A Separate Peace Bildungsroman

1. A Separate Peace Bildungsroman By: Alexis Moore and Addy Smyth

2. Thesis • In a separate peace by John Knowles , is a great example of a bildungsroman because most of the characters like Gene or Leper realize that maybe the life they want is a life they can not handle.

3. Bildungsroman • The physiological maturation of a character, the character changes throughout the story

4. Pg. 53 • “ Then a second realization broke as clearly and bleakly as dawn at the beach. Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies.” • Gene is trying to tell Phineas that he does not believe they are best friends

5. Pg. 62 • “ I decided to put on his clothes, We wore the same size and although he always criticized mine he used to wear them frequently, quickly forgetting what belonged to him and what to me.” • Gene is telling the reader that he does not know who he is so he is trying to be like Phineas.

6. Pg.137 • “ I have escaped and need help I am at the Christmas Location you understand . No need to risk address here my safety depends on you coming at once.” • Leper is at his breaking point and realizing the military is not where he belongs.

7. Pg.151 • “ I don’t care what happened to you ,Leper don’t you understand that? This has nothing to do with me! nothing at all! I don’t care.” • When Gene is told what happened to leper, the author is foreshadowing that Gene’s storybook life will soon come crashing down. Leper helped Gene to start breaking down.

8. Pg.177 • “ “You get the rest of the facts Brinker!” He cried. “You get all your facts.” I had never seen Finny crying.” • Gene and Phineas are realizing what is happening, and every one wants to see if Gene really did push Finny out of the tree.

9. Pg. 179 • “ finny lay isolated at the center of a tight circle of faces. The rest of the crowd looked on from above or below on the stairs, and I stood on the lower edge.” • Gene realizes if the other boys were to know that he did push Phineas out of a tree they would all hate him. He is realizing that there are consequences to his actions.

10. Pg. 185 • “I'm sorry, I said blindly, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” • Gene is starting to discover that these bad events may be happening to him because he is trying to be someone he is not.

11. Pg. 194 • “ I did not cry then or ever about Finny. I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family's strait – laced burial ground outside of Boston. I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral and you do not cry in that case.” • Gene is discovering that he was trying to be Finny and now that Finny is gone he does not know who to be anymore.

12. Pg. 197 • “None of them accused me of being responsible of what happened to Phineas , either because they could not believe it or else because they could not understand.” • Gene feels he is at fault for Phineas’s death and is unsure whether he wants the other boys to know about what he did to Phineas.

13. Pg. 203 • “Forlornly open and abandoned, the locker unlocked. This was more final than the moment when the headmaster handed me my diploma .My schooling was now over” • Gene is greatful that school is over so he can be himself although the reader is not given evidence on who Gene is.

14. Pg 204 • “ Only Phineas was never afraid, only Phineas never hated anyone” • Gene has realized that Finny was never trying to be his enemy as Gene assumed him to be. Finny had always tried to be his friend.

15. Pg. 204 • “ Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.” • This statement shows how Gene feels at Devon and how Gene is feeling about his relationship with Finny. Gene seemed to think that Finny was his enemy and not his best friend.

16. Conclusion • In conclusion the changes in the characters in the novel A Separate Peace make this novel a great example of a Bildungsroman.