A Separate Peace Literary Analysis

664 Words3 Pages
In our lives, we want to feel significant. We want to believe that life has meaning and that we have significant existences on this earth. Some people try to achieve this feeling of significance by reading fiction novels. In Robert Penn Warren’s essay Why Do We Read Fiction? he proclaims that reading fiction “[satisfies] our deepest need – the need of feeling our life to be, in itself, significant.” What does significance really mean? According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, significance means “the quality of being important.” Human beings strive for notable lives. Part of feeling significant and feeling important is feeling like we are understood. We do not want to be alone in this world, and fiction often gives us a something to relate to. Reading fiction allows us to connect specific emotions that we experience ourselves to the emotions of characters in the book. By reading fiction novels, we can feel like we are understood because we can relate to characters and their situations. People naturally experience fluctuating…show more content…
However, in our lives of reality, we may not get the outcome we are necessarily looking for. We can relate to certain characters and invest our own emotions through them. We all may share similar feelings; however, the way we act upon each feeling is different. In both A Separate Peace by John Knowles and Lord of the Flies by William Golding, several key emotions are being expressed that people can relate to. Envy is a primary emotion expressed in both novels that humans often experience themselves. Sometimes envy and jealousy become so overwhelming, and the after effects can be something as hurtful as a loss of friendship or relationship. In both of the novels, the main character(s) in each book experience envy towards another character and all of their actions and thoughts revolve around this

More about A Separate Peace Literary Analysis

Open Document