A separate peace gay
I had an English assignment in which we were supposed to read a book and scribble a paper on said book, comparing our thoughts with a scholarly source’s thoughts. I wrote my paper on the homosexual subtext between Gene and Finny in A Separate Peace (great book, would recommend), and I idea some of you might be interested in a closer look at their relationship.
This was an analytical English document, so my apologies that it isn’t very personal, and more formal than most of my writings. The first half is my opinions, and the second half is Yale’s James Holt McGavren’s opinions.
His folio can be establish here: http://www.westga.edu/~mmcfar/mcgavran.htm
Warning: MAJOR spoilers below. Do not read if you don’t want to know how the book ends.
The novel A Separate Harmony by John Knowles is a coming of age story narrated by Gene Forrester, who visits his old university and recounts his best friend’s death 15 years later in an strive to make calm with the event. This was my second time reading it, and I discovered that there is more than meets the eye with this novel. Knowing the finish, any examples of foreshadowing became painfully obvious, and I f
Queer Places:
706 Coleman Ave, Fairmont, WV 26554
Phillips Exeter Academy, 20 Main St, Exeter, NH 03833
Yale University (Ivy League), 38 Hillhouse Ave, New Haven, CT 06520
John William Knowles (September 16, 1926 – November 29, 2001) was an American novelist leading known for A Separate Tranquility (1959).
While not blatantly a gay novel, any young queer man who read A Separate Peace by John Knowles in school knows its power. Knowles was a gay man and infused his writing with the pathos and desire that only gay people can know. This was the first gay amorous relationship I had ever peruse about, and the fact that teachers don´t comment on the underlying love affair when learning is a true careless disservice to the book and male lover youth. --Eric Arvin
Back in the day, everyone else might hold been reading “A Separate Peace” in school, and discovering that they had questions about relationships that seemed to blur the lines between friendship and something more between two men or two women. --Z.A. Maxfield
John William Knowles was born on September 17, 1926,[1] in New York,[2] the son of James M. Knowles, a purchasing agent from Lowell, Massachusetts, and Mary Beatrice Shea
John Knowles:Freud said any strong relationship between two men contains a homoerotic element. If so in this case, both characters are totally unknowing of it. It would have changed everything, it wouldn't have been the same story. In that time and place, my characters would have behaved totally differently. [...] If there had been homoeroticism between Phineas and Gene, I would have insert it in the publication, I assure you. It simply wasn't there.
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It fascinates me how some novels can stand the try of time. Even after sixty years – and to me, primarily a YA reader – the narrative remains engaging, momentous, and touching. Knowles had me caught up in the story instantly, gifting such sharp insight into Gene’s mind that I wanted to keep up with his strange, youthful logic. And even though he was never fully fleshed out as a character (he barely existed beyond the confines of Devon), I found him an incredibly thrilling character to be inside.
Knowles didn’t permit us stop to enjoy the scenery unless Gene was, and that’s something I admire in a writer. There’s a cinematic flow to it that made the mundane seem more appealing to Gene – or at least more familiar. It also made Gene a more believable character, as it made sense for Gene to be one of those boys who refused to consider what he felt. Any moment he stopped to think too long was a moment he had to discover something about himself he didn’t like. And I think one of his attractions to Finny was that he never had to contain those moments while Finny was around.
Speaking of being ‘inside’ characters