"As I walked briskly out the road the wind knifed at my face, but this sun caressed the back of my neck (p.141)." The sun is Devon and the winter carnival and most importantly Finny. Gene is stepping away from all this happiness to go see Leper. The wind is "knifing" at his face, Gene is headed away from his "separate peace" at Devon and into trouble, into the reality of the war. This line also shows that Gene is nervous and curious. He knows he is headed into reality but he is curious enough to press on. He doesn't want to face the reality of the war but he is so curious that he needs to go see his friend and find out what the war is like.
"Everything else was sharp and hard, but this Grecian sun evoked joy from every angularity and blurred with brightness the stiff face of the countryside.(140-142)"Although this quote is in the same paragraph as the first, the symbols are different. In this quote Knowles uses the sun as a symbol for Gene's friendship with Leper. Grecian is relating to ancient Greece, and Greece is a very warm place. So the "Grecian sun" represents Gene's old and happy friendship with leper. The countryside represents the scariness of the reality of the war with its hard sharp lines and it also represents what Leper has become. Gene doesn't know that Leper was destroyed by the war, his old bright friendship with Leper blurs the "stiff face" of the reality.
Why does Knowles use so many symbols as Gene approaches Leper's home? What else could some of theses symbols represent?
By Andrew
1.) Gene spends the first part of the chapter traveling to Leper’s house. Choose two or three phrases of description about the landscape (location, weather, temperature) and explore how Knowles is using them. Why does he include these details here and why at this time? What does it reveal about Gene at this time?
ReplyDeleteThis is the full question. I am not sure why it didn't show up in the title.