Separate Peace And Peace Desire Essays - Phillips Exeter Academy

Separate Peace And Peace Desire Searching for peace can be a challenge when every thing around you has something to do with war. Growing up can be difficult as well but through the tough times people become more knowledgeable. In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, Finny, Gene, and Leper each struggle find peace and escape reality without having to face the truths to their lives. For Leper, Finny, and Gene, it is hard to find tranquility with a war happening around them. For example, Finny couldn't find serenity with himself because of his broken leg and that caused him to devise the idea of the fake war. It was hard for him to be happy because of his disability. Because of this, he felt useless and so he produced this idea so he could be at ease and not be an outcast. In addition, Leper looks for a beaver dam instead of working to be carefree and escape the war, "...we all volunteered...But not Leper." He does this because he is afraid that a change in his life may disrupt his quiet state. By escaping through nature, he is avoiding the truths to his life. Furthermore, Gene fins a challenge in being placid because of his situation with Finny. He is unsure of his own opinion because he is used to agreeing with Finny, that he never developed his own thoughts and ideas. It's not until Finny's death that he finds his peace. With all these things happening around them they struggle to be mellow but find a similar relief in the fact that they will always have their own separate peace at Devon. Through all these events, all the characters suffer their own hardships. For example, Gene loses the friend he never knew he had. He was so busy competing with Finny that he never realized what a true friend he was. All his jealousy towards him turned to hate and eventually ended in tragedy. In addition, Leper suffers by discovering things about himself that he never realized. He learns that he is tired of pleasing other people all the time, "What's she got to be pleased about...I'm pleasing myself!"(134). All he wants is someone who cares for him and that's what he's hoping to get when Gene comes to visit him. Furthermore, Finny endures the pain of realizing that he was misled by the one he cared about the most. For Gene the friendship was a bitter rivalry but for Finny, it was the best thing that ever happened to him. They each suffer through all this, but Finny suffers the most by being forced to face the truth about his accident. All this shows how they each tolerate pain through maturity, and learn more about life. As each of the characters grow up, they become more knowledgeable. For example, Leper truly finds himself when he comes home from war. This "crazy" Leper is who he really is. He was never sure of himself because he was always too busy escaping reality. In addition, Finny becomes more knowledgeable after he finds the truth about his accident. He was resentful towards Gene for doing such a thing; "You want to break something else in me! Is that why you're here!" (76). His friendship with Gene was part of what kept him composed and the truth shattered his false representation of reality. Furthermore, when the truth about Finny's accident comes out, Gene world is shattered, and he sees everything around him the way it really is. This view gives him a better understanding of life. He learns that you can't just escape reality because it will always be there. Through all these events these characters become more knowledgeable by learning more about themselves and the world around them. Throughout the story, each character finds that growing up is a complex and hazardous task. In the search for peace, they lose a sense of reality but gain maturity. They also lose a sense of security that gave them the common bond they shared at Devon.

The Myth of the Bra Burning Feminists of the Sixties

The Myth of the Bra Burning Feminists of the Sixties Who was it who said, â€Å"History is but a fable agreed upon?† Voltaire? Napoleon? It doesn’t really matter (history, in this case, fails us) because at least the sentiment is solid. Telling stories is what we humans do, and in some cases, veracity be damned if the truth isn’t as colorful as what we can make up. Then theres what psychologists call the Rashomon Effect, in which different people experience the same event in contradictory ways. And sometimes, major players conspire to advance one version of an event over the other. Burn, Baby, Burn Take the long-held assumption, found even in some of the most respected history books, that 1960s feminists demonstrated against the patriarchy by burning their bras. Of all the myths surrounding women’s history, bra burning has been one of the most tenacious. Some grew up believing it, never mind that as far as any serious scholar has been able to determine, no early feminist demonstration included a trash can full of flaming lingerie. The Birth of a Rumor The infamous demonstration that gave birth to this rumor was the  1968 protest of the Miss America contest. Bras, girdles, nylons, and other articles of constricting clothing were tossed in a trash can. Maybe the act became conflated with other images of protest that did include lighting things on fire, namely public displays of draft-card burning. But the lead organizer of the protest, Robin Morgan, asserted in a New York Times article the next day that no bras were burned. â€Å"That’s a media myth,† she said, going on to say that any bra-burning was just symbolic. Media Misrepresentation But that didn’t stop one paper, the Atlantic City Press, from crafting the headline â€Å"Bra-burners Blitz Boardwalk,† for one of two articles it published on the protest. That article explicitly stated: â€Å"As the bras, girdles, falsies, curlers, and copies of popular women’s magazines burned in the ‘Freedom Trash Can, the demonstration reached the pinnacle of ridicule when the participants paraded a small lamb wearing a gold banner worded ‘Miss America.† The second story’s writer, Jon Katz,  remembered years later that there was a brief fire in the trash can- but apparently, no one else remembers that fire. And other reporters did not report a fire. Another example of conflating memories? In any case, this certainly was not the wild flames described later by media personalities like Art Buchwald, who wasnt even near Atlantic City at the time of the protest. Whatever the reason, many media commentators, the same ones who renamed the  womens liberation movement  with the condescending term Womens Lib, took up the term and promoted it. Perhaps there were some bra-burnings in imitation of the supposed leading-edge demonstrations that didnt really happen, though so far theres been no documentation of those, either. A Symbolic Act The symbolic act of tossing those clothes into the trash can was meant as a serious critique of the modern beauty culture, of valuing women for their looks instead of their whole self. Going braless felt like a revolutionary act- being comfortable above meeting social expectations. Trivialized in the End Bra-burning quickly became trivialized as silly rather than empowering.  One Illinois legislator was quoted in the 1970s, responding to an  Equal Rights Amendment  lobbyist, calling feminists braless, brainless broads. Perhaps it caught on so quickly as a myth because it made the womens movement look ridiculous and obsessed with trivialities. Focusing on bra burners distracted from the larger issues at hand, like equal pay, child care, and reproductive rights. Finally, since most magazine and newspaper editors and writers were men, it was highly unlikely they would give credence to the issues bra burning represented: unrealistic expectations of female beauty and body image.