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Literary Devices In A Separate Peace

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Who would you trust in a life or death situation?
Imagine a situation where your best friend was pressuring you to do something dangerous that you knew would have a bad outcome. In the novel, Gene and his best friend, Finny go through near death experiences that test their friendship and trust toward each other. In the novel, A Separate Peace, the author created passages that stood out to the reader for both their literary wealth and author’s craft. The literary devices within these passages were connotation, characterization, and conflict. These devices allowed certain passages to catch the reader’s eye and engage them in the story. In the novel, connotation is used to add mood to the reader’s experience. One example of when connotation is used is when Gene lost his balance and panicked on the tree limb, but Finny caught him. Gene said a stalling remark, which indicated that he didn’t want to jump off the limb, and he wanted to delay it as long as possible. He was also speaking stiffly, showing that he was not comfortable in the situation that Finny had pressured him into. Connotation …show more content…
For example, Gene and Finny took a day trip to the beach, and Gene used characterization to help the reader visualize what Finny looked like as he walked along the boardwalk. “Finny and I went along the Boardwalk in our sneakers and white slacks, Finny in a light blue polo shirt and I in a T-shirt…. His skin radiated a reddish copper glow of tan, his brown hair had been a little bleached by the sun, and I noticed that the tan made his eyes shine with a cool blue-green fire…’Everybody’s staring at you,’ he suddenly said to me. ‘It’s because of that movie-star tan you picked up this afternoon ... showing off again.’ ” Not only did the author, John Knowles, use characterization to describe Finny, but he also used imagery. This passage stood out to the reader because of the great amount of vivid language

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