A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Study Guide

Quotes: Identify who is speaking, to whom they are speaking and the context/significance of the quote.

Chapter 1

1. How does the narrator feel about being back at Devon? How much time has passed since he was a student there? Why do you suppose the author decided to tell the story as reminiscence instead of just starting his story in 1942?

2. How is the narrator surprised by the tree’s appearance? How does it seem different?

3. “Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence.”

4. “Standing on this limb, you could by a prodigious effort, jump out far enough into the river for safety.”

5. “[Finny] just considered authority the necessary evil against which happiness was achieved.”

6. What is the Maginot Line? (Look it up if you don’t know)

Chapter 2

1. How does Finny get himself and Gene out of trouble for skipping dinner?

2. “There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little.”

3. Finny is ‘a model boy who was most comfortable in the truant’s corner” (16). How do you explain this contradiction in terms? How is Finny different from some of the rule- breakers you know?

4. How does Finny avoid getting into trouble at the tea? Does he lie?

5. “I felt a stab of disappointment. That was because I wanted to see some more excitement; that must have been it.” 6. “Finny had practically saved my life”.

Chapter 3

1. Explain the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session:

2. Blitzball: What is it? Who develops it? Why?

3. What rules does Finny keep faithfully? How do these differ from those he doesn’t obey?

4. What is Gene’s reaction when Finny tells Gene to keep quiet about his breaking the swimming record? How does Gene interpret Finny’s motives? What do you think his motives were?

5. Why doesn’t Gene want to go to the beach? Why does he go?

6. How does Gene respond when Finny tells him that he is hi best pal? Why doesn’t Gene reciprocate? Do you think he should have forced himself to say something--- even if he didn’t mean it?

7. “Finny could shine with everyone, he attracted everyone he met...He was my roommate and my best friend.”

Chapter 4

1. What is significant in the rebirth motif at the beach? (Lazarus)

2. Why does Gene feel better when he thinks Finny has been sabotaging his efforts to be head of the class?

3. “I continued to attend [Suicide Society], because I didn’t want Finny to understand me as I understood him” 4. Why is Gene cleansed of all fear after Finny falls?

5. Describe the differences between Gene and Finny as students.

Chapter 5

1. “I thought I could reach out and get hold of you.” How does Gene react to this statement?

2. Why does Gene put on Finny’s clothes?

3. What effect does Finny’s injury have on Gene? the other students? the teachers?

4. Finny asks to see Gene. What is Gene’s guess as to why? What is the actual reason?

5. Why does Finny apologize to Gene? Do you agree with Finny’s new “commandment”—Never accuse a friend of a crime if you only have a feeling he did it--?

6. Why do you think Gene decides to tell Finny the truth? Do you think that is the right decision? Why doesn’t he follow through on the first visit in the infirmary?

7. What can you tell about Finny’s family background from his house?

8. How does Finny react when Gene admits that he caused the accident? Is Gene being virtuous—or selfish—by telling the truth? Why doesn’t he “take it back” when he sees Finny’s reaction?

Chapter 6

1. Contrast the summer and winter sessions. 2. What is the significance of Devon’s two rivers?

3. “Peace had deserted Devon”.

4. How is Brinker different from Leper?

5. What causes the disagreement between Gene and Quackenbush?

6. How can you tell that Gene has a lot of insight into why Quackenbush is so nasty? If Gene understands Quackenbush’s problem, why does he rise to the bit? Is it accurate to say that the argument arises from deeper resentments?

7. Why does Finny tell Gene that Gene has to play sports? Does he have the right to say that? How does Gene feel about this expectation Finny has for him?

Chapter 7

1. “But the truth will out.”

2. What is Brinker like? Would he be a friend of yours?

3. “Shut up! I swear you ride a joke longer than anybody I know.”

4. Pg. 92-93: At this point in Gene’s school year, what effect is the war having on Devon? How do the students at Devon react and respond to the fact that there is a World War going on at the time?

5. Why does Gene say they were “children playing among heroic men.”?

6. Why doesn’t Leper help the others shovel snow from the tracks? How do the others treat Leper? How would Upper Dublin students treat Leper? 7. How does Gene respond to Brinker’s declaration that he will enlist the next day?

8. “Everything that had happened throughout the day faded like the first false snowfall of the winter. Phineas was back.”

Chapter 8 1. “I have never forgotten the dazed look on Finny’s face when he thought on the first day of his return to Devon that I was going to desert him. I didn’t know why he had chosen me, why it was only to me that he could show the most humbling sides of his handicap.”

2. “Peace had come back to Devon for me.”

3. “I love winter. When you love something then it loves you back.” Do you agree with this assertion?

4. How does Gene reply to the above quote? What might be significant about his response?

5. What is Finny’s strange explanation for the war? Do you think he believes what he says? Why would Finny deny the war?

Chapter 9 1. Why does Leper enlist? Are you surprised that he is first? Do you think he is a victim of propaganda?

2. According to adult Gene, why might it have been better if Brinker had been first?

3. The Devon Winter Carnival: whose idea? activities? significance?

4. What is Finny’s choreography of peace? Explain. 5. “It wasn’t the cider which made me surpass myself, it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace.”

6. How does the tone change at the end of the chapter?

Chapter 10 1. What does Gene decide to do when he gets the telegram? What does that show about him? What else could he have done? 2. How has Leper changed?

3. What is a section eight discharge? Why didn’t Leper want it?

4. “You always were a savage underneath. I always knew it only I never admitted it.”

5. Why do you think Gene is so upset and angry? How would Finny have dealt with Leper?

Chapter 11 1. How is the snowball fight like blitzball?

2. What makes Finny give up his denial of the war?

3. According to Brinker, why is it important to mention Finny’s leg to Finny even to joke about it? Do you agree with Brinker?

4. Why do Brinker and his friends take Gene and Finny to the First Building? Do you think this is an act of cruelty? Why or why not?

5. “Ever since then I’ve had a feeling that the tree did that by itself. Almost as though the tree shook me out by myself”

6. Why does Finny leave the building crying and fall on the stairway? Would this second accident have happened if Leper had not returned to the campus? Would Gene have admitted the truth at the inquiry?

Chapter 12 1. As Gene watches Finny being carried by the others, he realizes why Finny had always accepted help from Gene. Why is that? Why doesn’t Gene aid Finny this time?

2. Describe Gene’s state of mind as he is in the grass outside of Finny’s hospital room.

3. Finny finally admits why he is making up the war story. What is his reason?

4. Does Finny forgive Gene? How would the lives of both have been different if they never had that last talk? How would you feelings about the story be different?

5. Why doesn’t Finny cry at the end of the chapter?

Chapter 13 1. What change occurs at the Devon Campus?

2. Why do you suppose no one blames Gene for what happened to Finny?

3. What does Gene believe causes war? (one of the main themes of the book)

4. Are you surprised that Gene and Brinker are still friends?

5. What is the significance in the reference to the Maginot Line?