“It’s like a test, isn’t it, and only the things and the people
who’ve been evolving the right way survive” (125).

This sentence explains much of the book in my perspective. When Gene came to the Devon school, he wasn’t exactly the best athlete but he was smart. In the Devon school smarts didn’t really get much people anywhere. His roommate, Finny, was one of the best athletes. Not the strongest either, just very sports-minded and active. Finny didn’t bend over to get to Gene, but Gene immediately bonded and built a friendship bringing him up through the social ladder. Finny never really changed throughout the book when he obeyed only his own rules. He wove around and dodged under every rule set in place for him. In the end, Finny dies. He cannot change to fit the stability of a wartime effort so he is eventually, sorrowfully killed. Though Leper gets the exception to trying to evolve, but it went horribly wrong, After enlisting in the ski troops, Leper becomes mentally unstable. He goes on to better things and has to recede, where evolving never works perfectly for anything. The school even evolves from Summer to Winter. When summer laxness gives way to strict rules and Harsh Winters, not all of the boys agree but end up conforming so that they may continue on to their goal.

“He possessed an extra vigor, a heightened confidence in himself, a serene capacity for affection which saved him. Nothing as he was growing up at home, nothing at Devon, nothing even about the war had broken his harmonious and natural unity. So at last I had” (Knowles 194-195). Gene Describes here in what seems like an accomplishment to me of him finally proving that Finny can be weak.From proving this, Gene finally gets a sense of satisfaction that he is better than Finny at something besides academics.

“Now I see what racing skiing is all about. It’s all right to miss seeing the trees and the countryside and all the other things when you’ve got to be in a hurry. And when you’re in a war you’ve got to be in a hurry. Don’t you? So I guess maybe racing skiers weren’t ruining the sport after all. They were preparing it, if you see what I mean, for the future. Everything has to evolve or else it perishes. . . I’m almost glad this war came along. It’s like a test, isn’t it, and only the things and the people who’ve been evolving the right way survive” (116-117). Leper finally comes to his senses about something in a major way when he sees what he must do. But in realizing this, he puts himself forward. Nothing can be more true than leper philosophical statement about evolution. Though in ‘Murica…we call it innovation.

“Stranded in this mill town railroad yard while the whole world was converging elsewhere, we seemed to be nothing but children playing among heroic men” (89). Gene mentions here a common problem found in people. He feels unimportant and useless. He see’s all these battle ready recruits going off to war soon on the train but cannot see what significance they play in the war other than taking food and playing games.

“Naturally I don’t believe books and I don’t believe teachers, but I do believe-it’s important for me to believe you Gene. Christ, I’ve got to believe you, at least. I know you better than anybody” (154). Finny shows his trust in his best friend. A trust that goes beyond even any respectable individuals. I think trust that strong is notable, no matter the person. What could it take to make you trust somebody that much? That you don’t even believe them when they say they’ve wronged you? This is the strongest bond I’ve ever seen.

“It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart” (193). Gene explains the downfall of the human race here. This quote goes beyond this book and cuts straight through every page of our history books. In the books time, WWII was caused by an angry Adolf Hitler who did not fell his government showed enough pride in who they were. So he went on a rampage killing off the weak, different and scared. No war is sensible when reason is in play, but there has always been a sensible resolution to prewar conflicts.

“Finny 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” (51). Gene state that there never could have been rivalry between the two of them, but he says this because it takes two to fight. With Finny staying neutral there never would be a fight. This quote shows Gene’s admittance to Finny’s superiority in character, even if it was awkward.

“‘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 part of Phineas” (85). After Gene hurts Finny he feels obliged to help him to compensate him for troubles and place something other than guilt on his heart concerning Finny. Gene sees what he wanted to do, which was to become Finny, but in realizing that that is impossible, he does the second best he can. He becomes a part of him and a backup. Jealousy wins over the human heart as always and proves how weak some teenage guys are in their heart and cause Gene to betray the one he backups, after he injures him.

“The army has the perfect word for everything, did you ever think of that?…And the perfect word
for me…psycho. I guess I am. I must be. Am I though, or is the army? Because they turned
everything inside out” (149-150). Leper tells here of how he was section eight discharged from service, which means he insane, but he thinks that the army is. After all, they made him that way. Leper never really had everything together but he pulls an important point about the army that ruins some peoples nerves. A psychological warfare even for the weak hearted.

“You want to break something else in me! Is that why you’re here?” (184). When Gene goes to visit Finny for the second break, he’s met with an extremely angry Finny. Which is not what he’s been exposed to until recently. When obvious truths we ignore are thrown at us, yet we still don’t accept them, we enrage ourselves when we finally do accept them. Finny would not believe Gene. Not until it was proven, though Finny does forgive Gene again, he’s more mad at himself for not accepting it.

“I did not cry then or ever about Finny.…I could not escape a feeling that this was my own
funeral, and you do not cry in that case” (194). Gene feels that when Finny died, so did a piece of him. He did try to become Finny. When a feeling goes so deep to feel as if it is your own funeral, of course you won’t cry. This signals the sealing of unresolved matters that may never be completely dissolved. Gene will more than likely live in guilt.

this book is a good book, if your into weird plots, all boys, and best friends killing each other. I would not recommend the book at all, it is absolutely dreadful and barely entertains me enough to stay awake during it. Not only is this book told in retrospect, but it describes a boy who purposely pushes his fiend out of a giant tree..his BEST friend. Who does that? Not even when i’m in a rampage will i ever hurt anybody less than a mortal enemy. I do not like how the story even takes a gruesome ending when Finny storms and gets himself killed by clumsily falling. Te way leper comes in seems sudden and forced, maybe Knowles could spent a few more days making it flow smoother or even not even bring him  in and made somebody else the witness. If everybody was British, how much better would the book have been, it would have been SOOOOOOOO much better. I could have imagined them with neat accents, and they  would’ve discussed things and more than likely had a better ending than a friend killing a friend. Because of the way that Gene revisits the Devon School proves that there were unresolved emotions that he needed to resolve. When Finny dies he forgives him, good job finny, finally realize but you don’t have to forgive him. Let him live in an ocean of guilt for the crimes he has committed so he can not hurt anybody else. Needless to say, i was less than happy with this book.

In the beginning, of the book ‘A Separate Peace’, Gene Forester is visiting his old school reminiscing on old memories. He travels to important parts like the stairs where his best friend was fatally injured, and a tree by a river that he jumped with his friend. He flashes back and describes events from his past that made him who he is. Not long after Finny and Gene create their club, the Super Suicide Society, gene emotionally goes crazy and shakes Finny, causing him to fall, breaking his leg. Gene feels extremely guilty about this and tries to tell Finny that it was on purpose, but finny refuses to believe him until he is almost dead. Much later on, upon finny’s return to the Devon school, he decides to throw a winter festival, which has not been done before or coordinated by the school. At the ending of the book, Gene was ultimately the end of Finny. Finny is very mad at Gene because he finally realizes that the tree “accident’ was not an accident. After a fight, Gene storms off and ends up falling down the stairs. When his bone marrow enters his heart through the blood, it slows it down and eventually stops it. So in turn, it’s fair to say that Gene killed finny because he was jealous throughout his military High School life.

Gene Forrester seems like a very hardworking individual that strives to be accepted into the rest of his grade. Not unworthy of praise, he does fall. And for this, I persecute him. I liked him a lot until he was caught up with the hooligan named Finny. It all worked, but his humanly instinct to socialize set up his downfall. The first instance was his merciless attack on Finny in the tree. Then he goes and stays quiet about it acting like it was an accident. If he would not have made friends, this problem would not have happened. The second one is where he keeps his grievances covered up and hidden from the world. He was a real friend, he told him, but the idiot Finny did not believe him. Now Finny is a completely different story. Finny finds himself at the doorstep of trouble every other hour it seems. But his uncanny ability to dodge every bullet of trouble makes him who he is. I am extremely jealous of his ability which makes me loathe his every move. But together, they are one different team together. a perpetual occurrence that goes from loving to hating to loving faster than a fall from a tree. Though in the end, they did make up before Gene’s idiocy finally killed Finny. Gene does not deserve any kind of praise for falling into the trap of society and being the ultimate doom to one of his best ‘friends’. On the other side, Finny, though i hate him, can be looked highly upon by many individuals for his certain skills pertaining to escaping punishment.

Finny and Gene as arguable ‘best friend’s, are rarely seen apart. Finny is behind his friend all the way. The friendship between them is in no way perfect but Finny needs gene more than he knows.While Finny only wants a friendly competitor, Gene sees a threat and, out of anger/ jealousy, breaks his leg.

When Leper enlists, he expects to be serenely exploring the landscape with new friends whilst mostly staying out of the fight. But the reality of the situation in front of him takes over and drove him mad. Mad enough to be discharged with a section eight.

After Finny finally accepts that Gene hurt him on purpose, Gene strives to repair the bond. Finny does not seem to be able to lose his grudge and goes so far as wanting to kill him. Gene never can recover from their fight after Finny damages himself  and unfortunately dies.

The changing of seasons at the Devon school represents these opposites as well. In the summer is when everybody shucks the rules and denies. when finny start the Super Suicide Society and breaks his leg. Everyone stands against what Devon Stands for. In the winter, everyone becomes tied down by the strict teachers and harsher guidelines. Finny also recovers from his injury and brings back joy.

Representing the peace, the Devon river was a popular place to hang out at the Devon school where it was clear, large, beautiful, and serene. Representing the Violence, the Naguamsett river is where the boys were forced into slave labor surrounded by dirty water and bad memories.

Truths about Human Nature

A separate peace can be taken as a military term. Saying that if your ally goes to war, you can form a separate peace that keeps your alliance, but removes you from the war. Throughout the novel this is not often seen. When Finny gets upset about Gene going to enlist, Brinker would’ve been a part but quickly extinguished this would be fight. Taken literally, the title could be mean that you separate yourself from the world to find peace. Finny displays this by making his own theories about reality instead of believing them and he seemed fairly unperturbed. Yet, in the end, this leads to his ultimate realization of a world that he never could take in. The title brings apart a symbolic expressing the peace within solitude. Though Finny can not stand to be apart from Gene…or vice versa…

Within the characters of a separate peace, two characters witness two major changes. Gene is the narrator in which the story is told, but he partakes in a change after the climactic fall of finny. When finny leaves, so does the energy of all of Devon. Gene decides he no longer needs the eccentric acts of Finny. Gene is now more confident in himself not always hanging onto Finny but trudging into his own path. He loses all interest in his studies and decides to try to fill Finny’s spot where he left the gaping hole. Gene was not alone in his transformation. Finny goes from the best athlete in Devon to a unable to walk alone much less play sports ever again. He never cared about the war and isn’t starting now, but he does force gene to start taking his place in his dream of the 1944 Olympics. Among Gene traits requiring support disappear as he becomes more dependent upon himself. But the exact opposite happens to Finny when he realizes that he needs Gene.

In the late ’30’s and early ’40’s, this novel is set at a boys academy in New Hampshire. It sits at The center of a relatively small town, blending into the streets and houses surrounding. Through most of the book it is winter but it starts in the joy of summer life. This fictional story sets itself into a trying time of disbelief, or tragic suffering. Seeing as Americans prefer to be ignorant and blissful, it is not surprising that a good number would not have believed in World War II. Today there are many academies that specializing in training boys for the military, so seeing stories like Genes would be very plausible. Though seeing how the Devon school is not real, it has to be fiction. The School, especially in time of war, having to prepare for war, would never be as lenient as they are portrayed, even in the summer. They can not slack for the chance of losing the boys to tragic death. A Separate Peace is very realistic in the telling of the adventures of rowdy boys attending high school and finding themselves through trial and error.