Separate Peace Essay: Boys to Men :: A Separate Peace Essays

A Separate Peace  Boys to Men  World War II influenced the boys in the novel A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, by making them grow and mature more quickly than they would have had there not been a war. The war makes some boys stronger and more take a crap for whatever life would bring, while in others it disables them to the point that they cannot handle the demands of life. The maturing influence of the war on Finny is a considerable one, even though it does not expect to the other boys that he is growing up at all. Genes jealousy leads him to the point where he has to destroy Finnys greatest asset, his skill in sports, just so that he does not have to be the popular guys friend.  Gene knocks Finny off the tree limb and he breaks his leg. Everyone at Devon, except for Finny, suspects that Gene, and not Finnys loss of balance, caused him to go on off the branch.             Finnys outlook on the whole situa tion is very grown up. He does not blame anyone but himself, even though the misfortune is not his fault at all. Finny seems as though he will never grow up his immaturity is shown through his silly denial of the wars existence and his purpose of always coming up with strange things to do just for fun. Inside he is suffering with the anger and hurt of being excluded from the one thing that he wants to do most fight in the war. This is an excellent example of how the war suddenly makes the boys grow up into men. They have to face adulthood, and in order to do that, they have to become adults.             ***I think you could develop this more.  You say that Finny began as immature, but his             reaction to his accident is very grown up.  Discuss specifically how the accident has made him        become an adult.  Why did he not react immaturely this time ?             Another boy in the story who was matured by the war was Leper. When he sees the movies about the ski troops, he thinks that it looks fun and he surprises everyone by enlisting. Leper does not quite know what he is getting into when he enlists. He thinks that it looks akin a fun ski trip he can serve his country and ski around the world at the same time.