Customer Reviews

A Separate Peace (Cliffs Notes)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The author John Knowles illustrates through the main characters of Phineas and Gene how human beings can be cruel in nature and how they tend to hide the harsh realities of life.

The book is essentially a reflection of a 30-something year old man trying to convalesce from two psychologically traumatic experiences that happened in his youth at a New England boarding school. Gene was not ready, in his teen aged years, for the experience of Phineas - a character more mythologiclly true than realistic. Although the excellently crafted subtlies of this novel could by pass the shallow reader, there is a wealth of youth, human, psychology for the keen eye and the sensitive soul. Understand this book, and it will change your view of friendship and war forever. How can anyone read that last paragraph: "All of them, all except Phineas, constructed at infinite cost to themselves these Maginot Lines against this enemy they thought they saw across the frontier, this enemy who never attacked that way - if he ever attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy" and not immediately want to read the book again,... and not have her/his naivete immediately shattered.

the cliffnotes i used for A Separate Peace helped me understand everything that was going on! i really appreciated the help.

A number of reviewers have called this book long, slow, and boring. Well that's either beacuse they must not enjoy reading too much, or because they're too young to understand the true meaning of the book. It does not have much action in it, but it's very deep, and gets you thinking. If you like a powerful, provocative, psychological novel, then this one is for you. It is for people that would enjoy reading about the incredible complexities of humanity. Great book!!

In my opinion, this was a good novel. You are a bit confused at the beginning, but you start to understand it by maybe the third chapter. Although I don't like what happened to Phineas at the end, it was an element that really gave the book reality; every book can't end with "...and they lived happily ever after." John Knowles' A SEPARATE PEACE was a moving novel that gets you thinking. I strongly recommend this book to those who are open-minded; otherwise, you probably won't enjoy the story too much.

it's a startling book that reminds us of our capacity to do evil...and our tendency to hide from the harsh realities of life... great book....

These notes provided an excellent comprehensive refresher. I would never recommend anyone read these instead of the book (but you could probably get away with it). Reminded me of events in the narrative that had slipped my mind, and the analysis of themes and characters gave me insights that I did not pick up on my own.

this book shows the changing from a child to a man. it also has a great theme.

The book did start off slow but once I got into it, it got good. I read it for school and overall I enjoyed it. It had a lot of really good parts but you have to be into drama books. This is not a comedy.

A Separate Peace is very startling and intriguing. Finny is a great example of who everyone wants to be. I would reccomend this book to anyone who likes to read.