Early Communications

In A Separate Peace, Gene Forrestor narrates the story from fifteen years retrospect. Gene starts telling stories about how him and Finny always broke the rules, and then he starts to tell about the tree jumping. The tree jumping turns into a nightly thing and Gene thinks Finny is trying to take him away from his studies so he can be better than him. Gene becomes angry at this thought and pushes Finny out of the tree to cause him to break his leg.

Then the novel moves to the semester where Finny is not at Devon. While Finny is gone, Gene tries to go tell Finny that he purposely pushed him out of the tree, but Finny did not want to admit that his friend tried to hurt him, so Gene left and went back to Devon. Finny comes back the winter semester and tells Gene that he is apart of him. Finny trains Gene up to be ready for the 1944 olympics, which was a dream of Finny’s. One night, Brinker and a group of guys come and bring Gene and Finny to the assembly hall to be trailed. Brinker wanted Finny to know that Gene meant to hurt him. Once Finny found out about this, he stormed out of the room and ended up falling down the stairs and breaking his leg again. Finny later dies during the surgery to prepare his leg. Gene does not feel any emotion towards Finny’s death, but he rather feels peace, because he killed his enemy.

John Knowles gave this novel this specific title, A Separate Peace. Without knowing what this book is about, you could guess and say that the main character finds his “separate peace.” Gene does find his separate peace. Gene’s separate peace is not finishing the war, but more defeating his enemy at Devon. As Gene continues to put all his effort into Finny, Gene finally has enough. Gene gets so stressed about being “apart of Finny” that he decides to hurt him. In Gene hurting Finny, Gene finds peace. Gene is guilty about hurting his friend, but he is more peaceful. As Finny is away recovering from his injury, Gene finds some more peace and it involves Finny again. Gene decides to put on Finny’s clothes and he acts like him. Somehow this act gives him peace about himself. He feels as if he were Finny at that specific moment in time. Towards the end of the book, Finny dies, and with his death, Gene achieves his separate peace. With Finny’s death, Gene’s guilt and competitiveness also died. It is as if a part of Gene died that day also. Gene finally reached his separate peace when Finny died.

The Devon school is also an example of a separate peace. Devon is isolated from the war. The school is where the boys find their peace from the war. They know the war is real, but they have never experienced it, so they do not know anything but peace.

Hate/Love 

Throughout this novel you see a hate and love relationship between Gene and Finny. Gene hated that Finny was better than him, but he also displayed love to him by helping him whenever he was crippled and needed help.

Peace/Violence

In this novel, the symbol of the tree reveals peace and violence. The tree is where Gene intentionally tried to kill, or injure, Finny. The tree is also the place where Gene goes to find his ” separate peace.”

Power/Submission

Throughout the plot of this novel, you see the theme of power and submission come into play, but the theme is backwards. The power is the students of Devon, while the teachers submit to them. For example, Finny and Gene went to the beach and stayed the night there. This was against the rules, and when the headmaster came to confront them about it, Finny talks to hi and they don’t get in trouble.

Honesty/Deceit

In this novel, honesty and deceit is relevant. The honesty is more relevant with Finny than with Gene. Gene is the more deceitful person. Finny comes out and tells Gene that he needs him. Finny finds stability in Gene and he tells Gene that also. Gene keeps secrets away from Finny. Gene did not want Finny to know that he made him fall, but if it wasn’t for his guilt, he would’ve never told him.

Isolation/Acceptance

Leper is the prime example of isolation. He always felt left out. He was an outcast, and his name even symbolizes him as an outcast. Leper was never really ask to come and do things with the group. That’s why he went off to the army early, because he wanted to be accepted into a group. Leper also wanted to be accepted. He went off to the army thinking he was going to be in a “brotherhood”, but he still felt isolated. In my opinion, him being isolated all his life is what drove him into a nut case.

In John Knowles historic novel, A Separate Peace, Knowles reveals a major change in a major character named Phineas. Phineas, also known as Finny, had a physical and a emotional major change. Finny was an athlete. He was the best athlete at Devon. He was the football stud, and he broke the swimming record without any training. He just decided to go for a swim and he beat it. During this time period of his life, he had confidence, vigor, and swagger. He walked around the campus with a walk that was like no other walk anybody had on campus. You could tell that he was an athlete, but one event caused a major change in his physical and emotional abilities. One evening, Finny and Gene decided to go jump out of a tree. That night, Gene made Finny fall out of the tree, and he ended up breaking his leg. When Finny came back to Devon, he was on crutches. He could not walk the same way he originally walked. He also could not play sports. His life was basically taken away from him. Finny also had to ask Gene for help whenever he could not do something. This hurt Finny emotionally, because he never had to ask someone for help. This took away his confidence, vigor, and his swagger. Finny changed physically and emotionally.

This novel, A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles was a good book in my opinion. I really liked how the book was told from a flashback. Finny was the one character that intrigued me. He was an athlete who was humble about his abilities. For example, whenever he broke the schools swimming record, he didn’t want anybody to know about it. The jumping off the tree was one of my favorite events that took place in this novel. I also liked Leper. I know he wasn’t a major character in the novel, but he gave the book a sense of humor. He was a nut case who all he did was make you scared, or he made you laugh. I love how Knowles chose the characters names. for example, Leper stands for the people who were outcasted with leprosy. Gene Forester is a foreshadowing of him and Finny in the tree. Forester, what is in the forest… trees. That is genius. I also liked how Knowles used the marble stairs to foreshadow the death, or the next injury Finny has. As an overall opinion on the novel, I will say that it is a good novel. It is not my favorite, but it is a good novel.