A Separate Peace-John Knowles
Socratic Seminar-Mondays
o A quiz on the chapters will take place before each Socratic Seminar.
o The vocabulary and discussion question assignments are due before each Socratic Seminar (even if you are absent the day before).
1st Seminar-Monday, April 22
Chapters 1-5
Themes to consider while reading:
a. Coming-of-age-Bildungsroman
b. The relationship between war and peace
c. The nature of friendship
d. Transformation
Vocabulary:
On the day of the Socratic Seminars (Mondays), have the definitions copied on a separate sheet of paper, copy the sentence example from the novel, and write your own sentence with each. A grade will be taken.
Chapter 1:
salient-something that projects upward or outward from its surroundings
matriarchal- of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a woman who rules her family or tribe.
Chapter 3:
venerable-worthy of respect or reverence by reason of age and dignity, character, or position
insidious-characterized by treachery or slyness; crafty; wily
Chapter 4:
latent-present but invisible or inactive; lying hidden and undeveloped in a person or thing, as a quality or power.
undulation-a wavy, curving form or outline, especially one of a series.
Chapter 5:
transfixed-made motionless, as if impaled
irresolutely-in an indecisive way; wavering in decision, purpose or opinion.
Chapters 1-5 Discussion Questions
Bring in one discussion question of your own to be discusses in the Socratic seminar. A grade will be taken.
Answer the following:
1. Who would be the better friend, Gene or Finny?
2. Why after 15 years, does Gene return to the school? What does this tell you about how the author will plot the story, that is, arrange its related events?
3. An author uses foreshadowing to give the reader hints and clues as to what will happen later in the story. When Gene, as an adult, returns to Devon, there are several examples of foreshadowing. Select one, summarize it, and tell how this shapes your expectations.
4. Name the new club.
5. How do the ways Gene, Finny, and Leper play blitzball reveal their characters?
6. How is Leper Lepellier’s reaction to leaping from the tree different from that of the others?
7. Gene identifies closely with the war. Give one statement of his that shows this, and explain what Gene means.
8. Why does Gene, against his better judgment, jump from the tree? In your opinion, does this show Gene to be strong or weak? Explain.
9. Can friends compete against each other without sacrificing their relationship? Explain.
9. When Gene puts on Finny’s clothes, he sees himself as Finny “to the life” and this comforts him. Why is this so?
10. Gene wants to tell Finny the truth about his actions in the tree. Why is this important to him and who will it help more, Gene or Finny?
2nd Seminar-Monday, April 29
Chapters 6-9
Vocabulary
On the day of the Socratic Seminars (Mondays), have the definitions copied on a separate sheet of paper, copy the sentence example from the novel, and write your own sentence with each. A grade will be taken.
Chapter 6:
vindicated-cleared from criticism, blame, guilt, suspicion; justified.
infinitesimal-too small to me measured; infinitely small
Chapter 7:
burlesque-broadly comic; caricatured
virtuoso-a person displaying great technical skill, usually in a fine art.
Chapter 8:
opulent-very rich or wealthy; luxurious
reticent-habitually silent or uncommunicative; having a restrained, quiet, or understated quality
Chapter 9:
recessional-a musical piece played at the end of a performance, play or service while the audience or congregation is leaving.
Chapters 6-9 Discussion Questions
Bring in one discussion question of your own to be discussed in the Socratic seminar. A grade will be taken.
Answer the following:
1. Why did the narrator decide to be assistant crew manager?
2. How does Finny react to this news? What does he tell the narrator that he
will be doing when Finny returns?
3. A novel’s theme gives insight into the meaning of events. Tell how Gene’s statement that “peace had deserted Devon” illuminates the theme of the novel.
4. What does Brinker accuse Gene of when he visits Gene in his room?
5. What does Gene give as a false confession when he is in the Butt Room? Why does he give a false confession?
6. Gene says, “[Leper] seemed from a distance to be a scarecrow left over from the growing season.” Gene also mentions that he hasn’t seen him all fall. What is significant about the metaphor that compares Leper to a scarecrow?
7. Passages: the following passage might prove to be important. Re-read the sections with these passages and think about why they might be significant? What do they mean? What are important ideas, imagery, or words? How do they add to the story or a theme? Do they incorporate any literary devices?
“They laughed at him a little, and he squirmed and looked guiltier than ever. He had a very weak foothold among the Butt Room crowd, and I had pretty well pushed him off it. His glance flickered out at me from his defeat, and I saw to my surprise that I had, by making a little fun of him, brought upon myself his unmixed hatred. For my escape this was a price I was willing to pay.”
8. What is upsetting Finny? He makes mention of it twice.
9. What does Mr. Ludsbury have to say about Gene training for the 1944 Olympics and what all exercise is aimed for?
10. In an allegory characters stand for other people or for abstract ideas and qualities (an extended metaphor). What qualities do Gene and Finny respectively represent?
10. Passages: the following passage might prove to be important. Re-read the sections with these passages and think about why they might be significant? What do they mean? What are important ideas, imagery, or words? How do they add to the story or a theme? Do they incorporate any literary devices?
“[P]eace had come back to Devon for me. So the war swept over like a wave at the seashore, gathering power and size as it bore on us, overwhelming in its rush, seemingly inescapable, and then at the last moment eluded by a word from Phineas; I had simply ducked, that was all, and the wave’s concentrated power had hurtled harmlessly overhead, no doubt throwing others roughly up on the beach, but leaving me peaceably treading water as before. I did not stop to think that one wave is inevitably followed by another even larger and more powerful, when the tide is coming in.”
11. Who, surprisingly, enlists in the war, and why? How do the other boys react to this decision?
12. What telegram arrives and changes the mood of the awards ceremony? Explain
3rd Seminar-Monday, May 6
Chapters 10-13
Vocabulary:
On the day of the Socratic Seminars (Mondays), have the definitions copied on a separate sheet of paper, copy the sentence example from the novel, and write your own sentence with each. A grade will be taken.
Chapter 10:
presaged-warned of a future event; foretold
austerity-sternness of look or manner; stinginess; the quality of showing strict discipline.
Chapter 11:
tacit-not expressed or declared openly; understood.
incarnate-in bodily form; being a living example of
Chapter 12:
incongruently-the condition, quality or fact of lacking harmony, agreement or appropriateness.
innately-having the quality of existing naturally from birth as an inherent attribute.
Chapter 13:
cogitation-serious thought; meditation
assimilate-to absorb and incorporate into one’s thinking
Chapters 10-13 Discussion Questions
Bring in one discussion question of your own to be discussed in the Socratic seminar. A grade will be taken.
Answer the following:
1. What is Gene talking about here: “I gathered what the word meant. I hated the sound of it at once. It opened up a world I had not known existed – ‘mad’ or ‘crazy’ or ‘a screw loose,’ those were the familiar words.”
2. Explain the “separate peace” mentioned
3. How did Gene respond to Leper’s story?
4. What is the “only conflict (Finny) ever believed in?”
5. Who said this? To what is he referring? Explain. “But by now I no longer needed this vivid false identity; now I was acquiring, I felt, a sense of my own real authority and worth, I had had many new experiences and I was growing up.”
6. When and why did Finny start believing wars were real? Then what happened that made him confirm his belief?
7. What unfortunate event occurs at the end of Chapter 11?
8. What finally happened to Phineas?
9. What was ironic about Gene’s part in the war?
10. What about the novel’s conclusion was satisfying? Disappointing?
11. A Separate Peace belongs to the genre of Bildungsroman, in which the main character matures over times. Choose another story of this genre and compare and contrast the two.