using the quotes below write an essay on how john knowles uses characterization

using the quotes below write an essay on how john knowles uses characterization imagery and symbolism to show Gene’s coming of age in the novel A Seperate Peace.
1. Paragraph 1 about characterization:
– “None of this mattered now; I would have listlessly agreed to anything.” (Knowles 59)
– “And I thought we were competitors! It was so ludicrous I wanted to cry.” (Knowles 66)
– “Gene, of course, would not hesitate if he too could be as he sees Phineas, a boy-man with an “unemphatic unity of strength,” (p. 7) who shows no fear, and in himself representing the perfect “essence … of peace” (p. 16). Gene finds it increasingly more difficult to remain at peace with his own cowardice.” (Mengeling 1)
2. Paragraph 2 about imagery:
– “They were the same stairs I had walked up and down at least once everyday of my
Devon life. They were the same as ever. And I? Well, I naturally felt older…,” (Knowles 11)
– “A little fog hung over the river so that as I neared it I felt myself becoming isolated from everything except the river and a few trees beside it.” (Knowles 13).
3. Paragraph 3 about symbolism:
– “Finny had a vitality which could not be quenched so suddenly, even by the
marrow of his bone.” (Knowles 202) – “In A Separate Peace, however, Knowles plumbs more deeply than the war on the surface. We get hint after hint, culminating in Gene’s and Finny’s awareness of what really happened in the tree, that the war is also within, its battles waged in the individual breast and then subsequently between bosom buddies.” (Holborn 1)
– “What Finny represents in Gene’s temptation is the pure spirit of man (mirrored in the boy Finny) answering its need to share the experience of life and innocent love. For Finny the war and the tree, which represents a training ground for the war, are only boyish delights.”(Ellis 1)
This is the intro that I have:
“If you tend to a flower, it will bloom, no matter how many weeds surround it.” ~Matshona Dhliwayo. Like flowers people continue to grow despite the negativity or challenges around them, like Gene. Gene uses these obstacles to find out who he genuinely is. In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles like a flower the main character, Gene, blossoms into his adulthood. This novel carries us through Gene’s ups and downs that he has to go through in order to understand not only his real self but also to find his purpose. His naivete shines through in the beginning and slowly fades through his journey. Knowles has written 8 other novels but is best known for this piece. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy where he gained much of his inspiration. Throughout this novel Knowles utilizes characterization, imagery, and symbolism to demonstrate that self discovery comes with various struggles including the most prominent being jealousy.”