#1: Gene is narrating his own story of what happened when he was in high school. How do a. his perspective (1st person narration) and b. the retrospective (looking back and telling a story as if it were the present) influence you as a reader and how does it impact the credibility or integrity of the story being told? (Tushar)
In A Separate Peace, Gene narrating in the first person, as well as the retrospective storytelling impact the reader's view of Finny. When the reader is first introduced to Finny's character at the tree, Gene describes him and says, "He weighed a galling ten pounds more than I did, which flowed from his legs to torso around shoulders to arms and full strong neck in an uninterrupted unemphatic unity of strength" (Knowles 16). Just by the tone and language that Gene uses, it is clear that he is in awe of Finny, and looks up to him. He makes Finny seem like the perfect man, everything that Gene wants to be. He takes great care in meticulously describing Finny, with his innate, god-like features. Even when the boys are walking to dinner, Gene describes Finny as "rolling forward in his white sneakers with such unthinking unity of movement that 'walk' didn't describe it" (Knowles 18). This again shows how much Gene likes Finny and everything he does. He even describes Finny's voice as a "cordial, penetrating voice, that reverberant instrument in his chest" (Knowles 17). He admires everything about Finny, from the way he walks to the way he talks. He paints Finny is such a way that Finny can do no wrong and even gets the reader aboard on it. He makes us believe that Finny is a hero. So far, it seems that even if Finny were to do something wrong, Gene would bend it to still defend Finny to keep telling himself that Finny is a god.
In A Separate Peace, Gene's retrospective storytelling in the first person influences the reader to perceive Finny as a legend.
I think that this connects to Gene's visit back to the Devon School. While visiting, he notices that the stairs he walked upon as a boy are much harder than they used to seem to him, but "this exceptional hardness had not occurred to me. It was surprising that I had overlooked that," (Knowles, 11). In returning to the school, the retrospective is the grounding note, that is not under the influence of fear. The perspective, however, has all of young Gene's biases and reactions. The retrospective writing comes back to a more objective viewpoint, but the perspective writing centers much more around young Gene's thoughts.
ReplyDeleteJeans perspective and the retrospective influence me as a reader and it impacts the credibility or integrity of the story being told by feel showing growth and more maturity in the character. It does this by using two perspectives, these two ways being how he feels and sees things when he comes back versus how he felt and what he saw in the moments he is remembering. He remembers things in differently from when they were everyday objects and it shows how he has matured and has grown since his time at the Devon School. Two examples of this is when he sees the marble stairs and the trees. He notices the detail about them and sees them differently from when they were a part of his life. The tree example is shown when he says, “it seemed to me standing there to resemble those men, the giants of your childhood, whom you encounter years later and find that they are absolutely smaller,” (Knowles 14). He is referencing how the trees look smaller now that he is seeing them again and this shows how his perspective have changed and matured. His credibility and integrity of his story becomes even more impactful because of his new maturity.
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