Blog #2 - Seperation

      In this book the separation is a big issue. The main character Gene feels separated from his best friend Phineas. Phineas and Gene are good friends but Gene is jealous that Phineas is more athletic than him. This causes Gene to think that Phineas is better than him. Gene's jealousy causes him to lash out and try to sabotage Phineas even thought they are best friends.

      Gene and Phineas can relate to real life teenagers because we often have the same issues. Teenagers also face the same insecurity problems. Teenagers often become jealous of someone because they cant be like them. Jealousy will causes teenagers to sabotage others just like gene.
Something in today's society makes teenagers feel that they need to best at everything to be happy. But this mentality is what will causes teenagers to destroy there friendships and their confidence. Gene and Phineas show why you should be proud of who you are and not try to "one up" anybody.

A Seperate Peace By: John Knowles Blog #1 Writing style/Author influences

A Separate Peace's writing style is different than most books.The book is told from a first person point of view. The Author tells the story from the point of view of a middle age man looking back on a part of his childhood. The author will also tell the story form the child point of view. As the reader it can be confusing to  decided if the thoughts are coming from the man or the child. The author will says things that remind the reader that the book is still being told from the mans flashback of his childhood. The way the author tells the story allows you to really see how he feels about what happens. There are times in this book where you feel bad for the main character. In my opinion the reason readers feel bad for the main character is because we see it from his point of view. I believe if we were hearing the story from a different point a view, then we would not feel as bad for the main character because we would not know his reasoning behind the trouble he causes.

The author John Knowles based this story off his own experiences.  After researching why John Knowles tells this story as a flashback, I learned He is intended to be the main character/protagonist in this book. This research showed me that John Knowles based this book on how he felt about one of his close friends. Finding this out made me more interested because the story came from how the author really felt at a point in his life.

Source: http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/why-does-author-tell-story-flashback-from-genes-448647