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Broken Branches A Separate Peace Analysis Project . By Jose Lara & Chris Chavez. Thesis Statement . Throughout A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses “The Tree” to symbolize both aspects of the friendship, and jealousy between Finny and Gene at the Devon School. . Suicide Society .
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Broken BranchesA Separate Peace Analysis Project By Jose Lara & Chris Chavez
Thesis Statement Throughout A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses “The Tree” to symbolize both aspects of the friendship, and jealousy between Finny and Gene at the Devon School.
Suicide Society • “We’ll form a suicide society, and the membership requirement is one jump out of this tree” – Page 31 • The following passage shows how Finny and Gene share a close “friendship”. They form a Suicide Society and following this passage Gene almost falls out of the tree, luckily Finny reaches out and saves him.
Finny Saves Gene • “If I had fallen awkwardly enough I could have been killed. Finny had practically saved my life. ” – Page 32 • This quote shows how Gene is not as grateful as he should be, Finny saved his life and he says “Finny had practically saved my life” Finny kind of takes Gene for granted and does not really appreciate the fact that he did in fact save his life.
Gene Makes Finny Fall • “Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud. It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear of this forgotten.”
Gene Makes Finny Fall Continued • There are many arguments you can make as to why Gene does make Finny fall, Gene may have had remnants of those feelings left over in his mind, and may have subconsciously considered pushing Finny off the branch. The subconscious thought than transpired into real life when Gene accidentally jolted Finny off the of the tree. You have to remember that Gene only shook the branch by bending his knees, he did not physically push Finny off the tree. Making Finny fall does show feelings of contradicting friendship and jealousy.
Conclusion In conclusion throughout A Separate Peace, John Knowles uses “The Tree” to symbolize both aspects of the friendship, and jealousy between Finny and Gene at the Devon School.