Literature Analysis #3

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Literature Analysis #3

1. Summary: The exposition begins with Hazel Grace. She is a mature seventeen year old with cancer that affects her breathing. Her parents are very supportive and encourage Hazel Grace to take community classes and go to a support group for those who suffer medical conditions. Hazel Grace is comfortable with the fact that she will die soon, but goes to the support group to please her mother. There, she meets Augustus Waters who suffers from osteosarcoma causing him to have a prosthetic leg. Immediately, the two teenagers are attracted to one another and begin spending more time together. In the rising action, the reader goes through the friendship that surely grows into a beautiful relationship that Hazel Grace calls it, “their little infinity.” Hazel Grace recommends Augustus Waters to read her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten. It’s a novel about a girl with cancer and her life journey that Hazel automatically relates to. Waters loves the book as well as Hazel Grace. He stands by her through her medical roller-coaster and she does the same. Waters receives an email from Peter Van Houten’s assistant inviting them to consult with Van Housten himself and answer some questions they have about the ending. Augustus Waters spends him cancer “wish” on a trip to Amsterdam to visit Van Houten and vacation together, along with Hazel Grace’s parents. The meeting with Van Housten is very disappointing due to his drunk, indolent, and angry character. Grace and Waters try to enjoy the rest of their time in Amsterdam and become intimate on a new level. To put a slight damper on the trip, Waters announces his cancer has returned and will die in a couple months. The falling action is consumed in Hazel Grace’s attentiveness towards Augustus Waters. They plan his funeral and she writes him a final letter and they reenact his funeral. The resolution concludes the story with Augustus Waters dying and Hazel Grace attending his funeral. She is surprised to see Van Housten there as a surprise from Waters and sends him away. Before he leaves, Housten confesses his true motif for writing the story; his daughter died from cancer.

2. Theme: There are many themes within this novel, yet the one that stood out to me the most was identity. Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters struggle with their identify. When Augustus Waters asked Hazel Grace what her story is, then she replied with her medical story of her suffering from cancer and having terrible lungs. She never saw herself as beautiful, but only as a teenage girl with poor lungs who would eventually die soon. Augustus Waters brought significance into her life and showed her how incredible and unique she was. Augustus Waters, also, struggled with his identity. He wanted to be remembered and leave the Earth with a name of importance. He saw himself as insignificant and that brought him insecurity. Grace taught him to value the people who he loves the most and find importance in being everything to someone. This struggle was significant and interesting because the audience is reading about the struggle for identity before death for teenagers; an internal struggle that normally is reserved for a mature, elder person nearing the inevitable.

3. The author’s tone, I would describe as being very genuine and honest. Hazel Grace’s narration is very open and sincere to the reader. We learn about Hazel’s respect towards her parents through her thought process of whether or not to attend the support group. She relates the circumstance to her experience in the hospital, getting injected with poison from medical staff with only eighteen months of training. Her desire to make her parents happy is inevitable and never-ending. Another example is when Augustus says, “I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.” This is pure passion and demonstrates the romantic, genuine, raw tone that is displayed throughout the novel. Van Houten is honest in his remark to Hazel and Augustus, “Sick children inevitably become arrested: You are fated to live out your days as the child you were when diagnosed, the adults, we pity this, so we pay for your treatments, for your oxygen machines. We give you food and water though you are unlikely to live long enough--You are a side effect, of an evolutionary process that cares little for individual lives. You are a failed experiment in mutation.” Although this is absolutely harsh, it is honest of his feelings and, as a reader, I respect the opportunity to get to know each character through these honest remarks.

4. Ten literary elements/techniques that I observed that strengthened my understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or my sense of the tone includes allusions, Bildungsroman, characterization, point of view, euphemisms, tragedy, Epiphanies, and pathos.

Irony: It is ironic that Augustus Waters ends up dying first because, throughout the entire story, the audience is lead to believe that Hazel Grace’s terminal cancer will end her life first. However, Waters dies before Hazel. Augustus’s positive personality and masculine role of taking care of Hazel makes him seem stronger and healthier, but ironically, he is more unhealthy and ends up dying first. “Augustus Waters died eight days after his prefuneral, at Memorial, in the UCU, when the cancer, which was made of him, finally stopped his heart, which was also, made of him.” (p.261)

Personification: hazel Grace’s cancer is seen as a person instead of a disease. It is seen as a murderer instead of some evil mutation without a soul. “It demands to be felt,” on page 63 describes how the cancer is such a significant part of their lives and that demands attentive care or it will act out in rage just like a person would.

Allusion: Hazel Grace alludes to a lot of things throughout the story. For example, “Everyone in this tale has a rock-solid hamartia: hers, that she is so sick; yous, that you are so well. Were she better or you sicker, then the stars would not be so terribly crossed, but it is the nature of the stars to cross, and never was Shakespeare more wrong than when he had Cassius note, ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.’” Normally Hazel alludes to the bible, but she also alludes to several books because of her love for reading. She is a very education girl for her age so all these references and relationships that she ties her everyday experiences demonstrates this educational character of hers.

Bildungsroman: This talks about Hazel Grace’s development as a character educationally and spiritually. The entire narrative revolves around Hazel’s character development with her and Augustus, her identity before death, and her relationship spiritually that gives her strength and hope through it all. “I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.” (p.260) Hazel was a completely different person when she said this at Augustus’s prefuneral. At this time she was confident, strong, special, and felt important.

Characterization: Other characters try to be nice and understand, but never truly understand Augustus and Hazel like they do for each other. It only took a couple of days before they connected on such a personal level. “You are not a grenade, not to us. Thinking about you dying makes us sad, Hazel, but you are not a grenade. You are amazing. You can’t know, sweetie, because you’ve never had a baby become a brilliant young reader with a side interest in horrible television shows.” (p.103) Hazel’s parents are depicted as caring and love their daughter to pieces, but don’t understand Hazel like Augustus does.

Point of View: This is probably the most important literary element of the novel because, without this, we would never understand Hazel or Augustus on such a personal level which makes the whole novel so significant, interesting, inspiring, and beautiful. “I almost felt like he was there in my room with me, but in a way it was better, like I was not in my room and hew as not in his, but instead we were together in some invisible and tenuous third space.” (p.72) The audience understands Hazel through her thoughts, stream of conscious, and point of view.

Euphemisms: Hazel likes to be perceived as simple and nothing exaggerated, but the reader catches her exaggerations from time to time. For example, Hazel and Augustus are tiered of life and cannot stand their circumstances. “It was unbearable. The whole thing. Every second worse than the last.” (p.262) This is when Augustus dies and Hazel was devastated, but she was able to make it through even though she said it was “unbearable.”

Tragedy: The story is tragic because Augustus and Hazel and so young and suffer cancer. They find every reason to live with their extreme maturity granting them such strength spiritually. It’s tragic that such intelligent, spirited, mature, beautiful people who found a love so rare have to part due to cancer.. especially at such a young age.

Epiphanies: Hazel’s epiphany in Amsterdam changes the way she views the world after meeting Van Houten. “Something inside me welled up and I reached down and smacked the swollen hand that held the glass of Scotch. What remained of the Scotch splashed across the vast expanse of his face, the glass bouncing off his nose then spinning balletically through the air.” (p.193-194) She built her life off of his book and meeting him in person made her realize that everything she admired and everything she answered to had been a lie. That’s when she understood that life could disappoint and that she was the strength that made it through, not the author that gave her strength. She also realized that there isn’t an answer to everything.

Pathos: This novel’s tragedy of cancer and death appealed to pathos, the emotional side of the audience. “I wrapped my arms all the way around my mom’ smiddle and they held on to me for house while the tide rolled in.” (p.267) This was after Augustus died and Hazel was complexly shattered. Her situation created for an empathetic feel from the reader through pathos. 

Literature Analysis #2

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

1.       The exposition introduces the setting and characters. The story takes place during the Great Depression in Lorain, Ohio and two African American sisters, Claudia and Freida Macteer, ages nine and ten, are introduced. They have a great desire to be Caucasian. Their parents are focused on maintaining a comfortable lifestyle and not let the Great Depression get the best of their family financially. They take in a couple of boarders, one of which is Pecola Breedlove. She is a young girl who comes from a distressed home life financially with abusive and alcoholic parents. The author continues to the rising action of the story where we get to know Pecola and her parents on a deeper level. The Macteers offer Pecola to live with them and we find out Pecola’s insecurities and self-degradation of being African American. Her dream is to have blue eyes and be white. She feels invisible and insignificant throughout her daily life as she is at the check-out stand getting groceries, in the classroom, or getting verbally abused by white mothers. Pecola gets physically abused by bother her parents which later turns into sexual abuse by her father leading to pregnancy and the loss of her infant. Pecola’s mother, Pauline, suffers a low self-confidence. She believes she is ugly due to her nationality and takes pride in cleaning a white woman’s home because she wants to be Caucasian. As for Pecola’s father, Cholly; he suffered a harsh childhood. He was abandoned by his parents and forced to live with his aunt. When he was having sexual relations with his girlfriend at the time, then he was caught and humiliated by some white men who forced them to continue making love while they watched. He drowned his sorrows in alcohol and never looks at love the same. He often beats his wife and, towards the end of the story, physically and sexually abuses Pecola to the point of unconsciousness, then abandons his family. The climax of the story is when Cholly rapes Pecola. Pecola’s mother doesn’t believe Pecola when she awakes from her unconsciousness and beats her. Pecola was impregnated by her father, Cholly, and believes in keeping the child because it is the moral things to do. She doesn’t blame the child for what happened like most do when they abort children. The child is born premature and dies. This is emotional for Pecola and the falling action results in a breakdown over the death of her child.

2.       Ultimately, the author produces themes of racism that demonstrate the underlying effects of such brutality and immorality. Through characterization, we are provided a clear insight into the worthlessness felt by such minorities. Throughout the novel, the characters allow mistreatment due to their born identifier as African American, otherwise known as worthless to the rest of society during that time period.

3.       The author’s tone, I would describe as being morose and hopeless. The whole story, although powerful and moving, is very depressing and sad. Every incident demonstrates the oppression and hopelessness of these African Americans and how hopeless their struggle is. For example, “It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights- if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different.” (p.46) This demonstrates Pecola’s insecurities as she battles her identity of being African American in a world where Caucasians are the superior race. “The Breedloves did not live in a storefront because they were having temporary difficulty adjusting to the cutbacks at the plant. They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly.” (p.38) Ultimately, if Pecola had one thing to wish for, it would be to have blue eyes. She would probably have picked blue eyes over taking away continued abuse from her parents. This desire of blue eyes, what the white people normally are born with, signifies her idea that she is ugly and worthless. “Here was an ugly little girl asking for beauty… A little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes. His outrage grew and felt like power. For the first time he honestly wished he could work miracles.” (p.174) This described the time when Pecola visited a mystic in hopes that he could change her eye color and how the man, although he took advantage of her, truly felt bad that he couldn’t help little Pecola.

4.       Ten literary elements/techniques I observed that strengthened my understanding of the author’s purpose, the text’s theme and/or my sense of the tone includes symbolism, repetition, contrast, tragedy, flashbacks, imagery, metaphors, parallelism, allusions, and irony.

Symbolism: The blue eyes were the ultimate symbol of white desire and purification from all racism. “I, I have caused a miracle. I gave her the eyes. I have her the blue, blue, two blue eyes. Cobalt blue. A streak of it right out of your own blue heaven. No one else will see her blue eyes. But she will. And she will live happily ever after.” (p.182)

Repetition: The chapters are titled with a short repetition, “MOTHERLAUGHSLAUGHMOTHERLAUGHLA.” (P.110) This introduces the chapter where Pauline’s character is described in full detail. The reason for saying “mother laugh” is because Pauline never laughs or smiles. Happiness just doesn’t exist in this story because the characters are going through suffering.

Contrast: The repetition at the beginning of each chapter contrasts with the content of the next chapter. So, these strange words like, “HERISTHEHOUSEITISGREENANDWHITEITHASAREDDOORITISVERYPRETTYVERYPRETTY,” on page 33 goes into talking about the pretty house, in fact, it was about the Breedlovers torn up, poor looking house. This contrast allows for the differences between the lives of the African Americans versus the typical Caucasian families.

Tragedy: Tragedy is abundant in this novel as racism goes to the extremes. We see the unfairness and bitterness of the lives of the minorities in society following segregation. “Following the disintegration—the falling away—of sexual desire, he was conscious of her wet, soapy hands on his wrists, the fingers clenching, but whether her grip was from a hopeless but stubborn struggle to be free, or from some other emotion, he could not tell.” (p.163) Pecola was impregnated by her father which was disgraceful and resulted in a tragic ending with her infant dying.

Flashbacks: Flashbacks are a significant literary tool throughout the entire novel. This offers a deeper insight into Pecola’s indirect characterization. The reader learns about Pecola’s parents and the disasters of Pauline and Cholly’s childhood and adolescence. “abandoned in a junk heap by his mother, rejected for a crap game by his father, there was nothing more to lose. He was alone with his own perceptions and appetites, and they alone interest him.” (p.160)

Imagery: There is very detailed imagery that describes the character’s lives and appearances. “Keep but cooked noses, with insolent nostrils. They had high cheekbones, and their ears turned forward. Shapely lips which called attention not to themselves but to the rest of the face. You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly.” (p.39)

Metaphor: The death of Pecola’s baby is metaphorically comparing Claudia and Freida’s attempt to plant marigold seeds. If the plant grows and lives, then Pecola’s baby will live. “And now I see her searching the garbage—for what? The thing we assassinated? I talk about how I did not plant the seeds too deeply, how it was the fault of the earth, the land, of our town.” (p.206)

Parallelism: Parallelism makes it easier to read the story and provides for a more engaged reader due to such strong writing skills. It illustrates the author’s points, as well. “Her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we had a sense of humor. Her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent.” (p.205)

Allusion: During Pecola’s rape performed by her father, Cholly, the author alludes to the Bible. “What makes one name more a person than another? Is the name the real thing, then? And the person only what his name says? Is that why to the simplest and friendliest of questions: What is your name? Put to you by Moses.” (p.180)

Irony: Irony is commonly used throughout the novel regarding the blue eyes. Pecola thinks that blue eyes will give her a beauty that the white people possess. This beauty, she believes, will grant her happiness, but in the end when she believes she has her blue eyes, then she actually goes mad. “So, it was. A little black girl yearns for the blue eyes of a little white girl, and the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfillment.” (p.204)

Characterization

1.       Direct characterization was present when describing Maureen Peal. “a high-yellow dream child with long brown har braided into two lynch ropes that hung down her back. She was rich, at least by our standards, as rich as the richest of the white girls, swaddled in comfort and care.” (p.62) Another example is pauline’s description of her first impression of Cholly, her father. “Cholly was thin, then with real light eyes. He used to whistle, and when I heard him, shivers come on my skin.” (p.115) An example of indirect characterization is, “We could hear Mrs. Breedlove hushing and soothing the tears of the little pink-and-yellow girl.” This demonstrates Mrs. Breedlove as being compassionate and loving without saying it directly in the text and instead providing it through an example. Another example is Cholly’s reaction to Pauline’s pregnancy. “When she told Cholly, he surprised her y being pleased. He began to drink less and come home more often.” (p.121) This demonstrates Cholly wasn't always a disturbed man and actually loved his family in temporary time periods that were important to him, such as when Pauline was pregnant with Pecola. The author uses both direct and indirect characterization to provide a well-rounded variety of characterization. I feel like I understand the characters more because of this diverse use of characterization. I learn more through direct characterization, in this novel, because of the longer descriptions and the actions make it easier to relate it to real life versus direct characterization where you just have to trust the author that his views are similar to you own.

2.       The syntax and diction changes when the author focuses on the different characters and their circumstances. The author uses a common vernacular of the everyday during that time period. It is very informal and easy to read which sets the tone for the play and provides a stronger relationship and understanding between the reader and characters. “Nasty white folks is about the nastiest things they is. But I would have stayed on ‘cepting for Cholly come over by where I was working and cup up so.” (p.120)

3.       Pecola Breedlove is a dynamic and round character. In the beginning, she has the ultimate desire of wanting blue eyes, symbolically meaning much more than just the color, but in the end this changes as the reader watches her go mad. She experiences a variety of hardships that transforms her character and taints her innocence.

4.       I felt like I knew the characters. I felt like I was Pecola and had lost my child. It was heart-wrenching, yet a powerful story. I couldn’t stop reading and would highly suggest this to be read by mature readers. Throughout the novel I felt I had suffered as Pecola had suffered due to the incredible detail and characterization techniques used by the author. At the end of the novel, I was completely disoriented just as Pecola was. “Don’t go. Don’t leave me. Will you come back if I get them?” I couldn’t help, but feel depressed and completely moved. 

"Where the Sidewalk Ends" and "Tainted Innocence" Remix

This displays my performance in Dimensions in Dance 2014. 

http://vimeo.com/112625651

     Tainted Innocence by Elvis Barrera reflects the struggle of rediscovering one’s innate innocence. I am the girl in white symbolizing a pure soul who is surrounded by the dark demons of my past. In the end, I find the light that leads me to where “the sidewalk ends,” just like in Shel Silverstein’s poem. Silverstein identifies children as those who possess such innocence and, therefore, can direct us to “Where the Sidewalk Ends” commonly known as Heaven. I believe this to be true; however, I don’t believe that children are the only light capable of leading us to eternity with pure souls. Everyone was pure at one time since everyone was once a child. This gift of purity in our early years can be retrieved and renew our tainted innocence. Once we find that innocence that once existed within us, we can be directed to a new destination beyond this Earth.

“There is a place where the sidewalk ends

And before the street begins,

And there the grass grows soft and white,

And there the sun burns crimson bright,

And there the moon-bird rests from his flight

To cool in the peppermint wind.”

     This picture displays the “peppermint wind” provided by the “place where the sidewalk ends.” This is significant because it demonstrates the peace and renewal Heaven possesses. It sweeps away the worries and troubles, renewing the soul in an act of purification.

“Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black

And the dark street winds and bends.

Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow”

     These pictures represent the struggle towards battling my sin that makes me imperfect. In the poem, Silverstein’s idea of the impurities as black smoke that leads us down dark, winding roads, away from where the sidewalk ends. Symbolically, the dancers wearing black represent that “black smoke” as I represent purity in my white costume. Through this constant battle in overcoming the demons that give me a “Tainted Innocence,” I find the innocence that I once possessed and am able to find peace that exists “past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow.”

 “We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And watch where the chalk-white arrows go

To the place where the sidewalk ends.”

     With each step, leap, turn, and fall, I am progressing further toward finding my innocence that directs me toward the light. When Silverstein says “we shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,” he is communicating the step-by-step process of self-evaluation that will help find our center where our innocence once existed untouched.

“Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,

For the children, they mark, and the children, they know

The place where the sidewalk ends.”

     I was able to battle the demons surrounding my soul and was able to find the light inside myself, directing me towards my final destination. 

Literature Analysis #1

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Literature Analysis #1

1.       A Separate Peace by John Knowles is about two best friends who are in a sort of athletic competition with one another. Gene is jealous of Finny’s incredible athletic ability and assumes Finny is jealous of his academic achievements. In the efforts to be greater than Finny, Gene purposefully tried to make Finny fall off a tree branch which resulted in Finny breaking his leg; therefore, preventing him to do athletics. Gene eventually confesses to Finny that Finny’s fall wasn’t an accident. World War II just began and Gene wants to enlist, but Finny, instead, insists he stay to train in fulfilling Finny’s athletic dreams as an athlete in the 1944 Olympics. As the war continues, Leper escapes the war and suffers post-war hallucinations. Brinker is suspicious of Gene’s actions concerning Finny’s accident and summons him. Gene avoids confessing and lies about his intentions to hurt Finny. Gene confesses to Finny once more, but explains that his actions were not out of hatred, but out of jealousy. Finny and Gene reconcile. Finny goes to have surgery on his leg, which was broken a second time, resulting in death. The story ends with Gene at peace with the death of his friend due to his perspective that Finny will always be apart of him and will never be forgotten. The rest of the characters graduate and enlist in the military.

2.       A major theme of the novel would be friendship because the entire story revolves around Gene and Finny’s friendship. With friendship, comes a battle of identity which is another theme. Due to Gene and Finny’s adolescent age, they are in a time in their lives where they are trying to build a reputation and identity for themselves. Oftentimes, teenagers are trying to find themselves which is the time in Gene and Finny’s life that is the hardest struggle.

3.       I would describe the author’s tone as deeply reflective. Since the story is told by Gene, who is well educated, then the story is told in a mature voice with a loaded critical analysis that revolves around guilt for hurting Finny. Here are three excerpts that demonstrate Gene’s reflective tone:

·         “Isn't the bone supposed to be stronger when it grows together over a place where it's been broken once?" Although this was towards the end of the story and could be taken as a medical evaluation. The reader is able to understand Gene’s thought process at that point in the story and understands that he is metaphorically referring to his friendship with Gene. He believes that going through suffering in a relationship is supposed to heal the friendship and create a stronger compatibility and understanding of one another. Gene was obviously perplexed when he understood that the leg injury didn’t make their friendship stronger, but made it so he lost his friend forever since Finny died.

·         “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. 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. Only Phineas never was afraid, only Phineas never hated anyone.” Gene’s tone is very mature and provides a deep analysis of his position as a soldier and friend. It possesses a sort of guilt and sadness that overwhelms Gene.

·         “For if Leper was psycho it was the army which had done it to him, and I and all of us were on the brink of the army.” Gene’s quote reflects on his own self-analysis by comparing Leper’s transformation from innocent to a psycho. This scares Gene because he now understands the effect war has on a person. He relates this war metaphorically to his friendship with Finny. He sees that the war created Leper to become mentally ill which serves as somewhat of a foreshadowing to the ending of the story; the war between Gene and Finny creates Finny to become physically ill and die.

4.       Ten literary elements I observed that strengthened my understanding of the author’s purpose, the text’s theme and/or my sense of tone include: metaphors, similes, foreshadowing, flashback, conflict, irony, allusion, characterization, hyperbole, and rhetorical question.

*Metaphors- used excessively throughout the entire story to, oftentimes, gives a new perspective to his (Gene’s) feelings since they are so complex.

Ex) Gene-

*Similes- used to describe unforgettable moments that most others wouldn’t understand such as the event of losing one of his friends and looking at the tree in a new way.

Ex) “The tree loomed in my memory as a hughe lone spike . . . forbidding as an artillery piece, high as the beanstalk."- Gene

*Foreshadowing- there are a lot of hints to how the story would end. The most significant use of foreshadowing was using Leper’s mental illness of war and having Gene compare that to his friendship with Finny. We saw that hard times don’t always make you or your friendship stronger, but can lead to horrifying circumstances like Finny’s death or Leper’s mental illness filled with hallucinations.

Ex) “Isn't the bone supposed to be stronger when it grows together over a place where it's been broken once?"- Gene

*Flashback- since the entire story is a narration concerning Gene’s past lived events, then there are a lot of flashbacks throughout the story. A lot of flashbacks are haunting memories to the event when Finny fell from the tree. Gene’s flashbacks are due to guilt and not forgiving himself for the loss of his best friend.

- "The tree was tremendous, an irate, steely black steeple beside the river."- Gene

*Conflict- there were several conflicts throughout the novel. Gene often struggled an internal conflict concerning his identity and self-a-steam. Then there were outward conflicts concerning his friendship with Finny and the tree accident. Finny struggled with his disability and inability to pursue his dreams as an athlete in the Olympics, etc.

Ex) “What was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this? Was he getting some kind of hold over me?”

*Irony- It was ironic that Finny, who was the most athletically talented ended up disabled and died in the end from one of his surgeries. It was also ironic that Gene, who was known in high school as the most academically successful, to perform stupid actions that result in several consequences such as Finny’s disability and a corrupted friendship.

Ex) “Finny "practically saves" Gene's life when he grabs Gene's arm when he loses his balance on the limb. This is ironic because Gene later jounces the limb, resulting in Finny's death.”

*Allusion- WWII was used as an allusion to Gene and Finny’s friendship. As the war progressed and became more horrifying, so did their friendship. As people were battling one another at war due to hatred, Gene was battling his guilt, self-a-steam, and how to confess to Finny.

Ex) “The class above, seniors, draft-bait, practically soldiers, rushed ahead of us toward the war. They were caught up in accelerated courses and first-aid programs and a physical hardening regimen, which included jumping from this tree.”

*Characterization- Gene was a dynamic character and, through indirect characterization, the reader became more aware to Gene’s identity.

-“I found it. I found a single sustaining thought. The thought was, You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. . . . I felt better. Yes, I sensed it like the sweat of relief when nausea passes away; I felt better. We were even after all, even in enmity. The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all.”

*Hyperbole- Gene uses hyperboles in his jokes. He goes into deep thought a lot and overanalyzes situations and describes them to be more than what the average person would identify the situation as.

Ex) “…took in the lofty complex they held high above, branches and branches of branches, a world of branches with an infinity of leaves”- Gene

*Rhetorical Question- Gene is very descriptive and analyzes everything. He contradicts himself a lot, too, during in his reflections.  

Ex) “Was he trying to impress me or something? Not tell anybody? When he had broken a school record without a day of practice?”

Characterization:

1.       Finny's good looks are one of the basic elements of his persona in A Separate Peace. His physicality embodies his athleticism; the "cool blue-green fire" of his eyes reflects certain vitality; even his weight – ten pounds more than Gene – reminds us that he is superior to his friend described in Gene’s insecure self. In the quote from Gene, “Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies,” the reader can assume Gene is insecure and struggles with confidence and jealousy of his athletic friend, Finny. “It was all cold trickery; it was

calculated; it was all enmity,” is another example of indirect characterization demonstrating Gene’s negative personality and distrust towards his best friend. I believe the author uses both direct characterization to introduce characters and then uses indirect characterization to understand the characters individually and more in depth with real life instances that the reader can relate and create a sense of reality to through personal experiences. I don’t like Gene because he is very depressing and has a low self-confidence. I admire Finny’s strength and positive vibe. He turned his disability into an active role as a coach and found other ways to be happy. He was very forgiving towards Gene which is an admirable trait.

2.       The protagonist was Gene and his syntax varies throughout the story. In the beginning, he is narrates in a jealous tone and creates Finny to look like a cocky, pompous jock. Instead, as the plot progresses, the syntax and diction becomes less vivid on Finny’s actions and more on Gene’s thoughts.

3.       The protagonist is dynamic and a round character because he matures as the story progresses. At first, Gene doesn’t like Finny that much due to his jealousy towards him. As the story progresses, Gene becomes more aware and mature to more significant worries and matters such as war, friendship, life, and death.

4.       After reading the book, I felt like I knew the characters inside and out. I definitely didn’t like Gene, but I tried to understand him the best I could. I walked away with a sort of depressed, strange feeling. I feel like Gene should’ve been more upset and hard on himself after Finny’s death since he was his friend and he was the instigator that put Finny into that position. I don’t agree with Gene’s morals and I thought the book was disturbing.