to enlist in the war.  When Finny finds this out  he becomes very irritated with Gene and exclaims, “‘Enlist!’ Cried Finny at the same time.   His large and clear eyes turned with an odd expression on me.  I had never seen such a look  on the before.’” (107) Without the ability to play sports, Finny feels lost in his life and is  jealous that Gene can go to the war.  When Gene realizes this he responds to Finny telling him  it was just a crazy idea anyway, and even shames Brinker to make Finny feel better:  “Enlist! What a nutty idea.  It’s just Brinker wanting to get there first again.  I wouldn’t  enlist with you if you were General MacArthur’s eldest son.”(108) With this new dynamic  in Finny and Genes' relationship, Gene is compromising his wants and needs to make F...
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3) Why does Finny organize the Winter Carnival? Why is this significant? What is the impact and symbolism of the Winter Carnival? (Chapter 9)

Finny organizes the winter carnival to try and make it feel as though life has gone back to what it was in the summertime. He and Gene were naive and happy. Finny was great at sports, and he and Gene could play around all day. During this time, when Finny and Gene are walking back to the school, Gene thinks, “We were the best of friends at that moment...underfoot the healthy green turf was brushed with dew… we could see a faint green haze hanging above the grass, shot through with twilight sun.”(18) In this scene, Knowles portrays the Devon School as innocent. He uses the weather to show the student’s and teacher’s thoughts and feelings highlighting that they are naive about the war and reality. As Knowles changes the season to winter, students begin to enlist and teachers become stricter, while the weather becomes more dreary. Finny sees this and wishes he could go back to the summertime when life was easy and simple. He asks Gene to help him to make a carnival. This is significant b...
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