A Separate Peace

by John Knowles

A Separate Peace: Flashbacks 1 key example

Chapter 1 
Explanation and Analysis—Looking Back:

Throughout A Separate Peace Knowles employs a frame story and flashbacks to structure the narrative. This begins with Gene’s return to the Devon School and transitions into an extended recollection of his experiences during World War II. This structure draws readers into both the events Gene narrates and the effects of his changing perspective, as seen in Chapter 1:

Looking back now across fifteen years, I could see with great clarity the fear I had lived in, which must mean that in the interval I had succeeded in a very important undertaking: I must have made my escape from it.