"Seperate Peace" essay in John Knowles

Thesis: The five main characters in John Knowles' A Separate Peace represent social stereotypes, according to some people.         In his book A Separate Peace, John Knowles represents jocks with Phineas, a character who believes that sports are the key to life. Phineas is more of a sportsman than a jock. Real jocks only care about winning, Phineas makes sure it's not possible for anyone to win or lose.         Chet Douglas is an exaggerated prep, just …

…book. He is the type who would step over his own mother (or shake his best friend off of a tree) to get what he wants. Since the time when this book takes place, new groups of people called subcultures have formed. Each subculture has its own social norms. They are like a society within a society, and segregate the people even more than these five basic types of people did back in Knowles' time.