theme of a separate peace essay

A Separate Peace by John Knowles Essay

Introduction, the summary of the novel, the characters of the book, the themes of the novel, personal opinion, reference list.

Despite covering the period of World War II, the novel A Separate Peace , the author of which is John Knowles, does not narrate about military campaigns and battles. Instead, it seems to draw a parallel between an external war and an internal struggle within an individual. This essay will give a summary of the novel, describe its main characters, dwell on the issues raised in the book, and provide a personal opinion.

The events of the book are set in the Devon School during World War II. The narrator, Gene Forrester, was 16 years old at that time and had a friend, Phineas, or Finny for short. Finny liked to jump from a tree into the nearby river and encouraged Gene to do the same even though he was scared of it. Finny was so excited about this activity that he organized the Suicide Society. To join it, other boys had to jump from the tree into the water. Perhaps, this occupation was attractive because the school rules forbade it.

Finny was the best athlete in Devon, and Gene wanted to be the most successful student to resemble his friend. Gene, therefore, contributed much time and effort to his studies, but as he was continuously distracted by Finny, he thought that his companion intended to thwart his progress. Gene’s grievance against his friend led to deplorable consequences. When Finn asked his friend to jump from the tree with him once again, Gene impulsively shook the branch, on which they were standing. Finn fell off the tree and damaged his leg, which brought an end to his athletic career.

While Finny was in the hospital, Gene befriended Brinker Hadley, who jokingly accused him of injuring his mate on purpose. However, this new friend turned out to be an enemy. One night, when Finny was already out of the hospital, Brinker gathered him and Gene in the Assembly Room and conducted a trial, during which Finn became convinced of his friend’s blame for his injury. He rushed out of the room angrily, but fell on the stairs and broke his wounded leg. The following day, Gene managed to talk to his companion and explain to him that he had made the accident happen due to an impulse, not on purpose. The friends made peace, but after a while, Finn died during an operation. Gene returned to Devon 15 years later and remembered all the described events. The novel ends with his reflections about enemies, peace, and war.

The first main character of the novel is Gene Forrester, the narrator. In his youth, he was “a somewhat athletic, shy intellectual” (S tudy guide , 2015, p. 1). Gene admired his friend’s sports achievements and the ability to talk others into ventures, and it inspired him to improve his academic record to become the best student. However, this desire caused him to develop envy and resentment since he suspected Finny of hindering his studies. These feelings induced a sudden urge that made Gene drop his friend off the tree. Gene did not do it intentionally as he regretted that deed and felt guilty. Perhaps, his self-blame was so strong that he no longer wanted to be himself and subconsciously denied his identity. In the end, he identified himself with his dead friend, which is apparent from the scene of the burial: “I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case” (Knowles, 2014, p. 194). Thus, Gene was not inherently evil, and the sense of guilt made him despise his personality.

Another main character is Phineas, Gene’s best friend and roommate. Although he tended to disobey rules and instigated others to do the same, he was a good-natured boy. He trusted his friend, which was why he did not believe Gene’s confession that he was to blame for Finny’s injury. Gene was dear to Phineas since the latter forgave his mate quickly even after he learned that his invalidism was Gene’s fault. Thus, Finny was a kind-hearted and genuine person who became a victim of circumstances.

The novel also has an antagonist, Brinker Hadley, who has the leadership among students. His obsession with discipline and will to justice made him reveal the truth about Finny’s fall. Probably, he is partly responsible for Finny’s death because Finny would not have hurt himself once again if he had not been enraged by the trial. Brinker also expressed his interest in war throughout the novel, but eventually, he seemed to become disappointed in it and rejected it.

One of the main themes of the book is warfare, as its events happen in the time of World War II. However, there is also another battle depicted in the book. Gene wages his internal struggle because he has contradictory feelings toward his friend. He wavers between admiration and jealousy, affection and hatred, friendship, and rivalry. Eventually, he concludes that people are apt to make enemies of those who do not intend to harm them. Perhaps, this is the reason for many conflicts and wars.

Another theme concerns rules and the consequences of disregarding them. The novel shows clearly that all the troubles began when Finny decided to jump from a tree, which was a prohibited activity. Sansom (2018, pp. 22-23) considers this plant symbolic and compares it to the biblical tree, which was also forbidden for Adam and Eve to approach. Thus, the book conveys the thought that rules are invented for a reason, and disobeying them may lead to grave consequences.

Finally, the novel raises the issue of such feelings like fear and jealousy. The first sensation is related to the war, as adolescents realize that one day, they may have to fight as soldiers. It also refers to the fear of oneself, when a human understands what terrible deeds he is capable of. The novel depicts that a person consumed with envy may represent a threat to the object of his or her jealousy. Thus, people should be aware of their feelings and prevent negative ones from affecting their behavior.

Apart from the themes mentioned above, the novel shows examples of good and bad friends. Finny represents a person capable of true friendship since he enjoys being together with his companion. Gene, on the contrary, is an example of an unworthy friend because, despite his admiration for Finny, he considered him his rival and envied him, which made their relationship unhealthy. According to Rini (2016, p. 1451), if man rates someone among his friends but subconsciously dislikes him, chances are that in a complicated situation, he will not decide in favor of their friendship. The novel, therefore, teaches that friendly relation implies sincerity and absence of internal grievances that may cause a person to spite his or her mate.

In conclusion, it should be said that the book is worth reading because it raises the essential problems that people face in their everyday life. Perhaps, after reading this novel, readers will review their attitude to their friends and enemies. The book will be of particular interest to adolescents since its main characters are juveniles who try to find their place in this world and solve interpersonal problems that are common at this age.

Knowles, J. (2014) A separate peace . New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

Rini, R. A. (2016) ‘Why moral psychology is disturbing’, Philosophical Studies , 174(6), pp. 1439-1458.

Sansom, J. (2018) ‘The tree of panic in A separate peace ’, Kansas English , 99(1), pp. 22-24.

S tudy guide for John Knowles’s ‘A separate peace’ (2015) Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, Cengage Learning.

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A Separate Peace

John knowles, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

More than anything, A Separate Peace is a novel about friendship—its joys, its benefits, its limits. Gene and Finny ’s relationship is unique, shot through with both childish simplicity and a complex tenderness they don’t always know how to navigate. To add to this already intricate dynamic, envy and competition often work their way into the friendship, and this is what ultimately threatens their bond. Throughout the novel, Gene tries to sort out his feelings of admiration and jealousy, and though he is certainly wrong to take out his various insecurities on Finny, his most serious failure is his inability to be honest with his best friend. Before the accident, he’s unable to tell Finny not only that he cares about him, but that he feels threatened by him. Then, in the aftermath of the accident, he can’t bring himself to admit that he caused Finny’s fall. Although Finny seems at times to have sensed the truth, he never accuses Gene, clearly believing that his friend would tell him if he’d done such a horrible thing. This, after all, is what Finny himself would do, since he always tells Gene what he’s thinking and how he feels. Whereas Finny demonstrates unflinching emotional honesty, then, Gene embodies secrecy and insecurity, and this only estranges him from Finny. As a result, Knowles highlights the detrimental effect that dishonesty has on otherwise beautiful and deep relational connections.

Before Finny’s fall, his and Gene’s relationship isn’t quite as full of dishonesty as it is later, when Gene must hide the truth about what happened in the tree . Still, though, their initial friendship is more nuanced than the average bond between two teenaged boys. This becomes clear when Finny convinces Gene to sneak away from school to go to the beach. Just before falling asleep on the sand that night, Finny thanks Gene for coming with him, going out of his way to say that this isn’t the kind of excursion he would make with just anyone. It is, he says, something he’d only do with a best friend. “Which is what you are,” he says after a pause. Gene privately acknowledges that this is a brave thing to say, since everyone at the Devon School goes to great lengths to hide their emotions. However, Gene can’t bring himself to reciprocate Finny’s sincerity, feeling somehow “stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which contains the truth.” This is a very enigmatic line, since Gene never clarifies what, exactly, the “truth” is in this context. Consequently, readers are left with nothing more than the fact that Gene is apparently unable to be honest about his feelings for Finny, perhaps because these feelings make him uncomfortable.

One very legitimate interpretation of this ambiguity is that Gene loves Finny and sees him as more than a friend but is afraid to admit this because he hasn’t come to terms with his own sexuality. Of course, this is a somewhat contentious reading—not because there isn’t textual evidence to support such a claim, but because Knowles himself has said that he did not intend for Finny and Gene to be romantic with each other. Still, it seems plausible that Finny and Gene are indeed in love and that the “truth” Gene can’t bring himself to admit is that he is a young gay man who has fallen for his best friend. Even if this isn’t the case, though, it’s overwhelmingly clear that Gene and Finny have the kind of connection that transcends the boundaries of ordinary friendship, and it is perhaps because Gene is uncomfortable with this closeness that he instinctually (but still purposefully) causes Finny to fall out of the tree shortly after this sensitive interaction.

Like many things in A Separate Peace , Knowles also never clarifies why Gene “jounces” the tree limb. Because of this, readers must consider multiple possibilities, one of which is that Gene is frightened by how close he and Finny have become. Another possibility—which could indeed exist alongside the first—is that he is jealous of Finny and thinks that they’re in competition with each other. Either way, a lack of openness in their relationship is what leads him to do what he does. After all, if he were capable of simply telling Finny how he felt, then he wouldn’t feel the need to distance himself by hurting him. Similarly, if he spoke honestly to Finny about his feelings of envy and competition, he would most likely understand that Finny isn’t trying to one-up him, and so he wouldn’t try to assert his dominance by sending him hurdling to the ground. Unfortunately, though, he is apparently incapable of speaking the truth, even when he later tries to make up for what he did by telling Finny that it was his fault when he visits him at home. As soon as he sees how much the truth will upset Finny, Gene takes back what he has said, insisting that he’s tired and out of sorts. For the rest of the school year, then, he acts as if he had nothing to do with Finny’s fall, and Finny—who wants to see the best in Gene—chooses to believe him.

Because Finny wants to believe that Gene would never do something to hurt him, he’s devastated when he finally discovers the truth, rushing into the dark hall on his bad leg and falling down a set of marble steps. What’s remarkable, though, is that Finny finds it within himself to forgive Gene while lying in the hospital with yet another break in his leg. All he wants to know, he says, is whether or not Gene’s hostile act was “personal.” When Gene assures him that it wasn’t, he says that he believes him. This conversation takes place shortly before Finny dies unexpectedly while the doctor is resetting his bone, meaning that Finny dies after having made peace with Gene, their relationship—and Finny’s life—ending in honesty and unchecked emotion. Gene, on the other hand, will live the rest of his life regretting what he did and the way he lied to Finny for so long. By outlining this tragic dynamic, Knowles warns that dishonesty can take a terrible toll not only on friendships, but on the individuals who find themselves unable to speak openly about their feelings.

Friendship and Honesty ThemeTracker

Friendship and Honesty Quotes in A Separate Peace

I found a single sustaining thought. The thought was, You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone […]. I felt better. We were even after all, even in enmity. The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all.

He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he.

Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud. It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear of this forgotten.

So to Phineas I said, “I’m too busy for sports,” and he went into his incoherent groans and jumbles of words, and I thought the issue was settled until at the end he said, “Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,” and I lost part of myself to him then, and a soaring sense of freedom revealed that this must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas.

In the same way the war, beginning almost humorously with announcements about [no more] maids and days spent at apple-picking, commenced its invasion of the school.

To enlist. To slam the door impulsively on the past, to shed everything down to my last bit of clothing, to break the pattern of my life […]. The war would be deadly all right. But I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me.

So the war swept over like a wave at the seashore, gathering power and size as it bore on us, overwhelming in its rush, seemingly inescapable, and then at the last moment eluded by a word from Phineas; I had simply ducked, that was all, and the wave’s concentrated power had hurtled harmlessly overhead.

You’d get things so scrambled up nobody would know who to fight any more. You’d make a mess, a terrible mess, Finny, out of the war.

I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case.

I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there. Only Phineas never was afraid, only Phineas never hated anyone.

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A Separate Peace Essays

It is very inevitable that somewhere in our lives, we have been touched by a special bond called “friendship”. That special bond might happen in the most unusual time and place. It might even be connected not just with love, but also with envy and selfishness. A Separate Peace is a timeless novel...

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A Separate Peace: Three Symbols The three dichotomous symbols in A Separate Peace by John Knowles reinforce the innocence and evil of the main characters, Finny and Gene. Beside the Devon School flow two rivers on opposite sides of the school, the Naguamsett and the Devon. The Devon provides...

A Separate Peace: Contrasting Gene and Phineas and the Struggle for Power Julie Gibson John Knowles' A Separate Peace depicts many examples of how power is used. In A Separate Peace, two opposing characters struggle for their own separate might. Gene Forrester, the reserved narrator, is weakened...

Peace only comes at the price of great struggle and sacrifice for most people. In essence, it only comes when you have defeated the enemy, or the enemy has defeated you. John Knowles was able to capture the subtle goal and essence of his novel by titling it A Separate Peace. A Separate Peace is a...

A Separate Peace is a remarkable story about the relationship between two young students, Gene and Phineas. Their friendship develops through the formation of secret societies and late night card games. A tragic event, at first glance an accident, changes their lives forever. As the story unfolds...

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A Separate Peace Dealing with enemies has been a problem since the beginning of time. "I never killed anybody," Gene had commented later in his life, "And I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform, I was on active duty all my...

Difference Too Often Leads to Hate Many times in the world, differences have lead to hate. Think of Martin Luther King, for example, who stood for fighting against one of the largest differences. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, is one of many examples of differences leading to hate. Gene and...

A Separate Peace Obstacles after obstacles came in the path to success. In the novel A Separate Peace, John Knowles revealed a very strong idea through one of his characters. Through Gene it was revealed that weak individual who once was weak morally and mentally can become a strong and a more...

A Separate Peace: Friendship, Conformity, and War We have all experienced friendship in our lives; some of these bonds were lasting and others were not. A Separate Peace is a book that deals with the friendship of high school boys. These boys attend an all-boy’s school called Devon School...

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"He was everywhere, he enjoyed himself hugely, he laughed out loud at passing sea gulls"(39). This line is describing Phineas, or Finny, and how he lives life to it's fullest and seizes the day. Finny is an example of living the "carpe diem" (seize the day) philosophy from the movie "Dead Poets...

In John Knowle's A Separate Peace, symbols are used to develop and advance the themes of the novel. One theme is the lack of an awareness of the real world among the students who attend the Devon Academy. The war is a symbol of the 'real world', from which the boys exclude themselves...

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The novel A Separate Peace focuses mainly around a 17 year old named Gene Forrester and his psychological development. The story is set in a boys boarding school in USA during World War II. There are four main boys in the novel and they all undergo major character changes through the story. One of...

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Every person feels rivalry or competition towards others at some point in their lives. This rivalry greatly affects our ability to understand others, and this eventually results in paranoia and hostility. It is a part of human nature, that people coldly drive ahead for their gain alone. Man's...

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In the book A Separate Peace by John Knowles, one of the main themes is the effects of realism, idealism, and isolationism on Brinker, Phineas, and Gene. Though not everyone can be described using one of these approaches to life, the approaches completely conform to these characters to create one...

A Separate Peace Gene Forrester is a quiet, intellectual student at Devon School in New Hampshire. During the Summer Session of 1942, he becomes close friends with his daredevil roommate Finny, who has a talent for getting away with mischief through his sincere, disarming charisma. Finny prods...

Nathan Gourley Pd2 4/25/00 In John Knowles book A Separate Peace he communicates how the war in him was taking its toll on him. He uses the characters in a complicated plot to show the destructive forces of war. The characters, Gene and Finny, are the opposing forces in a struggle between the...

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Most stories' titles give readers some insight of what the story will be about. This important concept is seen in the novel, A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles. In general the setting is its own separate peace. There are also specific examples of when characters in the novel try to create...

Gene Forrester's difficult journey towards maturity and the adult world is a main focus of the novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. Gene's journey begins the moment he pushes Phineas from the tree and the process continues until he visits the tree fifteen years later. Throughout this...

A Separate Peace

By john knowles, a separate peace study guide.

The author John Knowles , like his narrator Gene , was from the south (West Virginia, to be exact), and sent off to an uppercrust boarding school in New England for polish before university. However, unlike Gene, Knowles was no academic whiz at boarding school; he came close to flunking out of school, and was never the genius student that Gene is portrayed as being.

The novel A Separate Peace is a largely autobiographical work, drawing on Knowles' experience at Exeter to create the Devon school. Like Gene, Knowles attended a summer session at school to make up some classes; however, the year was 1943, not 1942, as it is in his novel. Other than that, the summer session that Knowles describes in the book was very much akin to the summer session that he attended at Exeter. "We really did have a club whose members jumped from the branch of a very high tree into the river as initiation," Knowles has said of his book: "the only elements in A Separate Peace which were not in that summer were anger, envy, violence, and hatred." In Knowles' far more benign summer, "There was only friendship, athleticism, and loyalty." But the atmosphere at Exeter was similar to what he describes for Devon; they both share an old, ivy-covered campus, with great beautiful trees, and the same New England weather. The summers at Exeter and the fictional Devon were also similar in their carefree atmosphere, their warm, summery beauty, and in the amount of enjoyment the handful of students took from these summers.

Phineas , like Gene, also had a real counterpart; Knowles based the character on David Hackett, who was actually a student at a different school, Milton Academy. However, David was at Exeter for the summer session on which the novel is based, and was a founding member of the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session, which was a real club, and very much like the one described in the novel. David and Knowles were not roommates, but lived across the hall, and became very close as the session progressed. David was a good friend of Bobby Kennedy, and later held a position with Bobby in the Justice department. Whether Gene's jealousy of and competitiveness with Finny was also based on the relationship on David Hackett and John Knowles is unknown, though Mr. Knowles, through his own description of the summer session on which his book is based, would seem to defuse any such theory.

Knowles has admitted that "it is true that I put part of myself into all four main characters in A Separate Peace: Phineas, Gene, Leper, and Brinker." Brinker, like Phineas and Gene, had a real-life source in Gore Vidal, who was a top-notch student at Exeter during the time that Knowles was a student. Although he and Gore were not close friends during their time at school, Knowles does believe in retrospect that he did a good job in distilling the essence of who he believed Gore Vidal to be, into the character of Brinker. Leper has no particular model according to Knowles, but is an amalgamation of a certain type of person whom he runs across repeatedly.

The tragedy of Finny's death was modeled on the death of Bob Tait, a student at Exeter who died in the same manner, on the operating table and as a result of bone marrow escaping into the blood-stream. Knowles was saddened by these events as a senior at the school, and knew Tait to be a kind and gentle person, much as Finny is in the book.

The war had as much of an impact on Exeter life as it did at Devon; Knowles has discussed, as Gene does in the book, how teachers were drawn away from the school by the war effort, and how the students began doing a great many things "for the war." Knowles, like Gene, also had to suffer through the ordeal of crowded, late trains to get back to school. Unlike Gene, however, Knowles was a decently good athlete, participating mostly in swimming; he never achieved the superhuman feats that Finny attains in the novel, but he was no slouch either.

Although the book is mostly based on real events from Knowles' life, still remember that this book is not a work of non-fiction. Knowles himself says that the characters, even those that he bases on real people, are a hodgepodge of different traits and qualities, and many of the dramatic conflicts of the book are not based upon real events, but were invented for the sake of the story. The inspiration and the fuel for Knowles' book was taken directly from his own life experience, but this does not mean that it is solely Knowles' experience that makes up the meat of the events of the book.

A Separate Peace Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for A Separate Peace is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Explain Gene’s reaction to Leper’s accusations?

One thing that Leper is able to do after his army experience is peg Gene's personality, and know what he did to Finny. Finally, naïve little Leper evaluates Gene in a more accurate way than anyone else in the book; "You always were a savage...

What two placed does the narrator go to visit ?

He goes to visit a marble staircase, and the second place he goes to is the river. The summer most of the action takes place is in the 1942.

What is Finny’s attitude towards war?

Finny is initianally against the war. Peace had come back to Devon," Gene says, after Finny had returned. For a while, the struggle between war and peace is temporarily won by peace; and for a short time, Gene also forgets about his ideas of...

Study Guide for A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace study guide contains a biography of John Knowles, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About A Separate Peace
• A Separate Peace Summary
• A Separate Peace Video
• Character List

Essays for A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of A Separate Peace by John Knowles.

• An Analysis of the Dissimilarity Between Phineas and Brinker
• Growing Up in A Separate Peace
• Dramatic Change in A Separate Peace
• The Before and the After: Finding Identity in the Midst of War
• The Boarding School Microcosm: The Unrealistic Portrayal of “Real Life” in the Institutions of Young Adult Literature

Lesson Plan for A Separate Peace

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to A Separate Peace
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• A Separate Peace Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for A Separate Peace

• Introduction
• Plot summary
• Themes, motifs and symbols
• Adaptations

A Separate Peace

Introduction to a separate peace.

A Separate Peace was written by John Knowles and is known as a novel of teenagers. The book appeared first time in 1959 as a short story titled “Phineas.” The story reemerged three years later in the magazine, Cosmopolitan. When Knowles sensed the popularity of the story, he decided to transform it into a novel. The novel added John Knowles among the best authors and also fetched him more work and fame. The story shows the teenagers coming to age after taking part in WWII and showing patriotism, moral sense, and loss of their innocent childhood.

Summary of A Separate Peace

The story of the novel starts with Gene Forrester, a teenager, returning to his school after 14 years which he had left after his graduation. In his school, Devon, Gene feels nostalgic about the marble stairs and the big tree on the bank of the river of the same name. After visiting both of these places, he recalls his student days at Devon and becomes reflective about the weather of the 1940s when he was 16 and lived there with his roommates. He particularly remembers, Finn when WWII suddenly ushered in an era of enthusiasm for the boys to enlist in the army and fight for the nation.

The story takes a plunge into the past of both the boys when they were friends despite having opposite personalities. As an introvert and rational, Gene is the contrast to Finny’s extrovert and carefree life. He also recalls their society when Finny used to jump into the river Devon. Although their friendship continued, they also become rivals during those days when Gene excels in his studies, while Phineas tries to beat him in athletics if not in studies. In fact, Gene was somewhat jealous of Finny. It ends when both jumped into the Devon river. Finny fracture’s his leg after he slips while jumping into the river. Unfortunately, it cripples Finny’s ability to take part in athletics, killing his dreams of excellence in sports.

Gene is said over this disability of his friend, Phineas and the jealousy is left far behind. After this, he tries his best to reconcile with the fact about his responsibility for his disability. The guilt shakes him to the core and admits to his friend of his role in the accident. Phineas being kind, does not believe, and yet is hurt at the revelation.

As WWII starts, the boys get enlisted in the army. A student, Brinker Hadley, calls all the students to join the armed forces for the country at which his friend, Leper Lepellier, joins the paratrooper, an act that traumatizes his personality. His other classmates join different branches of the armed forces. During this time, Brinker accuses Gene of shaking the branch, causing the deliberate fall of his friend Finny. The memory further damages his reputation. Finny, after knowing his willful involvement in making him disabled, leaves them but falls down the stairs and fractures the same leg again. In severe trauma, he avoids the apology from Gene. Later, he accepts it after both conclude that the accident is impulsive and not a deliberate one. Both the friends wait for better days when Finny informs Gene that he is undergoing surgery the next day. However, to his dismay, Finny does not see the light of the day and succumbs to the surgery.

Meanwhile, Brinker and Gene, graduate and join the army in different branches. Brinker goes to the Coast Guard, while Gene joins the Navy. However, what Gene sees is that people often criticize each other for their fears. He sees that Finny was a different sort of person, a truly honest friend, who knew how to fight. He then starts meditating upon the enemy, war, and peace, watching himself in the Navy.

Major Characters of A Separate Peace

• Interdependence: The friendship of Gene and Finny is based on interdependence. Despite having different personalities both teenagers depend on each other. Gene’s envy turns into jealousy and resentment, causing the accident when Finny jumps into the Devon river. It tests their friendship and also their interdependence. On the other hand, Finny does not believe that his friend’s envy could turn into jealousy and that he could turn against him. This interdependence continues until Finny dies and Gene feels that he is going to the graveyard instead of Finny when his funeral rites end.
• Rivalry: The novel shows the theme of rivalry on two levels; the first one is between both friends, Finny and Gene, while the second is between nations whose hint appears in the shape of the recruitment fever among the schoolboys. Finny is a rival to Gene in athletics, while Gene excels in academic studies. Both are opponents of each other in different fields. Yet, when they are about to graduate, they come to know that they are now rival to another nation during WWII.
• Identity: A Separate Peace shows the theme of identity through the long process that Gene and Finny go through to recognize their own identities and come to terms with themselves. This attempt includes defining their identities concerning their environment. Gene comes to the point that he is to succeed academically, the reason for his excellent record. However, as far as Finny is concerned, he comes to the point that he can excel only in sports or athletics and not in studies. When Finny dies, Gene comes to the point of having complicated issues about his identity, for his environment shows him the absence of his friend’s existence.
• Coming of Age: The novel, A Separate Peace, shows the coming of the age of two teenagers; Gene and Finny. Both friends are competitive since their childhood days and continue until they graduate from school and are about to join the army. However, at this age, they come to know that they have been rivals to each other. That is why Finny does not believe that Gene could be the reason for the accident of the tree, crippling him. After listening to the admission through Brinker, Finny is hurt but later forgives. The final arrival of Gene to Devon is a reminder of his being nostalgic after he has grown and thought long and hard about war and peace.
• Optimism: The novel demonstrates the theme of optimism through Phineas or Finny who sees athletics as the only way to succeed in the world after excelling. His belief in the sports and their goodness never shakes even though different people approach him to disclose the accidents. Yet he stays optimistic and never loses heart. Finny and his friend Gene were optimistic to take part in the Olympics until WWII breaks. Even in the end his motto , “you always win” resounds when Finny dies.
• Friendship: The novel shows the theme of friendship through Gene and Finny, and their common friends Leper and Brinker. They stay friends until WWII war starts. While Finny’s and Gene’s friendship seems unbreakable after the accident at the river they began to fall apart for a short period and reconcile during Finny’s 2nd accident until his death.
• Memories: The novel shows the thematic strand of memories through the revisit of Gene to his school days. He visits the marbled stairs and the Devon river. The flashbacks appear on his mind’s screen and make him nostalgic about Finny, his responsibility in causing the accident at the tree branch, and Brinker’s words that revealed the incident.
• Reality: The novel shows the bitter real world through the friendship of Gene and Finny, for when both are about to start their career, Gene tries to create obstacles as an innocent mistake and regrets it.
• Rebellion : The novel shows the thematic strand of rebellion through Finny against Gene in studies while trying to be a law-abiding friend. However, the same rebellion costs him dearly when his rule-abiding friend causes his downfall.
• Denial: The theme of denial is significant in the novel when Finny does not trust anybody and denies Gene’s betrayal at first. They reconcile after the 2nd accident.

Major Themes in A Separate Peace

• Gene Forrester: Gene is the protagonist of the novel and also the narrator of the story. His flashbacks present the entire picture of his childhood. His unreliability could be gauged from his return after he reaches thirty and returns to two significant places in the Devon school to reflect upon his life in school with his friend, Phineas aka Finny. He has passed most of his time in his love and hate relationship with Finny. Despite having jealousy between them, they were good friends. However, at one point, Gene is responsible for the accident when Finny falls from the tree into the Devon river, fracturing his leg. After this, Finny fails to participate in sports. It is revealed that Gene has done it on purpose and after the admission and Finny’s second accident their friendship remains strong until his death.
• Finny: Contrary to Gene, Finny is extroverted but confident. He has the ability to excel in athletics, if not in studies, and is envious of Gene. Sadly, Gene’s envy causes a serious accident as he jumps into the Devon river to show his fearlessness to other boys. Even Gene considers him a model who has the ability to resolve any dilemma , a rare feat at that time. Yet, this trust fractures his leg. He is devasted for losing his future career after the accident. He is hurt after knowing the truth but tries to keep his friendship with Gene alive until his death.
• Leper Lepplier: Leper is the third significant character of the novel who joins the armed forces with Gene and Phineas. He is the one who rallies the boys to join and get recruited into the army. A young boy from Vermont, he is a true nature lover, very calm and resilient, and loves skiing and outdoor sports. However, despite his enthusiasm, he is one of their classmates who does not pay attention to unpopularity. Later he desires to stay friendly with Gene. By the end of the novel, traumatized Leper breaks down due to the pressure of staying in the battle zone.
• Brinker Hadley: A foil of Finny, Brinker is an orthodox person, who has the courage of his conviction to implement his ideas. However, his excellence lies in total adherence to the rules and laws and getting justice based on the system instead of engaging in innocent childish behavior. In a sense, it is his positivity that leads him to feel a responsibility toward adulthood. He resents war despite joining it, seeing injustice and madness involved in it.
• Cliff Quackenbush: The character of Cliff is significant in the novel in that he becomes more powerful than Gene when he is the manager and Gene his assistant. However, despite his administrative role, he never becomes popular among the boys, which is the result of his frustrating behavior with them.
• Chet Douglass: The character of Chet is significant in that actually he rivals Gene in winning the class valediction position. Himself a sportsman, and Chet is a good student and a sincere person.
• Mr. Ludsbury: As the administrator of his dormitory of Gene, he proves a more disciplinarian than other students thought of him. His main obsession in the school is to smoothen the issues and remove anarchy.
• Dr. Stanpole: The significance of Dr. Stanpole lies in his being the resident doctor of the school. He also takes care of the students in every way, sensing difficulties they may face in their lives.
• Mr. Patch-Withers: He replaces the headmaster during the summer season and treats the students leniently.

Writing Style of A Separate Peace

The writing style of A Separate Peace is somewhat lyrically descriptive when Knowles touches on the characters but narrative when he describes the incidents. Whereas sentence length is concerned, John Knowles has paid special attention to it, writing not very long and not very short sentences with simple and direct diction . In terms of literary devices , he turns to personifications, alliterations as well as metaphors .

Analysis of the Literary Devices in A Separate Peace

• Action: The main action of the novel comprises some years of the life of Gene and his friend Finny during school and after their graduation. The rising action occurs when Finny slips from the tree and falls down in the Devon river, while the falling action occurs when Brinker convinces Finny that Gene has caused his downfall.
• Allusion : The novel shows examples of allusions as given below, i. Finny and I went to our room. Under the yellow study lights we read our Hardy assignments; I was halfway through Tess of the D’Urbervilles, he carried on his baffled struggle with Far from the Madding Crowd, amused that there should be people named Gabriel Oak and Bathsheba Everdene. (Chapter -1) ii. “How do you expect our boys to be as precise as that thousands of feet up with bombs weighing tons! Look at what the Germans did to Amsterdam! Look at what they did to Coventry!” “The Germans aren’t the Central Europeans, dear,” his wife said very gently. (Chapter -2) iii. Was that it! My eyes snapped from the textbook toward him. Did he notice this sudden glance shot across the pool of light? He didn’t seem to; he went on writing down his strange curlicue notes about Thomas Hardy in Phineas Shorthand. (Chapter -4) These examples allude to the novels and characters of Thomas Hardy, different cities and countries, and then again to books and authors.
• Anaphora : The examples shows the sentences with anaphora . For example, i. I found it. I found a single sustaining thought. The thought was, You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone . (Chapter -4) ii. I would have to back out of it, I would have to disown it. (Chapter -5) iii. Could it be that he might even be right? Had I really and definitely and knowingly done it to him after all? I couldn’t remember , I couldn’t think. However it was, it was worse for him to know it. I had to take it back. (Chapter -5) iv. He wouldn’t have mentioned it except that after what he had said he had to say something very personal, something deeply held. (Chapter -6) These examples show the repetitious use of “I found”, “you are”, “I would”, “I couldn’t” and “something.”
• Conflict : The novel shows both external and internal conflicts. The external conflict is going on between Gene and Finny as well as Gene and Chet, while the internal conflict is the mental conflict going on in his mind of Gene about the moral position of his action of making his friend, Finny, slip from the branch of the tree.
• Characters: The novel shows both static as well as dynamic characters. The young man, Gene, is a dynamic character as he shows a considerable transformation in his behavior and conduct by the end of the novel after he feels regret over the mischievous act of making Finny fall down. However, all other characters are static as they do not show or witness any transformation such as Chet, Finny, Cliff, Brinker, and Leper.
• Climax : The climax in the novel occurs when Gene makes his friend fall down from the bough of the tree while jumping into the Devon river.
• Flashback : The novel shows the use of flashbacks is given in the examples below, i. 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. (Chapter -1) ii. I said nothing, my mind exploring the new dimensions of isolation around me. Any fear I had ever had of the tree was nothing beside this. It wasn’t my neck, but my understanding which was menaced. He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he. (Chapter -4) Both these examples show the use of the flashback technique the writer has resorted to in the novel through the recollections of his school days.
• Foreshadowing : The novel shows many instances of foreshadows as given below, i. I went back to the Devon School not long ago, and found it looking oddly newer than when I was a student there fifteen years before. It seemed more sedate than I remembered it, more perpendicular and strait-laced, with narrower windows and shinier woodwork, as though a coat of varnish had been put over everything for better preservation. (Chapter -1) ii. We had been swimming in the river, Finny explained; then there had been a wrestling match, then there was that sunset that anybody would want to watch, then there’d been several friends we had to see on business. (Chapter -2) The mention of the school and river shows that the narrator is going to recall his past.
• Imagery : A Separate Peace shows the use of imagery as mentioned in the following sentences, i. Phineas had soaked and brushed his hair for the occasion. This gave his head a sleek look, which was contradicted by the surprised, honest expression which he wore on his face. His ears, I had never noticed before, were fairly small and set close to his head, and combined with his plastered hair they now gave his bold nose and cheekbones the sharp look of a prow. (Chapter -2) ii. We went outside into the cordial afternoon sunshine. The playing fields were optimistically green and empty before us. The tennis courts were full. The softball diamond was busy. A pattern of badminton nets swayed sensually in the breeze. Finny eyed them with quiet astonishment. Far down the fields toward the river there was a wooden tower about ten feet high where the instructor had stood to direct the senior calisthenics. It was empty now. (Chapter -3) iii. We found it fairly easily, on a street with a nave of ancient elms branching over it. The house itself was high, white, and oddly proper to be the home of Phineas. It presented a face of definite elegance to the street, although behind that wings and ells dwindled quickly in formality until the house ended in a big plain barn. (Chapter -6) These examples show images of feelings, sight, movement, and feelings.
• Metaphor : A Separate Peace shows good use of various metaphors in the following sentences, i. Phineas, still asleep on his dune, made me think of Lazarus, brought back to life by the touch of God. (Chapter -4) ii. The study lamp cast a round yellow pool between us. (Part -2, Chapter -4) iii. I scanned the page; I was having trouble breathing, as though the oxygen were leaving the room. Amid its devastation my mind flashed from thought to thought, despairingly in search of something left which it could rely on. (Chapter -4) iv. I was Phineas, Phineas to the life. I even had his humorous expression in my face, his sharp, optimistic awareness. (Chapter -5) These examples show that several things have been compared directly in the novel such as the first one showing Finny compared to a miracle, the second showing the lamp compared to a source of water, and the third shows the oxygen compared to a living thing, while he compares himself to Finny.
• Mood : The novel shows a very innocent mood in the beginning but turns out depressing, sorrowful, tragic, and gleeful in some places.
• Motif : Most important motifs of the novel are change, vision, memory, and athletics.
• Narrator : The novel, A Separate Peace, has been narrated by the first person who is Gene, the main narrator of the novel.
• Parallelism : The novel shows the use of parallelism in the following i. When you played a game you won, in the same way as when you sat down to a meal you ate it. (Chapter -3) ii. I turned over and tried to sleep again but couldn’t, and so lay on my back looking at this gray burlap sky. (Chapter -4) iii. If you’re really good at something, I mean if there’s nobody, or hardly anybody, who’s as good as you are, then you’ve got to be serious about that. (Chapter -4) iv. None of us was allowed near the infirmary during the next days, but I heard all the rumors that came out of it. (Chapter -5) v. The sooner he does the better off he’ll be. (Chapter -5)
• Paradox : The novel shows examples of paradoxes in the following sentences, i. The Devon faculty had never before experienced a student who combined a calm ignorance of the rules with a winning urge to be good, who seemed to love the school truly and deeply. (Chapter -2) ii. Yes, he had practically saved my life. He had also practically lost it for me. (Chapter -2) iii. Nothing could be more regular than that. To meet once a week seemed to him much less regular, entirely too haphazard, bordering on carelessness. (Chapter -3) iv. His head started to come up, and mine snapped down. (Chapter -4) These examples show that the writer has put paradoxical ideas or things together the first one shows calm ignorance and winning urge, saving life and losing something, regular and haphazard and coming up and snapping down of their heads.
• Personification : The novel shows examples of personifications such as, i. Devon was both scholarly and very athletic, so the playing fields were vast and, except at such a time of year, constantly in use. Now they reached soggily and emptily away from me, forlorn tennis courts on the left, enormous football and soccer, and lacrosse fields in the center. (Chapter -1) ii. It presented a face of definite elegance to the street, although behind that wings and ells dwindled quickly in formality until the house ended in a big plain barn. (Chapter -5) These examples show as if the tennis court and the school have life and emotions of their own.
• Protagonist : Gene is the protagonist of the novel. The novel starts with his entry into the story, his conduct in the school, his graduation, recruitment in the army, his backward journey to school, and recollections.
• Rhetorical Questions : The novel shows several examples of rhetorical questions such as, i. Was he trying to impress me or something? Not tell anybody? When he had broken a school record without a day of practice? (Chapter -3) ii. “But he must be able to,” I burst out, “if his leg’s still there, if you aren’t going to amputate it—you aren’t, are you?—then if it isn’t amputated and the bones are still there, then it must come back the way it was, why wouldn’t it? Of course it will.” (Chapter -5) iii. Could it be that he might even be right? Had I really and definitely and knowingly done it to him after all? I couldn’t remember, I couldn’t think. However it was, it was worse for him to know it. I had to take it back. (Chapter -5) These examples show the use of rhetorical questions posed by different characters of narrators not for answers but to stress the underlying ideas.
• Repetition : The novel shows the examples of repetition in the below sentences, i. He was still asleep, although in this drained light he looked more dead than asleep. The ocean looked dead too, dead gray waves hissing mordantly along the beach, which was gray and dead-looking itself. (Chapter -4) ii. “At the twelfth I discovered that he had been counting to himself because he began to count aloud in a noncommittal, halfheard voice . (Chapter -6) iii. He wouldn’t have mentioned it except that after what he had said he had to say something very personal, something deeply held. (Chapter -6) These examples show the use of repetitions such as “dead”, “count” and “something.”
• Simile : The novel shows good use of various similes in the following sentences, i. It seemed more sedate than I remembered it, more perpendicular and strait-laced, with narrower windows and shinier woodwork, as though a coat of varnish had been put over everything for better preservation. (Chapter -1) ii. I didn’t entirely like this glossy new surface, because it made the school look like a museum, and that’s exactly what it was to me. (Chapter -1) iii. With nothing to block it the wind flung wet gusts at me; at any other time I would have felt like a fool slogging through mud and rain , only to look at a tree. (Chapter -2) iv. But his mind always recorded what was said and played it back to him when there was time, so as he was buttoning the high collar in front of the mirror he said mildly, “I wonder what would happen if I looked like a fairy to everyone.” (Chapter -2) v. Then a second realization broke as clearly and bleakly as dawn at the beach. (Chapter -4) vi. It was there that I had done it, but it was here that I would have to tell it I felt like a wild man who had stumbled in from the jungle to tear the place apart. (Chapter -5) The use of words “like” and “as” show the comparison between the painting and coat of varnish, the school and the museum, Gene and a fool, Gene and a fairy, realization and the dawn, and Gene and the wild man.

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A Separate Peace

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1. As the Devon boys enjoy their summer in 1942, the specter of war looms in the background.

• In what ways does war disrupt the lives of the Devon boys? (topic sentence)
• Find 2-3 examples from the text to substantiate your answer.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, consider the following: In what ways is the theme of War Encroaching on Peace of the Devon boys literal? In what ways is it metaphorical?

2. Throughout his narration, Gene is preoccupied with the idea that Finny is a possible rival, as opposed to a genuine friend.

• Why does Gene believe Finny is more foe than friend at times? (topic sentence)

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The Theme of thr Loss of Innocence in a Separate Peace

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