Understanding A Separate Peace

the long version

"Offering an analysis, this study helps young readers relate to the themes of disillusionment, guilt, betrayal, fear of failure, and intergenerational conflicts experienced by the teenaged characters in John Knowles' A Separate Peace. With commentary by Knowles himself, this book situates the novel against the backdrop of World War II, enabling students to see the connections between the fictional world of the novel and the real world as it existed for young people during the war years between 1942 and 1945. Going well beyond a standard literary treatment, this interdisciplinary casebook provides a collection of historical primary documents drawn from official records, War Department orders, institutional histories, personal memoirs and letters, and poignant interviews."--BOOK JACKET.