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.
I think that Gene is paranoid about the events taking place. Gene is uncomfortable with the situations and tries to blame them on Finny, "Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies. That explained blitzball, that explained the nightly meetings of the Super Suicide Society, that explained his insistence that I share all his diversions"(Knowles 45). I don’t think Finny is trying to wreck his studies because when Gene confronts Finny with this, Finny seems sincerely shocked and persists that Gene stays and studies. There is a lack of communication between the two. Finny wants to have fun, but doesn’t realize he’s hurting Gene.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that Gene's suspicions are correct and I do not think that he is beong over paranoid. I think this because Finny is always finding something to do with Gene no matter what it is. He makes up games and tons of other stuff for them to do to distract Gene from his studies. One example is when they went to the beach "The beach was hours away by bicycle, forbidden, completely out of bounds. Going there risked expulsion, destroying the studying I was going to do for an important test in the morning, blasted the reasonable amount of order I wanted to maintain in my life" (Knowles 37). He keeps Gene doing anything but studying through out the whole day.
ReplyDeleteWell I conclude that Gene is just paranoid because of all the attention that Finny gets from everyone and how he gets away with anything he wishes. I do not think Finny is trying to distract Gene from his studies Ijust think that Finny that it came naturally to Gene, like sports come to Finny. "I didn't know you needed to study, I didn't think you ever did. I thought it just came to you" (Knowles 50). Finny then states that Gene must stay and study for the test, but Gene comes along anyway. Gene realized that Finny was just playing a game and trying to have fun.
ReplyDeleteJared Boerst
I believe that Gene's suspicions are correct. I believe that he wasn't being overly paranoid because of the following passage: "He gave me that half-smile of his, which had won him a thousand conflicts. 'I'd kill myself out of jealous envy.'" (Knowles 44). It seems like Finny's not telling the truth when Gene confronts him.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Gene is just being overly paranoid. Because Finny had never given Gene the right to believe he was trying to sabotage his academic career. I also think that Gene was paranoid of this because he knew that academics were the only area that he beat finny at and he didnt want to lose that.
ReplyDeleteIn my understanding, Gene is paranoid about the events that have been taking place. I think he may be over reacting a little. He tries to blame everything on Finny because he gets what he wants including wishes and attention. Finny always wants to play with Gene, doing anything to distract Gene from his studying. "I didn't know you needed to study, I didn't think you ever did. I thought it just came to you" (Knowles 50). Finny is hurt to find out that Gene should have spent more of his time studying when he was playing. However, when Finny tells Gene how he feels and apologies to him, Gene replies to say that he didn't know. Genes then relized that Finny was not trying to distract him after Finny told him to study first.
ReplyDeleteGene is definitely overreacting and paranoid. Finny was distracting him from studying and doing his work, but not intentionally to sabotage his grades. Finny believed that school just came naturally to Gene and he did not need to study. "I didn't know you needed to study... I thought it just came to you" (Knowles 50). And after learning that Gene did need to study to maintain his grades, Finny encouraged him to stay in and not go out with him.
ReplyDeleteI think that Gene is being paranoid and this is a symbol of how violence destroys everything, even love. They were like brothers, and Finny is just a free-spirited person who wants to enjoy life and childhood when he can. Gene portrays this as a rivalry or "violence" and yells at him and says he has to study. I know Finny meant it when he said to stay and study because he thought it was natural for him to know everything and Finny takes great care in everything he says and does.
ReplyDeleteGene is definitely over reacting. He thinks to himself "Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies. That explained blitzball, that explained the nightly meetings of the Super Suicide Society, that explained his insistence that I share all his diversions"(Knowles 45). This idea is complete nonsense. Nobody in their right mind would go to these lengths to best someone. Once this idea has a grasp over his mind it grows in him like a virus.
ReplyDeleteGene is being very paranoid. Although Finny is persistent of the Super Suicide Society, and such things like that, he seemed to be surprised when Gene confronts him after ruining his studies. Finny also thought Gene didn't have to study, but instead thought everything just came to him. Finny insists Gene to stay, "Don't go." He said it very simply and casually as though he wre saying, "Nice day" (Knowles 50).
ReplyDeleteI think that Gene is just being overly paranoid. Finny and Gene created their own club the super suicide society of summer and they seem to be very very close friends, so why would Gene think that Finny is trying to hurt him in some way.
ReplyDeleteGene is obviously just being paranoid because he just doesn't like all the things that Finny is doing but goes along with them. Also Finny thinks that Gene is just smart, "I didn't know you needed to study, I didn't think you ever did. I thought it just came to you" (Knowles 50). With this statement i think it proves that Gene is being over paranoid and Finny just likes to go have fun.
ReplyDelete"What he meant was clear enough, but I was groping for what lay behind his words, for what his thoughts could possibly be. I might have asked, 'Who are you, then?' instead. I was facing a total stranger" (Knowles 50).
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion Gene is just paranoid. Maybe he is too focused on his acedemics while Finny is out having fun and Gene is jealous of this. Usually Gene just goes along with whatever Finny does but perhaps now he is getting sick of this and he's starting to doubt their friendship. This might make the little things that Finny does wrong seem like a lot to Gene, therefore, making him seem paranoid.
I believe that Gene is very paranoid. He has the notion in his head that there is a rivalry between Finny and himself, which leads him to think that Finny is telling the truth about being envious of Gene becoming valedictorian. "He gave me that half-smile of his, which had won him a thousand conflicts. 'I'd kill myself out of jealous envy'" (Knowles 44). When it comes to Finny being a distraction, no where in the book does Finny demand that Gene play blitzball, come to a Suicide Society meeting, or on the trip to the beach. Gene did all of these things by his own free will. This was proven later in the chapter. Finny told Gene that he could stay in the dorm and study for his French exam after Gene went on a rampage about how wasting time to watch Lepellier not jump out of the tree was going to ruin his grade. "He frowned disapprovingly at me. 'Why didn't you say you had to study before? Don't move from that desk. It's going to be all A's for you'" (Knowles 50).
ReplyDeleteGene’s suspicions are wrong; he is just being overly paranoid. Finny did not know that school did not just come natural to Gene. So he did not intentionally distract him from his work. Hence when Finny told Gene “’I didn’t know you needed to study,’ he said simply, ‘I didn’t think you ever did. I thought it just came to you’” (Knowles 50).
ReplyDeleteI think Gene is just being paranoid he says to himself, "Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my studies. That explained blitzball, that explained the nightly meetings of the Super Suicide Society, that explained his insistence that I share all his diversions"(Knowles 45). Finny does distract Gene from his studies, but I don't think he is doing it intentionally. Gene also can say no when Finny wants to do something. I think he is just intimidated by Finny.
ReplyDeleteI think Gene is paranoid but he has a right to be. All the signs that Finny left for Gene would leave anyone to believe he was deliberately trying to ruin Gene's studies. Even though Finny was just trying to be a good friend, Gene took it the wrong way and became jealous. The examples throughout the novel, blitzball and the Super Suicide Society, show that he very well bould have been doing it on purpose. Gene's paranoid conscience was wrong but i feel was necessary.
ReplyDeleteI think that Gene was paranoied. He Finny was his friend and just didn't want him to stress out.
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