A
Separate Peace
By John
Knowles
© May 5, 2004
Jeremy VanDerKern
Keene High School, New Hampshire
Pre-reading
1)
Discuss
the Positive and Negative aspects of a co-educational (boys and girls)
environment using a Pro/ Con CHART.
2)
Recount
a personal experience you have had with “peer pressure.”
3)
Recount
a souring relationship you have been in or observed.
4)
Recount
a time when you were faced with a frightening challenge/dare/ bet. How did you feel before/ during/ after?
5)
Create
an author
biography outline for John Knowles.
6)
Enrichment: Define “Separate” and “Peace.” Using your definitions, make an inference
about what themes John Knowles’ book, A Separate Peace might
address.
Extra Credit Opportunities
1)
Keep
a journal of any references made in A SEPARATE PEACE to the environment
(especially New Hampshire). When you
have finished reading the book, write a three-page essay explaining the effect
the environment had on the story/ characters/ plot/ climax/ ending/ etc.
2)
Keep
a journal of any references made to the time period (events, people, places,
music, literature, etc.). When you have
finished reading the book, write a three-page essay explaining the effect the
time period had on the story/ characters/ plot/ climax/ ending/ etc.
3)
Research
a local boarding school (academic curriculum, clothing styles, social
activities, dormitories, sports, and rules)
Chapter One
1)
Begin
to draw DEVON
SCHOOL.
2)
Describe
the TREE & Discuss any symbolism.
3)
Quotation
Journal: “Nothing endures, not a tree,
not love, not even death by violence.”
(1/2 page personal interpretation)
4)
Study Guide
5)
Chapter
One Vocabulary
6)
Enrichment: Listen to The Warsaw Concerto & The Nutcracker Suite and give an emotional
response.
Chapter Two
1)
Explain
why “sunburned health” is an oxymoron.
2)
Discuss
how the relationship between DEVON students and DEVON teachers change during
the summer.
3)
Quotation
Journal: “It was only long after that I
recognized sarcasm as the protest of people who are weak.”
4)
Study Guide
5)
Chapter
Two Vocabulary
6)
Enrichment: Create a list of your friends (you may
change the names) and next to each name write down WHY YOU ARE FRIENDS WITH
THESE PEOPLE.
Chapter Three
1)
Discuss
which rules Finny adheres to and which rules he ignores.
2)
Explain
the personification of the Wave and Gene’s subsequent feelings regarding it.
3)
Quotation
Journal: “Always say some prayers at
night because it might turn out that there is a God.”
4)
Study Guide
5)
Chapter
Three Vocabulary
6)
Enrichment: Discuss Gene’s concept of a “moment in
history” in your own words. Can you
relate to this concept? Explain.
Chapter Four
1)
Discuss
the allusion made comparing Finny to Lazarus.
2)
Discuss
the allusion Gene makes between himself and Mahatma Gandhi.
3)
Quotation
Journal: “Chet was weakened by the very
genuineness of his interest in learning.”
4)
Study Guide
5)
Chapter
Four Vocabulary
6)
Enrichment: According to Gene, he and Phineas are equal
in enmity. Is this a true
statement? Explain in detail.
Chapter Five
1)
Discuss
the allusion made comparing Gene to General
Macarthur.
2)
Discuss
the symbolism of the Fire behind Gene’s house.
3)
Quotation
Journal: “Its rigid back and high
armrests immediately forced me into a righteous posture.”
4)
Study Guide
5)
Chapter
Five Vocabulary
6)
Enrichment: Based on Gene’s “biggest lie of all” predict
how is Gene going to behave in the future?
Chapter Six
1)
Discuss
Gene’s theory that “if you broke the rules, then they broke you.”
2)
Discuss
Gene’s feelings about competitive sports…before and after his
conversation with Phineas.
3)
Quotation
Journal: “If only I had truly taken
advantage of the situation, seized and held and prized the multitudes of
advantages the summer offered me; if only I had.”
4)
Study Guide
5)
Chapter
Six Vocabulary
6)
Enrichment: Discuss the hymn Dear Lord and
Father of Mankind Forgive Our Foolish Ways and why it is especially
relevant.
Chapter Seven
1)
Discuss
Gene’s trip to the “Butt Room” and how close the boys came to the truth.
2)
Discuss
the personification of the snow.
3)
Quotation
Journal: “In our free democracy, even
fighting for its life, the truth will out.”
4)
Study Guide
5)
Chapter
Seven Vocabulary
6)
Enrichment: What decision does Gene come to at the end
of the chapter? What metaphoric
cog is unexpectedly thrown in Gene’s metaphoric wheel? Do you predict he will
still follow through with his plans?
Why/ why not?
Chapter Eight
1)
Discuss
Gene’s simile comparing the war to an ocean wave.
2)
Discuss
the concrete and
abstract smells of the locker room.
3)
Discuss
Finny’s belief about loving winter and love in general.
4)
Quotation
Journal: “I began to know that each
morning reasserted the problems of the night before, that sleep suspended all
but changed nothing, that you couldn’t make yourself over between dawn and
dusk.”
5)
Quotation
Journal: “Since so much of learning
anything depends on the atmosphere in which it is taught.”
6)
Study Guide
7)
Chapter
Eight Vocabulary
8)
Enrichment: Explain Finny’s theory about the “war” and
how this theory relates to the theme(s) in 1984.
9)
Enrichment: Find or write your own five (5) aphorisms.
Chapter Nine
1)
Find
reference(s) or inspiration for the title, A Separate Peace, in chapter
9, and explain why this is an important chapter.
2)
Describe
the personification of Winter.
3)
Quotation
Journal: “Everything has to evolve or
else it perishes.”
4)
Quotation
Journal: “Peace is indivisible, and the
surrounding world confusion found no reflection inside me.”
5)
Study Guide
6)
Chapter
Nine Vocabulary
7)
Enrichment: Organize an
Event for KHS (It doesn’t have to be as big as The Keene Pumpkin Festival).
Chapter Ten
1)
Discuss
the glimpse into Gene’s future given at the beginning of chapter 10? What causes this “flash-forward”?
2)
Discuss
and assess Leper’s condition.
3)
Quotation
Journal: “You aren’t lost for something
to do in dining rooms. It’s in the
living room where people can’t figure out what to do with themselves.”
4)
Quotation
Journal: “…in that deep layer of the
mind where all is judged by the five senses and primitive expectation, I knew
that nothing would ever grow there [barren Vermont fields in winter] again.”
5)
Study Guide
6)
Chapter
Ten Vocabulary
7) Enrichment: Give an emotional/analytical response to Gene’s “primitive expectation” of both Vermont fields and Leper’s condition.
Chapter Eleven
1) Give an emotional response to Finny’s statement to Gene: “Naturally I don’t believe books and I don’t believe teachers, but I do believe—it’s most important after all for me to believe in you.”
2) Discuss the practicality of having Leper “testify” at the “inquiry” and comment on some of his unique comparisons. What type of a witness does Leper turn out to be? Why? (The more insightful the better!)
3) Quotation Journal: “But by now I no longer needed this vivid false identity; now I was acquiring, I felt, a sense of my own real authority and worth, I had had many new experiences and I was growing up.”
4)
Study Guide
5) Chapter Eleven Vocabulary
6) Enrichment: What parallels can be drawn between the snowball fight at the beginning of chapter 10 and the “inquiry” at the end of chapter 10?
Chapter Twelve
1) Discuss what resulted as a result of Finny’s second accident?
2) Explain the connection that exists between Gene and Finny.
3) Quotation Journal: “I idly considered stealing it, in the way that people idly consider many crimes it would be possible for them to commit.”
4) Quotation Journal: “My brief burst of animosity, lasting only a second, a part of a second, something which came before I could recognize it and was gone before I knew it had possessed me, what was that in the middle of this holocaust?”
5)
Study Guide
6) Chapter Twelve Vocabulary
7) Enrichment: Explain Gene’s “Double Vision” experience.
Chapter Thriteen
1) Discuss some of the coping techniques the people in Gene’s life use to deal with traumatic situations (like war).
2) Discuss how Phineas affected Gene, Gene’s outlook on life, Gene’s process of self-discovery, and Gene’s perception of the world.
3) Quotation Journal: “I was ready for the war, now that I no longer had any hatred to contribute to it. My fury was gone, I felt it gone, dried up at the source, withered and lifeless.”
4) Quotation Journal: “Because it seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.”
5)
Study Guide
6) Chapter Thirteen Vocabulary
7) Enrichment: Hypothesize how the outcome of the story (and maybe even Gene himself) would have differed if Gene never went to the infirmary to drop off Finny’s backpack.
Post-reading
1) Watch the movie version of A Separate Peace. Compare and contrast the major differences between the two using a Venn diagram
2)
Revise your initial interpretation of the meaning of the title
A Separate Peace.
3) Edit and finalize all character profiles for final submission.
4) Complete Final Essay Questions
5) Enrichment: Read any other book written by John Knowles (i.e. Double Vision, Morning in Antibes) and complete a standard book report.
6) FINAL TEST for A SEPARATE PEACE