Responding to Literature: "A Separate Peace"

The Quest for Identity

"Everyone has a moment in history which particularly belongs to him . . . pg. 40."

I made a personal connection with the story's character Gene right from the beginning.

Gene took on the identity of another in search for his own. Deep within Gene knew exactly where he wanted his life to go but he could not force himself to fulfill that dream because his insecurities where pushed to the surface allowing everything else to be drowned by the need to identify with another.

Gene continued to fight with his identity. He searched for ways to stand up and allowing his fighting personhood to come out. He allowed his identity and that of another to mix itself and lost the sense of where he was, where he was going, and where he would end up. His need for his own identity would ultimately lead him to committing a deplorable act leaving him with a moment of history forever changing his inward beliefs of himself. I have a bowl with a goldfish in my classroom. My students stare at the goldfish continually. One day as about eight pairs of eyes surrounded the bowl, waiting for the fish to do something remarkable, I thought I am like the goldfish. Everyone in my life continually stares and waits for me to do something outstanding, noteworthy, and significant. I finally realize the fish inside the bowl is not me it is the identity of someone else I must be. I am a fish outside looking for a fitting bowl. Once I find the correct bowl I know it won't matter how many faces are staring through the glass. I will swim with the uncaring freedom stemming from the creation of true and lasting identity can bring. Gene finally found that through his walk with Phineas at Devon. He killed the enemy within and found lasting freedom.

"I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there . . . pg. 204."

Reference:

Knowles, John. (1994). A separate peace. Bantam House Publishers: New York.