Hello English II Honors Students!
Your summer reading assignment is A Separate Peace by John Knowles. In addition to reading the novel, you will need to complete the assignment packet below as you read. Print out and complete the worksheets, and answer the section questions on separate paper. Transfer the vocabulary words to Devil notes (Cornell notes) for studying. Bring the packet to school with you on your first day – it will be due on August 19! Also, be prepared for additional assignments and/or quizzes on the novel during your first week. Don’t forget to study the vocabulary! Please think about the book as you read. In English I Honors, you were introduced to literary elements such as themes, conflict, climax, resolution and characterization. You should also be familiar with symbolism, foreshadowing, irony and other literary devices. To fully understand and appreciate the depth of the author’s work, you should be considering how these elements appear as you read. These assignments should help you focus on the book at a deeper level. There are several English II Honors teachers at St. Petersburg High School, and you won’t know which teacher you will have until the schedules appear on Portal near the opening of school in August. All the English II Honors teachers will be expecting this packet to be completed on the first day, but each may have additional assignments or quizzes that vary. If you have any questions about the packet, please email me, and I will be happy help. Enjoy your summer! We are looking forward to seeing you in August! Ms. Davis
Ms. Leila Davis English II Honors St. Petersburg High School John
Knowles author of , A Separate Peace
Background
Author John Knowles was born in 1926 in Fairmont, West Virginia, deep in the heart of coal-­‐mining country. Although some of his works reflect his West Virginia roots—in A Vein of Riches, for example, he tells the story of an early twentieth-­‐century miners strike—Knowles’s best-­‐known works are set in New England. His father and mother were originally from Massachusetts, and the family often spent summer vacations there. Knowles’s love of New England stems from his experiences as a student. At the age of fifteen, he applied to an elite New Hampshire boarding school, Phillips Exeter Academy. Much to his surprise, he was admitted. At first, Knowles felt out of place. He has said that his classmates seemed “too eastern for me, too Yankee, too tough,” and that he found the New Hampshire winter “breathtakingly cold.” Moreover, his grades were not the best. He admits: It quickly seemed probable that I would flunk out. . . . Then somehow or other I knuckled down, learned by myself how to study, discovered I had a brain which had more potential than a knack for writing, and by the end of that first term, I was passing every course comfortably. . . . Meanwhile, I was falling in love with Exeter. Knowles’s affection for the school is reflected in his first—and most famous—novel, A Separate Peace. Shortly after Knowles entered Exeter, the United States declared war on Japan and entered World War II. Like other young men of the time, Knowles went into the military after he graduated from high school. He trained to be a pilot in the United States Army Air Force aviation program, but when the war ended he decided to go back to school. He attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1949. During his twenties, Knowles traveled and earned a living as a freelance writer. He wrote the stories “Phineas” and “A Turn in the Sun,” which were to form the core of A Separate Peace. Knowles then took a job as an associate editor of a travel magazine. Early each morning, before going to the office, he worked on A Separate Peace. The novel, which was first published in England in 1959 and the United States in 1960, proved to be a success—so much that Knowles was able to resign from his job and devote his time to writing and to travel. Since then, Knowles has written a variety of novels, a short story collection, a travel book, and several essays. None of these works has been as successful as A Separate Peace, but the fact does not seem to trouble him. He says that because he does not write with a particular audience in mind he is delighted that he has found any audience at all. Knowles may be too modest. He is likely to continue to have an audience for many years to come. Knowles moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. in 1987 and died there in 2001. Introduction
to the Novel
It is unusual for an author’s first novel to earn awards and a wide audience, yet John Knowles’ A Separate Peace did just that. In 1960, the year that the novel was first published in the United States, the book won both the William Faulkner Award and the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award. About ten years later, the story was adapted for the screen and made into a movie. Today, A Separate Peace is standard reading in many high schools. A Separate Peace belongs to the genre of Bildungsroman. This is a German term that describes a novel whose main character matures over time, usually from childhood. Sometimes these are called coming-­‐
of-­‐age novels. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, which most of you read last year, is also a Bildungsroman novel. Knowles based the writing of his novel on events that occurred during his summer at Phillips Exeter Academy. This personal story is placed against the general background of World War II, a war that threatens his future and the future of his classmates. From this melding of the personal and the global, Knowles has created a story in which the main character fights and inner battle with his destructive self within the larger context of the World War. A Separate Peace – along with books such as Lord of the Flies and The Catcher in the Rye – portray both psychological conflicts and physical battles among schoolboys As in those novels, the main characters are angry teenage boys who are not completely reliable as narrators. In A Separate Peace, Gene’s conflict is a mixture of reality and perception, so the reader must keep in mind the filtering of consciousness through which the story is presented. The novel portrays the conflicts and illusions of adolescence. It encapsulates the sadness of leaving childhood, the pull of adulthood, and the ultimate confusion inherent in the passage from one stage to the other. The action takes place during the early years of America’s involvement in World War II, a period in which many teenaged boys faced a difficult decision: Should they enlist or wait to be drafted into the armed services? As a teenager during World War II, Knowles himself faced this decision, and he drew on memories of this experience and others to portray what it is like to be a young man during wartime. Although World War II affects the lives of the characters in the story, it would be wrong to call A Separate Peace a novel about the war. The story does not take place overseas, in the thick of battle, but rather in the United States, at a fictional New England boys’ school named Devon. THE TIME AND PLACE The central story of A Separate Peace begins less than a year after the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Shortly after the surprise bombing, which claimed the lives of more than 2,000 U.S. soldiers, the United States entered World War II. During the 1930s, when international conflicts began to erupt in Asia, most Americans did not want the United States to become involved in conflicts overseas. As other conflicts erupted and spread, many Americans sympathized with the plight of longtime allies, and their fight against Nazi Germany. However, recalling the pain and horror of World War I, most Americans still wanted the United States to remain neutral. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, however, the opinion of the American public almost immediately shifted to favor U.S. involvement, and the people quickly readied themselves for war. In 1940, when the U.S. government instituted the first peacetime draft in the nation’s history, all men aged twenty-­‐one through thirty-­‐five were required to register for military service. After the United States entered the war, the registration age was lowered to eighteen. Many young men did not wait to be drafted; patriotism was at an all-­‐time high, and teenagers often felt that it was their duty to enlist. The war brought changes to the American economy and lifestyle. The military needed weapons, and this need created jobs. The American people did all they could to aid the country. They attended rallies, bought war bonds, conserved fuel and rubber by carpooling, and planted “victory gardens” to supplement the sometimes meager supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. Americans tolerated the sometimes frustrating lack of everyday items such as shoes, but found other shortages considerably less tolerable. For example, in a popular song of the time, “They’re Either Too Young or Too Old,” a woman laments the shortage of eligible men. John Knowles, in an article about his school days, describes how the “man shortage” at home in the States, changed the makeup of the Exeter faculty: All the faculty . . . were between fifty and seventy years old when I first entered Exeter in the fall of 1942. I had a young French teacher and one other young teacher but they had left for the war by midyear. All of the faculty on the campus were so much older than we were, that we had no connection with them. They were just too old, too tired, and too busy. One of the reasons that [the main characters in A Separate Peace ] develop this intensely close friendship is that they had no one to relate to; no older person to pattern themselves on, to look and talk things over with. . . . In short, American life, as it had been, changed “for the duration”—a phrase that meant “until the end of the war.” To the characters in A Separate Peace, “for the duration” seems very long indeed. THE NOVEL AT A GLANCE Structure and Point of View: The novel is an extended flashback told in the first person by a narrator who, at time, inserts his adult thoughts into the narrative. Themes: coming-­‐of-­‐age, internal and external conflicts, the relationship between war and peace, the nature of friendship, change. The story can also be viewed as an allegory. Conflict: The conflicts among the boys are paralleled by the major conflict of the war, which looms over the boys future. Major symbols: Look for the symbolism of the tree, the marble staircase, the river, the Devon School, and the games, sports and clothing motifs that appear throughout the book. Active Reading,
Chapters 1-5
The relationship between Finny and Gene is at the heart of A Separate Peace. Gene tells the reader about Finny’s attitudes and comments on them. As you read, take notes, in the boxes below, on Finny’s ideas bout sports, studies, rules, and life in general. Also record Gene’s comments on those attitudes and the effect the attitudes have on him. Finny A natural athlete, leader, organizer, assumes he
will win and he does
Sports Gene Finny Studies Gene Finny Rules Outlooks on Life Gene Finny Gene Responding to Literature
Chapters 1-5
Please answer the following questions in complete sentences. Answer fully,
but keep your response concise and to-the-point.
1. What time of year does Gene return to Devon? What atmosphere, or mood, is created by setting the story during this season? 2. Describe Finny’s relationship with his teachers. What does the teachers’ attitude toward Finny suggest about his personality? 3. After the overnight trip to the beach, what does Gene decide that Finny is trying to do to him? What leads Gene to this conclusion? How does Gene feel when he realizes he is wrong? 4. Was jouncing on the tree limb a planned, conscious decision on Gene’s part, or an impulsive act? Examine the dialogue and events that occur just before and after the fall. Does Gene want to see Finny fall? If so, why? 5. Identify the protagonist and antagonist in the story. 6. What do you think each of the following symbols represent: Devon school, sports, the river, the tree? Vocabulary for Ch. 1-­‐5: anarchy : n. disorder; absence of rules effulgence: n. brightness, radiance enfeebled: adj. weakened; depleted indulgent: adj. permissive insidious: adj. treacherous, sly inure: v. to become used to something unpleasant inveigle: v. to entice; to trick into something latent: adj. lying hidden or undeveloped nondescript: adj. uninteresting; drab salient: n. something projecting outward sedate: adj. calm; serene tacit: adj. unspoken venerable: adj. worthy or respect due to age , wisdom Responding to Literature
Chapters 6-10:
Please answer the following questions in complete sentences. Answer fully,
but keep your response concise and to-the-point.
1. During World War II, to urge Americans to conserve, radio personalities repeated such slogans as “Use it Up! Wear it Out! Make it Do!” Women collected silk and nylon stockings to be used as gun powder bags. What relevance do these efforts have to today’s American society? 2. Contrast the mood at Devon during the summer and fall sessions. What factors may account for this change in mood? 3. What is Finny’s theory about the war? How might his injury have influenced his feelings toward the war? 4. Has the symbolism of the river changed in this section of the book? 5. What is ironic about Gene’s decision to stay at Devon with Finny instead of enlisting to join the war? 6. Explain the “separate peace” that the boys achieve during the Carnival. Vocabulary for Ch. 6-­‐10: austerity: n. sternness of look or manner extrovert : n. outgoing person who enjoys the company of other people funereal: adj. solemn as befitting a funeral gullible: adj. easily tricked; naive idiosyncratic: adj. peculiar; eccentric implausibility: n. unlikeliness; believability misbegotten: adj. wrongly or badly conceived reticent: adj. silent or uncommunicative, restrained sinecure: n. position, usually salaried, that requires little or no work sultriness: n. humidity; heat vagaries: n. odd or eccentric actions or behaviors vindicated: v. cleared from guilt or suspicion Responding to Literature
Chapters 11-13:
Please answer the following questions in complete sentences. Answer fully,
but keep your response concise and to-the-point.
1. How does Brinker get Finny and Gene to attend the mock trial? Why do you thin Brinker is so determined to investigate the incident? 2. What understanding to Finny and Gene come to about the incident in the tree? Why does Finny say he doesn’t care about any of it? 3. Do you blame Gene for Finny’s death? Why or why not? 4. Is there any foreshadowing in this section of what will happen to Finny? 5. Both the internal and external conflicts reach their climax in this section. Please identify when these occur. 6. What is ironic about the inscription about the marble staircase? 7. After the war, the adult Gene says he never killed or hated during the war because he had killed his enemy while at school. Explain what he means by this. What enemy is he referring to? Vocabulary for Ch. 11-­‐13: assimilate: v. to absorb, Incorporate into one’s own thinking bellicose: adj. of quarrelsome and hostile nature cogitation: n. serious thought. meditation forlornly: adv. miserably; desolately impervious impervious: resistant; inaccessible incarnate: adj. in the flesh incomprehensible: adj. not understandable; mysterious incongruity: n. inconsistency; disharmony timbre n. the quality of a sound; tone torpidly: adv. slowly, sluggishly A Separate Peace
Character Chart
As you read the novel, fill in the names of the interconnecting characters as they carry out the actions described in the book.