Term Papers on Personal Retreats

Term Paper Title	Personal Retreats
# of Words	779
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.12

Personal Retreats

English 9

13 December 2004

          We all have our own secret realms to which we can retreat in times of confusion. These personal realms become a separate peace, an escape from reality. But can these realms stay with us forever? In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, a few of these realms are explored using nature, disbelief, and friendship.

          Have you ever watched horticulturists tend to their flower beds? Or, met a person who expresses interest in, of all things, beaver dams? These people are very dedicated to their work in nature. Even their work is, to them, a separate peace. A character in the novel A Separate Peace that exemplifies this trait is Elwin Leper Lepellier. At the Devon School, Leper is known to be an outcast, a social entity. However, he is more than just what his peers observe. He has a great interest in nature, so great, perhaps, that he will spend hours locked away in his dormitory, observing his snails. In this state, he is at peace with everything, calm and secluded.

          However, as Brinker Hadley says, “Everybody in this place is either a draft-dodging Kraut or a… a… a nat-u-ral-ist!” (Knowles, 92). This is the worst insult Brinker can devise at the time. This is the unspoken, stereotypical identity of Leper. Even though he is such an outcast to his peers, he has something many of them lack: an escape. Other people in the school simply deal with the war and other problems that face schoolboys. But Leper is somehow an example of ignorance being bliss. He doesn’t have to deal with high school drama. He is absolved; he has a separate peace.

          Another fashion in which a separate peace can be achieved is shown in A Separate Peace through disbelief. Phineas is a multi-faceted character with unique traits which are projected naturally. For example, he is extremely athletic, and he is a leader. However, what is unique is that he does not ask for attention; people are simply drawn to him. One facet of Phineas is his naturally sarcastic attitude about almost every aspect of his life.

For example, this novel takes place in 1942, the middle of the Second World War. Phinea...

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