Mr. Prud'Homme

Character: Mr. Prud'homme

Job: Substitute Headmaster for the Summer Session

Age: Unknown

Relationships: Mr. Prud'homme is generally liked by the students of the summer session. He is very relaxed and is not to strict with the rules. Except certain ones, like missing dinner.

General: Mr. Prud'homme is broad shouldered, very serious, and wore suits. Gene describes him as "He did not have the careless, almost British look of most of the Devon Masters, because he was a substitute for the summer" (Knowles 21).

Symbolism:

Mr Prud'homme reminds me of a guitar neck. His core is strong and he means well, yet he can be easily bent like the strings. Finny played him like a guitar as he squeezed his way out of getting into trouble for skipping dinner.

Personality: Mr Prud'homme seems to be very relaxed and kick back. I think that he just really wanted to enjoy the summer and make sure the boys of Devon had a good time there. Although he enforced some of the rules, there is nothing wrong with this because a world, or school in this case, without rules is chaos.

"He enforced such rules as he knew; missing dinner was one of them" (Knowles 21).

With this type of personality, it was very easy for Finny to simple make up a fantastic story to avoid getting in trouble. He was not to mad at Finny simply because only Finny could pull something like that off. I think that had it been Gene, He surely would have gotten into trouble.

"Mr. Prud'homme released his breath with a sort of amazed laugh, stared at Finny for a while, and that was all there was to it" (Knowles 23).

Finny knew that this was going to be the summer of a lifetime, and he was right, although he did not know it at the time.

Character Theme Tie-In: Mr. Prud'homme can tie in the theme of Conflict Resolution. There are so many conflicts in A Separate Peace and Mr. Prud'homme is in a position of authority and he can help resolve these conflicts. He starts early in the book by letting the conflict of Finny and Gene missing dinner go. This could have been a problem, yet he did not pursue it. As substitute headmaster, it's his job to resolve conflicts, find the source of them, and fix any future problems.

Mr. Hadley

Character: Mr. Hadley.

Description: Mr. Hadley is Brinker Hadley's dad. Not only does he support the military, he wishes he was younger so that he may join and fight in World War II. He talks of duty and honor and he seems to be a true patriot.

Relationships: He is the father of Brinker Hadley.

Facts: Mr. Hadley wants to join the Army.

Symbolism:


Mr. Hadley reminds me of an American flag because he believes in everything it truly stands for. He believes in duty to one's country and having honor.

Personality: Mr. Hadley seems quiet and drawn in as if his eyes have seen things they should not have and now he views the whole world differently. He thinks that serving in the armed forces is an awesome thing to do.

"You want to serve, that's all. It's your greatest moment, greatest privilege, to serve your country. We're all proud of you, and we're all-old guys like me-we're darn jealous of you too" (Knowles 200).

He just wants to be back in his glory days, running around with a spring in his step and a smile on his face.

"But then times change, and wars change. But men don't change, do they? You boys are the image of me and my gang in the old days. It does me good to see you" (Knowles 198).

Young people these days are an encouragement to the older generations. Although he was disappointed that his son was going into the Coast Guard where he would not get much action, it gave him peace knowing that his son would serve his country gloriously.

Character Theme Tie-In: Mr Hadley really brings down the cold hard realization of the war. Before the boys ignored it, and now Mr. Hadley showed them that they create an identity for themselves. They had been going along with everyone else, and now they join the armed forces and separate themselves from everyone else. So in short, Mr. Hadley ties in with the theme of codependency versus creating an identity.