A Separate Peace Character Analysis

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Friendship holds an immense power over society because, even with riches, no human will truly feel satisfied unless they have a strong, healthy relationship. Nevertheless, the power that friendship holds is relative to the two people within a friendship. In Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and A Separate Peace, friendship is seen in differing scenarios—a boy’s boarding school during 1945 and Chinese re-education; however, the friendships in the books contain similar aspects. The similarities, stated in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, states that friendship always contain three defining aspects. Further, the three sides of friendship, illustrated in the boys' relationships in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and A Separate…show more content…
Finally, the two major roles people play in friendship, the beloved and the lover, effect the overall closeness between characters like Finny and Gene and Ma and Luo. The three factors, exemplified through the pairs of boys in A Separate Peace and Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, formulate to decide the overall strength of a friendship. In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle debates the arguments between ‘birds of a feather flocking together’ compared to ‘two of a trade never agrees’; however, the similarities and differences are so generalized in Aristotle’s argument that one can truly be similar or different to another and have a successful relationship. Rather, as seen in the relationships in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and A Separate Peace, the true, deep friends had come out of having similar values and moral compasses to other person in the relationship. In Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, to Luo and Ma, pursuing knowledge and educating the Chinese Seamstress become core values that affect the boy’s consciences. For example, Luo and Ma both steal Four Eyes books in pursuit for more knowledge and to “transform the Little Seamstress” (Sijie 100). The boys do not feel bad

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