A Separate Peace Fear Quotes Page 1
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
| Quote #1 Preserved along with it, like stale air in an unopened room, was the well known fear which had surrounded and filled those days, so much of it that I hadn't even known it was there. Because, unfamiliar with the absence of fear and what that was like, I had not been able to identify its presence (1.3). |
Is sixteen-year-old Gene really unaware of fear? This seems pretty inconsistent with his behavior…Can you say "unreliable narrator"?
| Quote #2 I felt fear's echo, and along with that I felt the unhinged, uncontrollable joy which had been its accompaniment and opposite face, joy which had broken out sometimes in those days like Northern Lights across black sky (1.5). |
A Separate Peace is all about equal but opposite pairs: war and peace, winter and summer, safety and injury, life and death, and here we see joy and fear.
| Quote #3 I felt better. Yes, I sensed it like the sweat of relief when nausea passes away; I felt better. We were even after all, even in enmity. The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all (4.34). |
That Gene feels better at finding resentment in Finny proves both his jealousy and its source: Finny's character, not his abilities.
