Nationality: American.
Born: Fairmont, West Virginia, 1926.
Education: Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, graduated 1945; Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, B.A. 1949.
Career: Reporter, Hartford
Courant, Connecticut, 1950-52; freelance writer, 1952-56; associate editor,
Holiday magazine, Philadelphia, 1956-60. Writer-in-residence, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1963-64, and Princeton University, New Jersey, 1968-69.
Awards: Rosenthal Foundation award, 1961; Faulkner Foundation award, 1961; National Association of Independent Schools award, 1961.
John Knowles writes, in general, not about his home turf but about New England or Europe. Only one novel, Vein of Riches, and that not his best, is about West Virginia, his childhood home. His fictional world is a cultivated, cosmopolitan, somewhat jaded world. He is a fine craftsman, a fine stylist, alert to the infinite resources and nuances of language. Yet, as he says, he is one of the live-around-the-world people, rootless, nomadic, and making a virtue of that rootlessness. He is a connoisseur of different cultures but master of none—or perhaps of one only, the sub-culture of the New England prep school. One defect of this very cosmopolitanism is the feeling of alienation that Knowles feels from his fictional world. As a veteran of many cultures he finds this trait an advantage when he writes graceful travel essays for Holiday magazine. He finds it a disadvantage when he wishes to create for Vein of Riches a thoroughly credible fictional character.
A Separate Peace, his first novel, is also by far his most important. It is a prep school novel about Gene Forrester and his close friend, Finney, and the studied set of ambiguities and ambivalences arising from the intense and complex relationship between the two. Gene, beset by a love-hate attitude toward Finney, causes Finney to suffer a serious injury and still later is the putative cause of his death from a second injury. But Finney's death is preceded by Gene's reconciliation with him, a redemptive act which to some degree assuages his feeling of guilt. Thus, the novel recounts Gene's initiation into manhood and into both worldly and moral maturity. Fifteen years after Finney's death, Gene returns to Devon to conclude the novel by thinking—"Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence." What does endure is the extraordinary popularity of this novel with prep school and college students.
Knowles's later books display his writing grace but not the inner strength of A Separate Peace. His second novel, Morning in Antibes, has a pot-pourri of comatose characters revolving about the deracinated Nicolas Petrovich Bodine in a kind of latter day The Sun Also Rises; it lacks, however, the Hemingway tone, atmosphere, and taut dialogue. The people are phony and maybe the novel is too. The long passivity of Nick makes him seem to move under water. The novel fails in characterization.
Gene thinks about the French proverb when he is standing in fount of the tree. Although Gene is revisiting the tree after 15 years, he is still able to recognize it from a familiar scratch. In this context, the French proverb refers to how Gene's feelings have changed when looking at the old tree, "Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even death by violence. Changed, I headed back through the mud. I was drenched; anybody could see it was time to come in out of the rain"(Knowles 6). Even though the tree has not changed much, it has still changed Gene.
ReplyDeleteGene Forrester thinks about a French proverb that has a relation to the tree that he is revisiting after 15 years.The proverb means, "nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even death by violence" (Knowles 6).The tree has not changed, but that does not mean that Gene has not changed too.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Gene thought about this proverb at this time because he was visiting his old high school after 15 years and remembering how he felt that last time he was in this in this place and how different he feels now" I began at that point the emotional examination to note how far my convalescence had gone" (Knowles 3).and the proverb means that no matter how much something seems to stay the same it changes known to you or not
ReplyDeleteAll of your comments are great so far. Just remember that a proverb can be taken many different ways. I took this proverb to mean that even though our physical environment is remaining mostly the same our minds see it differently as our lives and relationships with other people change. Leisha, you picked a great quote to back up your answer. All of your comments are good so far.
ReplyDeleteThis proverb is foreboding the rest of the story and means that the things around you don't change, but your view on the significance of everything will. I think Gene thinks about the tree, because it stood out clearly in the woods 15 years ago, but now he has difficulty finding it with the rest of the trees. It shows him that the tree is exactly the same, but he has changed and because of life events it doesn't hold the same symbol of strength it did all those years ago.
ReplyDeleteGene Forrester is thinking about the French proverb when he is near the tree for the first time in 15 years. He was able to recognize the tree from years past. This shows his feelings for how he felt last time he was in the same position along with how he feels about it now. "This was the tree, and it seemed to me standing there to resemble those men, the giants of your childhood, whom you encounter years later and find that they are not merely smaller in relation to your growth, but that they are absolutely smaller, shrunken by age"(Knowles 6)Even though the tree has been standing tall for such a long time, it has not changed during the years as Gene may have.
ReplyDeleteI think Gene was talking about how he has changed as the tree from his past remains the same. But i also think that this proverb is foreshadowing to what else might happen in the novel. After Gene states the French proverb, he says "Nothing endures not a tree, not love not even a death by violence" (Knowles 6). I think this foreshadows that love and a violent death are coming up in the novel.
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ReplyDeleteI believe you may have the proverb backwards. Is it that "The more things remain the same, the more they change" or "The more things change, the more they remain the same"?
ReplyDeleteBut to answer the question, the proverb means that the only thing we can be sure of in life is that nothing is permanent. This is attributable to the line in the book, "Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even death by violence" (Knowles 6).
In the beginning of A Separate Peace, Gene Forrester is revisiting
ReplyDeletehis hometown after 15 years. As Gene is standing in front of the tree with the special little marks, he thinks about the French proverb. Which mean that "Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even death by violence" (Knowles 6). I think this means that nothing in life is set in stone, things can change. Gene thinks about this proverb because as he is standing in front of the tree and noticing that the tree has changed some, that maybe he has changed too.
Gene Forrester is coming back home after 15 years of being away to visit a tree that filled his childhood memories. He remembers the tree because of the little scratches in the tree. This proverb means "Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even death by violence" (knowles 6). Which i think means that everything know matter how much they seem the same change.
ReplyDeleteThe meaning of this proverb is that everything must constantly changing and evolving. For nothing can change; the more things try to stay the same, the more they will ultimatly change. He thinks of this because he is visiting a tree that he had known in his youth but barely recognizes it. Even though it's solid, sturdy, thoughtfully unchanging tree, it grows and changes.....
ReplyDelete^^^ **For nothing can stay the same**
ReplyDeleteI can remember going back to my elementary school as a high school student and being amazed at how different everything seemed. The building was exactly the same but it seemed as if everything had changed. In reality, what had changed was me.
ReplyDeleteWell, although the proverb may mean the more things remain the same, the more they change, I believe that it is false. Everything in the world cahnges whether it is physically or mentally or sociologicaly. We just do not see change most of thr time because we as people tend to see something once and remember it to be that way forever. Gene thinks of this proverb when he does because he realizes what he has been over looking all these years, and how much things that ment something to him have changed.
ReplyDeleteJared Boerst
In my opinion the proverb means that the "things" in life are never changing. It is us who have changed. The way I percieve certain things from my past always seems different but I think that is just because time has changed. Gene thinks about how the tree is the same tree from his past, but how it is also different because it has changed a bit, along with himself.
ReplyDeleteGene notices a little a scratch on the tree that was there a 15 years ago. The proverb means "Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even death by violence" (knowles 6). To me this means that no matter how much something seems the same it is different in some way, because nothing can stay the same for that long without changing in the littlest way.
ReplyDeleteAfter 15 years, Gene returns to the school he attended as a teen. Upon arrival he revisits the past when he stops by a tree. He brings up a french proverb that translates to, the more things change, the more they stay the same. This means that whatever happens in the future will not change the outcome of what happened in the past.
ReplyDeleteGene is back at a place where he had spend at a lot of time as a teen. While he is there he brings up a proverb that to me means that everything is always changing, and that change is the only thing we can really be sure about. He is also thinking about how much he had changed since the last time he had been there.
ReplyDeleteIn retrospect various things appear the same to Gene, but with time things must change and as he looks upon the tree that has grown weary with age he realizes that even he has changed despite being brought up at Devon. I think the tree is symbolic of Gene's inevitable change as a person. He walks away with an understanding that things will change whether he can help it or not.
ReplyDeleteI think that it means nothing can stay the same no matter how much you want it to.The reason that he thinks of it then is because he is walking back in his former school and he is thinking about the different times that he had there with his friends.
ReplyDeleteGene thinks of the proverb as he's looking at a tree that brings back memories of his past. The tree looked exactly as it had fifteen years before. Gene's thoughts about the tree compared to the views on he had in his younger years have changed despite it being in an almost preserved state and I believe that he wishes that the decisions he made in his past would have had a different outcome.
ReplyDeleteglo gang squad where u at
ReplyDelete