A Separate Peace -- Summer Reading Questions
Summer Reading, English 210/214 – Summer 2005
Incoming freshman who are attending John Carroll Catholic High School in the fall of
2005 and who have been placed in English 210 or English 214 will be required to read
TWO books prior to the first day of school in August 2005. ALL students should read
A Separate Peace by John Knowles and answer the attached questions on the novel.
In addition, students should choose ONE of the following "choice books" to read and
should answer any THREE of the choice book questions, below.
Required for all incoming freshmen:
A Separate Peace – John Knowles
Choice book (choose one to read):
The House on Mango Street – Sandra Cisneros
Told in a series of vignettes, this is the story of a young girl growing up
in the Latino section of Chicago.
The Devil's Arithmetic – Jane Yolen
When a young girl is transported back in time to a 1940's Polish village,
she experiences the very horrors that had embarrassed and annoyed her
when her elders related their Holocaust experiences.
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
This classic tale of companions Lennie and George and the dream they
share is set on a California ranch in the 1930s.
Choice Book Questions:
Answer any three of the following questions about your choice book. Your answers to these questions may be handwritten on loose-leaf paper or typed. Each of these answers should be at least one good paragraph. These answers should be completed alone, not with fellow students, and should reflect your interpretation of the novel in your own words. Do not use the internet or other outside study sources.
1. Describe the setting (times and places) in this book. Tell how the setting is
important to this novel. Also, could this story just as easily have taken place in a different place or time? Explain.
2. Choose one character in the novel whom you either really like or really dislike or
with whom you relate. Explain why you like, dislike, or can relate to this
character.
3. Choose one particular scene, episode, or chapter in the novel which you feel is
important to the overall meaning of the story. Explain why this scene,
episode, or chapter is important.
4. Describe a possible theme of the novel. In other words, what does this book
say about life or about the human condition? Give details from the book to
support this theme.
A Separate Peace -- Summer Reading Questions
Your answers to the following questions may be handwritten on loose-leaf paper or typed. They should be written in good grammatical form and in complete sentences. These answers should be completed alone, not with fellow students, and should reflect your interpretation of the novel in your own words. Do not use the internet or other outside study sources.
Chapter 1 - 4
1. Give three examples of Finny's luring Gene into breaking the rules.
2. Explain the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session.
3. Describe the events leading to Finny's accident at the tree.
4. If you could ask Gene a question about the first accident, what would you ask? Why?
5. Describe the relationship between Gene and Finny. Explain how the relationship would
appear from the outside and the undercurrents at work in it that might not be apparent
from the outside.
6. Explain how the setting of this novel—a private school, summer, the war—directly
affects the events.
7. Do you accept that people can be friends but still harbor jealousy and resentment
toward one another? Explain your answer.
Chapters 5 – 10
8. Why does Gene decide to tell Finny the truth and then feel sorry about doing so?
9. How does Finny's injury affect Gene's plans for participation in sports?
10. How does the war affect life at Devon?
11. Describe the Winter Carnival.
12. What feelings did you have in response to Leper's "escape" from the armed forces?
Why do you think you responded this way?
13. Explain what enlisting means to Gene. What does the army come to mean to Leper?
14. What is Finny's theory about the war and how is it typical of his way of thinking?
15. After Finny's accident, Gene's purpose was "to become a part of Phineas." What does
he mean? Does he accomplish this?
16. Leper tells Gene, "You always were a savage underneath." How valid is that analysis of
Gene? Give specific examples.
Chapters 11 – 13
17. Why did Finny give up his theory about there being no war?
18. What is Brinker investigating, and who are the witnesses?
19. What happens to Finny after his fall down the staircase?
20. Explain the understanding Finny and Gene reach about the original accident.
21. What do you think about Finny's method of changing sides during a fight to ensure the
ultimate confusion and disorder? What does this say about his desire to win? Explain.
22. How has Gene changed during the novel?
23. In what way was Finny a war casualty?
24. Maginot Lines were fortifications built before World War II on the eastern frontier of
France to prevent invasion by the Germans. The German army simply by-passed
these fortifications and so the Maginot Lines were useless. With this in mind, interpret
the last line of the novel.
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