Themes in ASP - English 2

Themes found in A Separate Peace

• Man's inhumanity to man
• Friendship
• Microcosm parallels macrocosm
• Life's contrasts
• Escape from reality
• Conformity vs. Nonconformity

English 3 - Emerson or Thoreau?

Who said it – Emerson or Thoreau?

Where does it come from & what does it mean?

1.  "To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society."
2.  "To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature."
3.  “It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves.”
4.   “Nature never wears a mean appearance.”
5.  “Envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide."
6.  “The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.”
7.  “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.”
8.  “What I must do is what concerns me, not what the people think.
9.   “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, - that is genius.”
10.  “We should be men first, and subjects afterward.”
11.  “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!”
12.  “Trust thyself:  every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
13.  “That government is best which governs not at all.”
14.  "Nature always wears the colors of the spirit."
15.  “Our life is frittered away be details.”

Transcendentalism - English 3

Transcendentalism – a philosophical movement that occurred in the middle of the 19^th century (the 1800s) which influenced a great deal of writing of that time period.

Characteristics of Transcendentalism

·       Simplicity of life

·       A need to live in solitude

·       A lack of necessity of material items

·       A need to follow your own rules

·       More focus on the inner self

·       Relying solely on yourself and having the ability to think for   yourself

·       Breaking free from conformity

·       A strong sense of nature

Vocabulary - English 2

A Separate Peace Voc. - List 3

1.  frail
2.  cacophony
3.  incompetent
4.  samaritan
5.  querulous
6.  timidly
7.  illuminate
8.  whim
9.  novelty
10.  benevolent
11.  cordial
12.  profound
13.  decathlon
14.  tacit
15.  exuberance