A Separate Peace Study Guide Questions
Goals: The study guides are designed to assist students in their preparation for class discussions and future tests/quizzes. Students will answer study guide questions to the best their abilities using references to the book and any links to additional information. Students are expected to thoroughly answer at least five (5) study guide questions per chapter. Students are encouraged to thoroughly answer all study guide questions—extra credit will be given for that chapter if all questions are answered satisfactorily.
1.
Describe
the setting: then and now.
2.
Character profiles: Create/modify
a character profile for the main characters.
3.
What
is the cause of the sense of fear?
4.
From
what point of view is the story being told?
5.
Translate: Plus c’est la même chose, plus ça change.
6.
During
the summer of what year was the narrator almost an “Upper Middler”?
7.
In
this year, what single looming thought preoccupies the minds of most boys at
Devon?
1.
Describe
the emblem Finny wears to celebrate the bombing of Central Europe.
2.
What
is the flaw in Finny’s logic about who should get “the daylights bombed out of
them”?
3.
Why
does Gene become “unexpectedly excited” and a subsequent “stab of
disappointment”? What do these
reactions lead us to believe about Gene?
4.
Character profiles: Create/modify
a character profile for the main characters.
5.
Why
were the “bombs in Central Europe were completely unreal to…” Gene and Finny?
6.
How
is “The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session” an example of
alliteration? What dark imagery/
foreshadowing does this title suggest?
7.
Recount
the events leading up to Gene’s awareness of his own mortality.
1.
How
does Gene reestablish his immortality and rationalize his near-death
experience?
2.
Who
is A. Hopkins Parker and what impact does he have on Finny?
3.
What
is the logical flaw with Finny’s statement:
“You always win at sports”?
4.
Character profiles: Create/modify
a character profile for the main characters.
5.
What
life lessons does the game “blitzkrieg baseball” teach?
6.
Why
did Gene not tell Finny that he was his best friend as well?
7.
Provide
examples of how Gene is a follower.
1.
Explain
why Gene’s trigonometry test was especially memorable.
2.
When
Finny tells Gene not to go to Leper’s jump, was he being a sincere
friend or utilizing reverse psychology?
3.
Gene
has two catharses in chapter four. What
are they and how do they counteract each other?
4.
Character profiles: Create/modify
a character profile for the main characters.
5.
Relate
to Finny’s inability to do well on written tests versus oral tests.
6.
Recount
the ending of Chapter 4. Address Gene’s
detachment from the situation.
7.
Draw
a Venn Diagram
Comparing Chet and Gene and Finny in the area of scholastics—Consider adding yourself
to the Venn as well.
1.
Why
didn’t Gene develop strength to defend himself?
2.
Why
did Gene put on Finny’s clothes? What
effect did this action have on Gene?
3.
What
happened to Gene in the morning?
4.
What
does the doctor predict will be the end result of Finny’s accident?
5.
Why
is Finny sorry?
6.
Why
doesn’t Gene admit the truth to Finny?
7.
What
was the even deeper injury Gene inflicted upon Finny and how did the situation
end?
8.
Character profiles: Create/modify
a character profile for the main characters.
1.
What
happened to Devon during the summer months?
2.
Who
is Brinker and what role does he play?
3.
What
is Gene’s “trouble” that Quakenbush’s flat, black eyes would never detect?
4.
Why
is there a confrontation between Gene and Quakenbush? What does Gene gain?
5.
How
does Mr. Ludsbury differ from Mr. Prud’homme?
6.
What
is the purpose of Finny’s long-distant phone call to Gene?
7.
How
does Gene get “to become a part of Phineas”?
8.
Character profiles: Create/modify
a character profile for the main characters.
1.
Character profiles: Create/modify
a character profile for the main characters.
2.
What
is the relevance of the allusion to Sherlock
Holmes made in the “dungeon”?
3.
Discuss
the two war-effort working assignments the boys participate in.
4.
Discuss
the impact the soldiers on the train had on most of the DEVON boys.
5.
How/
why do the DEVON boys tease Quackenbush & Leper?
6.
What
did Gene usually find (or put there himself) in the things he loved?
7.
What
adjectives are used to describe the stars?
Why does Gene focus on them?
1.
In
Finny’s Universe, God is always to __________________________ at any time.
2.
What
is Brinker’s “catastrophic joke”?
3.
How/
why did Gene’s enlistment plan alter?
4.
Character profiles: Create/modify
a character profile for the main characters.
5.
Who
is “Yellow Peril”? How did he acquire
this nickname?
6.
What
very personal, very deeply held confession did Finny make to Gene?
7.
What
key factor influences learning the most?
8.
At
what point does Gene surpass his threshold of pain and receive a euphoric rush?
1.
What
is unique about Mount
Katahdin and why is a reference made to it in the story?
2.
What
is Leper’s opinion about skiing in the middle of chapter 7? How/why does this opinion change in chapter
9?
3.
Character profiles: Create/modify
a character profile for the main characters.
4.
What
Darwinian parallel is
drawn between flies and people?
5.
What
stories of Leper’s “glories” are told?
How do these stories compare/contrast with Leper’s actual story (chapter
10)?
6.
What
skill(s) does it take “to be someone” at DEVON?
7.
Recount
the events of the Winter Carnival and its overall importance.
8.
What
telegram does Gene receive? What
predictions can we make about Leper’s situation?
1.
What
saved most people Gene’s age from being killed in the War?
2.
What
was Gene’s hopeful interpretation of Leper’s telegram? What is the actual meaning of “escape”?
3.
What
is Gene’s view of Vermont and Vermonters?
4.
What
insight does Leper have regarding Gene and Finny’s experience last summer?
5.
How
does Gene react to Leper’s “insight”?
Consequentially, how does Mrs. Lepellier react?
6.
Who
is closer to the truth, Mrs. Lepellier or Elwin Lepellier? Why?
7.
What
causes Gene’s outburst at the end of chapter 10? Make speculations about underlying causes (…causes that
even Gene may not be aware of yet).
8.
Character profiles: Create/modify
a character profile for the main characters.
1.
Why
does Brinker confront Gene?
2.
Why
does Finny hold a grudge against Caesar?
3.
What
finally made the war real to Finny?
4.
Discuss
Finny’s behavior during the “inquiry” and attempt to deduce his real position
on the issue.
5.
Which
character is the most “aware” (of both self and others)? Provide support/ quotations to defend
position.
6.
What
foreshadowing (in this and other chapters) has there been to hint at the
climactic “inquiry” in chapter 10?
7.
Chart
Finny’s physical recovery thus far.
8.
How
does the “inquiry” end? Why? This is a harder question than you may
initially think!!!
9.
Character profiles: Create/modify
a character profile for the main characters.
(Answer all questions for
chapter 12)
1.
How
did everyone behave after Finny’s fall down the stairs?
2.
Where
did Gene go and why did he go there?
3.
Why
was Gene laughing so uncontrollably?
4.
How
has Finny’s perception of events altered?
Why do they alter now and not earlier?
5.
According
to Gene, why wouldn’t Finny be any good in the war?
6.
What
do Gene and Finally allow themselves to do that they were incapable of doing
before?
7.
Why
is every minute of the rest of Gene’s day outlined/remembered in such detail?
8.
What
is Dr. Stanpole’s rationale for Finny’s post-operative condition?
9.
Why
didn’t Gene show any emotion at the end of chapter 10?
10. Character profiles: Create/modify
a character profile for the main characters.
(Answer all questions for chapter 13)
1.
What
did DEVON donate to the war effort?
2.
What
do Jeeps remind Gene of? Why?
3.
How
does Gene’s patriotism differ from Mr. Hadley’s?
4.
How
does Mr. Hadley know Gene? (Think about
it for a second after you find the answer).
5.
According
to Gene, what does friendship involve?
How can this concept be applied throughout Gene and Finny’s friendship?
6.
According
to Gene, how did Finny see the world?
What allowed him to deal with situations so well? What finally broke Finny’s “harmonious and
natural unity”?
7.
Why
is Gene now ready for the war?
8.
Where
is Gene going? Why is he going there
now?
9.
How
did Phineas affect Gene, Gene’s outlook on life, and Gene’s perception of the
world?
10. Character profiles: Create/modify
a character profile for the main characters.