English 2: A Separate Peace 1-4 Disc Notes

Write a 2-sentence summary for each chapter (might want to keep a bulleted synopsis for quizzes)

• Chapter 1
• “The more things remain the same, the more they change after all. Nothing endures, not a tree, not life, not even a death by violence” (pg. 14).
• Reliable narrator versus unreliable narrator (connect to Holden Caulfield)
• WWII: war bonds, war gardens, ration cards, "the duration"
• Gene and Finny's friendship
• Chapter 2
• The Shame Spiral
• Summer Term versus The Rest of the Year
• Finny expects to be liked, wants to be liked, and tries to be liked–how is this the opposite of Gene?
• Conformity (Gene) versus Non-conformity (Finny?/Leper?)
• Chapter 3
• Gene keeps jumping–why?
• The Blame Game and the Shame Spiral
• Finny's Commandments: Don't lie about your height, pray just in case, everyone wins at sports–what kind of a person is Finny? 
• Blitzball as a metaphor for high school
• The Lepellier Refusal
• The Swimming Record
• "And there were few relationships at Devon not based on rivalry" (pg. 45).
• Best Friends Confession–what makes two people friends? best friends?
• Chapter 4
• Who is Lazarus? What could this be foreshadowing?
• Study Buddies–what do their motives show about the boys and their relationship?
• "It was the first test I ever flunked" (pg. 50).
• "I believed him. The joking manner was a screen; I believed him" (pg. 52).
• "It wasn't my neck, but my understanding which was menaced...I was not of the same quality as he" (pg. 59)
• How is Gene not thinking straight on the way to the tree? How does this affect what happens next?
• Does Gene really want to hurt Finny? Re-read pg. 24.