A Separate Peace

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Excerpt

Chapter Four Questions and Vocabulary – A Separate Peace

Vocabulary: Define the following terms, found in chapter one.

• spectral

• detonation

• obliterated

• indiscriminately

• redoubled

• treachery

• effulgence

• paganism

• denuded

• cliché

• curtly

• exuberantly

• flourished

• undulation

Questions for Review: Answer in complete sentences. You should use references from the text to support each answer.

• What is the Biblical allusion made in this chapter? Why do you think it might be significant?

• Finny tells Gene, “‘You never waste your time. That’s why I have to do it for you,’” (p. 51). Why would Phineas think that he needed to waste Gene’s time?

• In this chapter, something changes in Gene’s attitude toward Finny. Why does he want so desperately to be even with Finny?

• Why does Gene think that Finny really would be angry if he were the head of the class? Do you agree or disagree with Gene’s opinion, and why?

• Is Gene correct, that he and Phineas are even in enmity?

• On page 55, Gene says, “I wanted to break out crying from stabs of hopeless joy, or intolerable promise, or because these mornings were too full of beauty for me, because I knew of too much hate to be contained in a world like this.” Explain what he means here.

• Why does Gene say (on page 56), “The Suicide Society continued to meet every evening, and I continued to attend, because I didn’t want Finny to understand me as I understood him,”?

• When Gene decides to go watch Leper jump from the tree, it is against hi original plan of studying for his French test. What has made him change his mind?

• Does Gene “jounce the limb” on purpose, at the end of the chapter?

• Why do you think Finny looked at Gene “with extreme interest,” just before he fell?

For the teacher: Suggestions on Student Answers to Review Questions.NOTE: These are simply a guideline; individual student answers will vary.

• Gene refers to Finny as Lazarus. Maybe it is a sign that Finny will die (to be coupled with the idea of him looking dead in the beginning of the chapter), or that he is able to come back from tragedy.

• Finny seems to think that Gene is too stuck-up and studious, and it’s his job as Gene’s best friend to make sure Gene has fun sometimes.

• He hates it that Finny is better than he is in sports, more popular, etc. He wants to show Finny up, or to prove that he is as good as Finny; he has very low self-esteem.

• Students will agree or disagree. Gene wants to assume that Finny is just as mean-spirited as he is.

About

This is a list of vocabulary terms and questions for review/discussion for chapter 4 of A Separate Peace.