Archive: A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace was written by John Knowles. It is set at the Devon Academy in New Hampshire during World War II. The two main characters are Finny and Gene, two best friends who go through extremely difficult times together.



Plot Summary
A Separate Peace is set during 1942 at the Devon School in New Hampshire. The backdrop of the story is World War II, which looms over the protagonist, Gene Forresters’s, head. During the summer session at Devon Gene becomes close friends with his dare devil roommate Phineas, or Finny. Finny is an outgoing, charismatic, and very athletic person, who contrasts Gene who is a quiet intellectual type of person. One day Finny gets Gene to jump from a tree into a river, after Gene does so they eventually form a secret society based around their ritual. Gene eventually begins to become jealous of Finny’s amazing athletic abilities. He in turn believes that Finny is jealous of his academic abilities and believes that Finny is attempting to somehow undermine his studies. It is from this paranoid jealously that Gene’s hatred for Finny begins to develop. Gene eventually realizes that he has been wrong about Finny wanting to undermine him when Finny expresses his desire to see Gene succeed. He accompanies to Finny to their jumping tree and stands on the branch with him. Gene, still in a state of shock that Finny was not out to get him, bends his knees as Finny stands on the edge and Finny falls and breaks his leg. Everyone considers it an accident and no one would ever consider blaming Gene, especially Finny. However, Gene can’t help but feel a pain of guilt developing inside him when he hears that Finny’s athletic career will be over. Gene goes home to the South for vacation and on his way stops at Finny’s house to apologize and admit that he had purposefully shaken the branch. Finny refuses to listen to him and Gene went back to school where Brinker Hadley asks him to enlist with him. Gene agrees to join until he finds out that Finny is back at the school. Finny expects Gene to become the schools sports star now that he’s gone and Gene eventually agrees and beings to train for the 1944 Olympics. During this time the classmates find out that Leper Lepellier is the first one in their class to enlist in the army. After some time Gene receives a telegraph from Leper saying that he has “escaped” and needs Gene to come see him in Vermont. Gene goes to Vermont only to find that Leper has gone mad. While there Leper begins to rant about the accident and knows that Gene had helped to cause the fall. Gene becomes worried and leaves. When he gets back to the school Brinker Hadley becomes suspicious of him and begins a trial. Neither Finny nor Gene claimed to remember the exact details of the fall, but when Leper comes in to testify at the makeshift trial he starts to implicate Gene. Finny refuses to listen to anyone who says that Gene caused his fall and as he rushes out of the room he falls down the stairs and breaks his leg again. Later that night Gene sneaks over to the infirmary to apologize to Finny but Finny sends him away angrily, blaming him for both falls. The next day he goes to Finny again and pours out his heart and apologizes, taking full blame for everything. Finny accepts and the two friends are at ease with each other again. Tragically, during the resetting of Finny’s bone, a piece of marrow is detached and flows through his bloodstream and stops his heart. When Gene receives the news of Finny’s death he is relatively calm, almost tranquil. He considered himself a part of Finny and although a part of him died, a part of Finny was still with him. The rest of the boys go on to the military when they graduate while Gene reflects on Finny’s look on the world. He reflects on the ignorance and hatred of the human heart, which Finny had never experienced.

Characters
Gene - He is the narrator/protagonist.

Phineas (Finny) - Gene's best friend, he's the cause of Gene's hatred because Gene is jealous of his athletic abilities.

Elwin "Leper" Lepellier - A friend of Gene's. He witnesses Finny's first fall and is the cause of the trial against Gene.

Brinker Hadley - An outgoing school politician who administers Gene's trial and leads the investigation.

Mr. Prudd'homme - He is a teacher/master at Devon during the summer session.

Dr. Stanpole - He is the doctor who operates on Finny each time he breaks his leg.

Mr. Hadley - Brinker Hadley's father, he's an important symbol that represents how the older generation expects the younger generation to finish the things they start.

Themes
Some of your worst enemies come from inside you. This is a possible theme as throughout the entire story Gene’s enemy is Finny. His jealously inside him over Finny is ultimately what leads him to think of Finny as his enemy.

Everyone fights a war at some point in his or her life. This theme goes with the book perfectly. The book is set during World War II, and while some of the characters fight their war on the battlefield, Gene states for himself that his war was fought at Devon. He eventually did join the military where he did not kill one person. His war, he says, was fought at Devon, and he killed his enemy there. This theme is true on many levels, as Gene and Finny had their own struggles or inner wars, at times during the novel.

Symbols
The jumping tree and marble staircase: The jumping tree and marble staircase are both symbols pain and suffering. Even from the beginning of the book, Gene comments on the horrible things that happened there. The tree was Finny’s first fall, and the marble staircase was his second fall, which in the end caused his death.

Finny’s fall: Finny’s fall is a symbol in itself. It’s highly symbolic in that it comes at the end of the summer session, which is carefree and innocent. The dark winter session then rushes in as Finny’s carefree and innocent personality are gone with his fall into the hospital. The fall also shows Gene that his jealous of Finny doesn’t come without consequences.

The summer and winter sessions: The summer and winter sessions are also symbols. The summer session is a symbol of carefree living and innocence in which the students can be young and youthful. The winter session is a symbol of hard work and discipline, in which the students are forced to suddenly grow into adults and prepare for joining the war once they graduate.

Significant Quotes
“Finny could get away with anything. I couldn’t help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying your best friend a little.”

“Winter’s occupation seems to have conquered, ovverun and destroyed everything, so that now there is no longer any resistance movement left in nature…and now winter itself, an old, corrupt, tired conqueror, loosens its grip on the desolation…”

“Because 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.”

“The tree tremendous, an irate, steely black steeple beside the river.”

“You see! Kill me! Now you know what it is! I did it because I felt like that! Now you know yourself!

Allusions
1. History Allusion: Adolf Hitler Original Source: Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945. Hitler is most commonly associated with the rise of fascism in Europe, World War II, and the Holocaust.

Cite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler

Quote from Secondary Source: When he had surrendered I bent cheerfully over to help him up, seizing his wrist to stop the final treacherous snowball he had ready, and he remarked, “well I guess that takes care of the Hitler Youth outing for one day.” All of us laughed. On the way back to the gym he said, “That was a good fight. I thought it was pretty funny, didn’t you?” (92)

Cite: Knowles, John. A Separate Peace. Ohio: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2000

Insight/Effect: This was a reference between Finny and Hitler because they both tried to be on both “teams” and betrayed everybody in the end. They wound up with everybody being their enemy.

2. History Allusion: The Great Depression Original Source: The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II.

Cite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression

Quote from Secondary Source: “Well, what happened was that they didn’t like that, the preachers and the old ladies and all the stuffed shirts. So then they tried Prohibition and everybody just got drunker, so then they really got desperate and arranged the Depression. That kept the people who were young in the thirties in their places. But they couldn’t use that trick forever, so for us in the forties they’ve cooked up this war fake.” (67)

Cite: Knowles, John. A Separate Peace. Ohio: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2000.

Insight/Effect: This reference made light of the dark eras in our history. Prohibition was a time of gangsters, gangster wars, etc. The Great Depression was a time of people doing without necessities and living hand to mouth. The WWII was a devastating war for the world. For him to say it’s all made up, it gives light to the dark eras.

Taylor Back 14 12:59, 11 November 2011 (MST)

Adaptations
A Separate Peace has one film adaptation- A Separate Peace - released in 2004.