Chapter 1 pg. 9-20 Question 3-Justin Ma

                    Gene visits two specific places upon his return: the First Academy Building and the tree. Name and explain two specific things he notices/realizes about these places/things now (as opposed to then) and why Knowles might have done this.

                    Knowles starts A Separate Peace with Gene, fifteen years following his graduation from the Devon School, narrating his return to his old school for the first time since his days living there as a student during the harsh times of World War II. Upon his return, Gene arrives with a specific purpose in mind; that being to visit two sites from his days back at the Devon School. Gene considers both of these sites frightening, yet seems ever so determined to once again see these two memories despite the cold, rainy weather. The first site which Gene visits is the First Academy Building, where the first thing he immediately realizes is the marble stairs. He states "Although they were old stairs, the worn moons in the middle of each step were not very deep. The marble must be unusually hard. That seemed very likely, only too likely, although with all my thought about these stairs this exceptional hardness had not occurred to me. It was surprising that I had overlooked that, that crucial fact (pg. 11)." Upon his return to his childhood school for the first time in fifteen years, the first thing he notices is the condition and strength of the foyer stairs, a matter of which he appears to consider of great importance. These stairs are the stairs of which he had climbed every day of his Devon career, stairs which he saw no change. The only difference he sees is that he himself is older, larger compared to the stairs, as well as older emotionally and financially than the boy who had climbed those stairs every day. Knowles most likely did this in order to reflect the change that Gene has undergone, how he has changed from his time as Devon as a child, as well as how Devon has changed since his time at Devon.

                    The second place of which Gene returns to visit is a tree by the river, a tree of which he considered to be of great grandeur, a memory personal to him as a child. Slowly, Gene progresses on the long trek to the tree through the rain and mud, but upon his arrival, the now many other trees make it difficult for Gene to locate the desired tree, only further reflecting how both have changed. Rather determined to find the tree, Gene gets mud all over his shoes, his clothes soaked with the pouring rain, and all the while being pelted by the wind. "At any other time I would have felt like a fool slogging through the mud and rain, only to look at a tree (pg. 13)." This shows Gene's rather strong desire to revisit a childhood memory. Once finally identifying the tree, Gene relates the tree to those things that terrify you as a child, but once grown, seem like almost petty things to ever worry about, no matter how large at the time. Knowles incorporated this scene to once again show how Gene and the Devon School have changed overtime, and though both appear to have changed significantly both physically and through the eyes of Gene, Gene is still able to identify the tree after all these years. 

JJ Ma