Loss of Innocence in A Separate Peace Essay

A Separate Peace

Innocence is like a parent. It keeps you from seeing the reality in the world. Until the parent thinks the time is right, someone will see everything in a simple way. Only when the time is right will someone see the wickedness of the world and know the real way of life. And what happens when the time is right? In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, he expresses the truth that the events in Gene and Finnys life prompt a loss of innocence among the boys of Devon. He shows this theme through similes, irony, and foreshadowing.

John Knowles uses similes to show the theme that events in Gene and Finnys life reveal a loss of innocence among the boys at Devon. The two sharp groups of noises sounded to my ears like rifles being fired in the distance (Knowles 151). In this quote Gene compares noise he hears like rifles, which could be used in war. This shows the theme by showing that Gene knows war is real, and he is not afraid to admit it, unlike Finny who does not think the war is real. This occurs to show a difference of thoughts between two best friends, and to show that Gene lost his innocence in the subject of war. They unrolled away impervious to me as though I were a roaming ghost, not only tonight but always, as thought I had never played on them a hundred times, as thought my feet had never touched them, as though my whole life at Devon had been a dream, or rather that everything at Devon, the playing fields, the gym, the water hole, and all the other buildings and all the people there were intensely real, wildly alive and totally meaningful, and I alone was a dream, a figment which had never really touched anything (Knowles 189). This quote relates to the theme because Gene is at the stadium remembering how things used to be at Devon, until he lost his innocence when Finny hurt his ankle. He feels like everything he had once known was a dream, and now he woke up into the reality of the real world. In Contemporary Literary Criticism book, The Leap in Time says, But one of the things the novelist seems to be saying is that the enemy Gene killed, and loved, is the one every man must kill: his own youth, the innocence that burns too hotly to be endured (The Leap 96). Gene loses his innocence when he admits he pushed Finny out of the tree. He is finally owning up to his wrong doings and facing the cruel consequences in reality. This realization also shows that still needs Finny as a best friend.

Knowles also uses irony to demonstrate this theme. We members of the Class of 1943 were moving very fast toward the war now, so fast that there were casualties even before we reached it, [] (Knowles 187). In this quote Knowles expresses the theme by irony. It is ironic that there are losses even before they go to war. They lose their innocence of the war before they even go to war and fight and really know what were is and what it does to you. One day in the Butt Room he read aloud a rumor in a newspaper about an attempt on Hitlers life. He lowered the paper, gazed in a visionary way in front of him, and then remarked, That was Leper, of course (Knowles 126). This quote is ironic because Leper does not really do much when he is away at war, and all his friends back at Devon believe he is doing all these things. Leper, then, loses his innocence when he actually experiences what war really is. This effects the characters in ways that they are now realizing the truth in life and wanting to let everyone experience it without being hurt. Gene will renounce the Eden-like summer peace of Devon and, in so doing, both fall from innocence and at the same time prepare himself for the second world war. [] (Ellis 2). As Gene is preparing himself for the second world war, there is an actual Second World War going on. This is ironic because Devon is a school meant to shelter the students from the war when actually the war seems to be coming to them. This makes Gene lose his innocence because he is experiencing war even before he is meant to and he has a feel of what it could be like.

John Knowles uses foreshadowing to show the theme that events in Gene and Finnys life show a loss of innocence among the boys at Devon. Loyalties became hopelessly entangled. No one was going to win or lose after all (Knowles 154). This quote foreshadows the last trial because it is telling how everyone changes their ways. It helps to show the theme because Gene realizes that no one person in particular will win or lose. This helps him mature and to know how people in the real world are and how easily people change no matter what the situation is. From the high ceiling one of the celebrated Devon chandeliers, all glittering tears, scattered thin illumination (Knowles 165). In this quote, Knowles foreshadows Finny being upset with Gene after his second fall by referring to glistening tears. This shows the theme because Finny realizes Gene made a mistake and he learns that no one is perfect. The school itself, gradually losing something of its relaxed, patrician manner as the war draws closer, is described with precision and economy (School Reports). This quote is saying how as the war draws nearer to the school it loses its purpose of keeping the boys away from the war. It foreshadows how the boys change because of the war and the war between each other. And it shows how the boys lose their innocence for the reason that of the war getting involved more with the school and they are realizing their true selves and the truth in their friends.

John Knowles expresses the truth that events in Gene and Finnys life prompt a loss of innocence among the boys at Devon. In this novel, this theme is shown through similes, irony, and foreshadowing. It has been shown that innocence is acting like parent caring for the children. Only when Gene, Finny and the other boys were ready, did the parent disappear and the children were fully exposed to the real truth of malevolence in the world. They finally lose their innocence and become people of the world everyone must come to know when they are ready and willing.