Jessica Benigno's "A Separate Peace: Reality vs. Memor
Uploaded by sanguinegoddess on May 31, 2007
(I wrote this in 6th grade... bare with me)
Reality vs. Memory
Are Things What They Really Seemed?
In a Separate Peace, many things seem to become something they weren’t before. Some things seem to grow, others to shrink, some to become more important, others to lose their significance. And although they may not physically change, their mental image may warp into something they’re not. As our minds gain wisdom and knowledge, they also grow and change opinions and perspectives. Important events and new found discoveries alter our thought process, and change how we think and feel. Reality is made up of our memories, and in turn our memories are created by a past reality. Both play on each other, and by trying to piece together our memories and our present day self, we try and create an image of the life we live.
Many examples of a place or thing becoming less or more important than in the past exist in A Separate Peace. When adult-Gene returns to Devon, he desires to visit two places more than anywhere else; the tree and the First Academy Building’s stair case. Both of these sites are highly significant to Gene’s history at Devon. These are the sites where Finny changed Gene’s life. The tree, where Finny broke his leg the first time, seems to have become “the old giant that tuned into a pigmy while you were looking the other way.” In his memory, the tree was a menacing giant that towered over the river, seemingly waiting for the chance to drop someone from its branches. Now, when Gene comes back to Devon, the tree seems weary from age, enfeebled and dry. His memories contain fear of the tree, because of the events that happened around it, when in reality he has no real reason to fear it. His memory of the tree as being a monster has been changed because he has grown to learn otherwise.
Another site of reminiscence is the marble stairs in the First Academy Building. If I asked you to think of stairs, I think some people would say, “what about them?” others would think, “AHHH! Stairs means exercise!” (That would be me…). But to Gene, these particular stairs mark the down fall of Finny. When he re-visits them, he realizes that even through all of the years that students trampled them, they did not have...