John Knowles

A Separate Peace
EXTRA CREDIT
BA
BACK
CKGR
GROUND
OUND INFO
A Separate Flop. Paramount Pictures released a film version of A Separate
Peace in 1972. The movie was poorly received by critics and was a commercial
AUTHOR BIO failure.
Full Name: John Knowles A similar reality. In writing A Separate Peace, Knowles drew heavily on his
Date of Birth: September 16, 1926 experience of spending two summers at Exeter in 1943 and 1944, which he
has described as among the happiest times in his life. The character of Phineas
Place of Birth: Fairmont, West Virginia
is based directly on a student named David Hackett, who Knowles befriended
Date of Death: November 29, 2001 in the summer of 1943 at Exeter. Hackett attended Milton Academy, a rival
Brief Life Story: The son of a successful coal executive, John Knowles grew up high school, during the regular school year.
in a prominent wealthy West Virginia family. He attended Phillips Exeter
Academy starting at age fifteen and graduated in 1944. He then served briefly
in the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet program and went to Yale after World
PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY
War II. After graduating in 1949, Knowles worked as a journalist and travel
Gene Forrester, a man in his early thirties, returns after fifteen years to his
writer and later began to publish short stories in magazines. Knowles's friend
prep school, the Devon School of New Hampshire. He stops at Devon's main
Thornton Wilder, another famous writer, encouraged him to write a novel
building and then walks down to look at a large tree by the Devon River
based on his personal experience, so Knowles started writing A Separate Peace
in the mid-1950s. Published first in Britain in 1959 and then the United States The story shifts to 1942. World War II rages overseas, and the smart and
in 1960, A Separate Peace earned rave reviews and won Knowles the William careful Gene and his carefree and athletic roommate Finny are students at
Faulkner Foundation Award for best first novel and a nomination for the Devon's summer session. One day, Finny, Gene, and some other students hang
National Book Award. Knowles went on to write half a dozen more novels and around a big tree by the river. Finny climbs the tree and jumps into the river.
spent the rest of his career teaching writing at various universities, including Gene, though terrified, follows. Later that day, the two boys form a club, which
Princeton. they name the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. One of the rites
of passage for joining the club is jumping out of the tree by the river. As
KEY FACTS summer continues, Gene and Finny grow closer. Yet Gene also begins to feel a
Full Title: A Separate Peace deep rivalry with Finny. He envies Finny's athletic prowess, and suspects Finny
has been trying to sabotage his academic success. At one meeting of Gene and
Genre: Coming of age novel (bildungsroman) Finny's suicide society, Finny proposes that he and Gene perform a
Setting: The Devon School, a private academy in New England in 1942–1943 simultaneous jump from the tree. As they both stand ready to jump, Gene
shifts and shakes the branch. Finny falls to the ground, shattering his leg and
Climax: Finny's fall; Finny's admitting that the war is real; Finny's death
his athletic career. Gene tries to confess to Finny what he did, but can't make
Protagonist: Gene Forrester himself do it before the summer ends.
Point of View: First person (Gene Forrester narrates) On the way back to Devon in the fall of senior year, Gene visits Finny and
confesses that he caused Finny's fall. Finny refuses to believe him. Gene
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY CONTEXT returns to Devon and finds that the laxity of the summer session has been
When Published: 1959 in Britain; 1960 in the U.S. replaced by the strict rule of the regular masters. The senior boys'
consciousness of the war also increases, and soon a boy named Brinker
Literary Period: Modern American; Post-War Fiction
Hadley influences Gene to enlist, until Finny returns to school and convinces
Related Literary Works: A Separate Peace is most often associated with Gene not to. Everyone is shocked, however, when a dreamy boy named Leper
another famous first novel about the struggles of an adolescent prep school Lepellier does enlist and leaves school.
student, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye and A
Gene has decided that pursuits like sports feel trivial in light of the war, but
Separate Peace depict the physical and emotional turmoil of adolescence with
Finny argues that war is just a creation of fat old men who want to control the
an unprecedented dose of candor and detail. Catcher does so by taking an
younger generation. Soon Finny convinces Gene to start training for the
uncensored look into the mind of one character; A Separate Peace looks closely
Olympics—a dream that used to be Finny's. As Gene's training intensifies, the
at the bond between two adolescent friends. The specter of World War II
two boys regain their closeness and Gene gains a sense of internal peace that
darkens both books as their protagonists attempt to preserve their youthful
he's never before experienced. One day, Finny proposes that the boys hold a
innocence while the grave and brutal reality of the adult world threatens to
Winter Carnival. It's a great success, until a telegram arrives for Gene from
make them grow up too soon.
Leper. Leper has deserted the military in order to avoid getting discharged for
Related Historical Events: Characters in A Separate Peace act like patients insanity. Gene goes to Leper's home in Vermont, where they have an argument
given a diagnosis of a terminal illness: they must make the most of the time in which Leper really does seem half-insane and accuses Gene of willfully
they have left on earth. The very real threat of being drafted to serve in World causing Finny's fall.
War II made the age of 16 or 17 a final safe haven in which to enjoy
Back at Devon, Brinker begins to question why Gene hasn't enlisted and
friendships, sports, and the other carefree pleasures of youth. Elwin "Leper"
suspects it has something to do with Finny's fall. Finny also spots Leper
Lepellier's experience of enlisting in the Army, only to be terrified and soon
skulking around the school. One night, Brinker and a few other students round
desert, conveys the pressure and fear that adolescents faced during World
up Gene and Finny and hold a mock trial to investigate Finny's fall. They bring
War II. Even those who joined the war effort willingly often came back scarred
in Leper as a witness. He testifies that Gene caused Finny's fall on purpose.
for life.
Finny stands up and shouts that he doesn't care either way. He storms out and
falls down a nearby set of stairs and re-breaks his leg.
Gene tries to visit Finny at the infirmary, but Finny is furious at him. Gene
spends the night wandering the campus and feeling as if he doesn't exist. The
next morning he again visits Finny, and together the two boys agree that

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 A Separate Peace
Gene's actions at the tree were not purposeful. Finny dies that afternoon, Mr
Mr.. Prud'homme – A substitute Devon house master on duty during the
when some marrow from the break gets into his blood. Gene doesn't cry when summer term. He has a less severe and forbidding demeanor than the term-
he hears this, or at the funeral. He feels that Finny is now a part of him. The time Devon masters.
boys all graduate, and enlist in various safe branches of the military. Gene Mr
Mr.. P
Patch-Withers
atch-Withers – The substitute Devon Head Master during the summer
never sees active duty, but feels he fought his own war at Devon and that he term. Like Mr. Prud'homme, Patch-Withers is less strict than the regular
understands the hatred all men harbor in their heart—all men, that is, except masters and is a sucker for Finny's charm.
Finny.
Mr
Mr.. Ludsbury – The house master of Finny and Gene's dorm during the winter
term. A stern disciplinarian, Mr. Ludsbury works long and hard to maintain
CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS order. He despises the lax environment allowed by the summer session
masters.
Gene F Forrester
orrester – The novel's narrator and protagonist. At the novel's opening Dr
Dr.. Stanpole – The main doctor at Devon's infirmary. He is caring and kind,
he is a man in his thirties looking back at his days as a student at private prep and pities Gene and his friends for the world that they will soon have to face.
academy called the Devon School. As a student, he was extremely intelligent,
vying for valedictorian. He was also sensitive and immensely competitive, Phil Latham – Devon's wrestling coach who cares for Finny after he falls down
especially with his roommate and best friend Finny, whom he meets during the stairs.
the summer session after junior year at Devon. In fact, Gene's relationship Mr
Mr.. Hadle
Hadleyy – Brinker Hadley's father. His patriotic views offend Gene and
with Finny can best be described as love-hate. At times Gene so adores and Brinker.
admires his friend that he actually wants to be him, and goes so far as to dress
up in Finny's clothes. At other times, Gene feels incredible resentment at
Finny's athletic or social accomplishments, and imagines that Finny feels THEMES
similarly competitive and is trying to sabotage Gene's academic success. At
the end of the summer, this resentment builds to such a degree that Gene, WAR AND RIV
RIVALRY
ALRY
either consciously or unconsciously, causes Finny to fall out of a tree and
break his leg, destroying his athletic career. A Separate Peace reads like a long Though not a single shot is fired in the novel, A Separate Peace can be thought
diary entry in which Gene tries to sort out what happened between him and of as a war novel. World War II is a looming presence that none of the boys at
Finny that summer at Devon and what has happened to him emotionally ever Devon can escape. Once they graduate, they'll have to enlist. This fact makes
since. It's never clear how successful Gene is in this effort, and he should be the separation between childhood and the adult world very clear. Childhood is
considered an unreliable narrator. the high school world of sports, dreams, and carnivals, while the adult world is
one of war. And while many of the boys early in the novel, lost in a haze of
Phineas ("Finn
("Finny")
y") – Gene's best friend and classmate at the Devon School. childhood innocence, yearn to fight in the war, by the end of the novel they
Finny is an extraordinarily talented athlete and a charismatic student leader realize that the war and the adult world is full of hypocritical hatred and
who's earned the respect and admiration of the entire student body. Finny's "honor." In fact, the first boy who does enlist, Leper, literally goes insane from
freewheeling behavior often gets him into trouble, but his charming ways save what he finds.
him from every potential disciplinary snag. Finny's general outlook and
demeanor is forgiving and optimistic, which contrasts with Gene's more Yet A Separate Peace is focused more closely on a war between individuals, a
cautious and rational approach to life. In fact, while Gene feels an intense rivalry. This is a personal war of competing egos (or one competing ego), in
rivalry with Finny, Finny shares none of Gene's competitive feelings. Instead, which Gene's rivalry with his best friend Finny results in Finny's tragic
Finny assumes innocently and arrogantly that Gene and everyone else must accident, and then his tragic death. Through this personal battle, A Separate
share his carefree approach to life. One of the novel's central unanswered Peace shows the internal war people fight in making the transition from the
questions is whether Finny's naïve self-centeredness makes him deserving of "separate peace" of teenage innocence to the harsh realities of adult life. It
Gene's resentment. Another mystery of A Separate Peace is whether the often also draws a parallel between the forces that motivate personal rivalries and
idealized, or even angelic, portrayal of Finny rendered by Gene reflects the the forces that result in World Wars, suggesting that both arise from the same
truth about Finny's character or rather Gene's unresolved guilt over Finny's flaws of enmity and jealousy in every human heart.
death.
IDENTITY
Brink
Brinker
er Hadle
Hadleyy – The quintessential prep school student, Brinker comes from
a wealthy family and is obsessed with truth, order, and justice. Like Finny, Like most sixteen year-old boys, Gene and Finny and their friends struggle to
Brinker is well known on campus and is considered a leader. But while Finny define their identities. World War II complicates their otherwise typical
stands for the freewheeling innocence of youth, Brinker represents the teenage identity crises and forces them to define themselves first and
reserved discipline of adulthood. His fixation on getting to the truth leads him foremost in relation to the war. Different boys do this in different ways. Leper
to suspect Gene of intentionally harming Finny, a claim that makes Brinker decides to enlist, even though military life contrasts sharply with his gentle,
seem like the novel's most grown up and disillusioned adolescent. nature loving instincts. Brinker Hadley assumes an air of bravado. Finny
denies the war exists at all. In each case, the boys are trying to define
Elwin "L
"Leper"
eper" LLepellier
epellier – A member of Gene and Finny's circle of friends at themselves against something in order to be men.
Devon, Leper is an eccentric student who enjoys communing with nature. As
the other boys play sports and leap from trees, Leper photographs beaver Gene goes through the same identity crisis, but his crisis resolves not around
dams and goes cross-country skiing. His shy, gentle demeanor makes his war, but Finny. Gene's admiration for and jealousy of his friend is so great that
decision to enlist in the Army all the more shocking. His ensuing breakdown he literally loses himself in Finny. At one point he secretly dresses up in Finny's
and desertion from military service becomes a key facet of the novel's critique clothes. At another time when Finny is injured, he feels that he doesn't exist.
of World War II, which destroyed innocent boys like Leper emotionally and Gene's personal identity is so wrapped up in Finny that in order to become an
physically. individual with his own identity, he has to destroy Finny. Through this tragedy,
A Separate Peace makes the case that in the effort to define themselves as they
Cliff Quack
Quackenbush
enbush – The irritable and condescending Devon crew team grow into adults, people create false enemies out of true friends.
manager. Disliked by most Devon students, Cliff mistreats anyone over whom
he has any power. CHANGE AND GR
GROWING
OWING UP
Chet Douglass – An excellent student, tennis player, and trumpet player, Chet When Gene returns to Devon fifteen years after graduation, he looks at the
Douglass vies with Gene to be the valedictorian of Devon. tree from which Finny fell and thinks, "The more things stay the same, the
Brownie P
Perkins
erkins – Brinker Hadley's roommate and obedient sidekick. more they change." The tree looks vastly changed only because Gene's
perspective has changed as he grew up and became an adult. A Separate Peace
Bobb
Bobbyy Zane – A member of Gene and Finny's circle of friends during the
summer, he refuses to jump from the tree from which Finny falls.

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 A Separate Peace
is the story of this changing perspective, of how things both change and stay about the school is that it can adapt to change harmoniously; this thought
the same. inspires Gene to think that perhaps he too can change just enough to maintain
As a story about boys anxious about growing into men, A Separate Peace his happiness.
contains numerous references to change. As the war looms, the carefree joy of
summer at Devon turns into the strict discipline of autumn. Finny goes from
an athletic youth to a cripple, and then turns Gene from a bookworm into an
QUO
QUOTES
TES
athlete. Yet though these changes are dramatic to the boys who experience
them, when Gene revisits Devon he discovers that the school itself is much the CHAPTER 1 QUOTES
same, almost like a museum. So while all the world felt like it was changing, it "This was the tree, and it seemed to me standing there to resemble those men,
was in fact staying the same. Gene himself, however, has continued to grow, the giants of your childhood, whom you encounter years later and find that
and so the very fact that the school stayed the same made it seem to him like it they are not merely smaller in relation to your growth, but that they are
had changed: now the "giants of his childhood" don't seem like giants at all. absolutey smaller, shrunken by age....[for] the old giants have become pigmies
Gene finds comfort in this: though in the grander scheme of things the world while you were looking the other way."
stays the same, because people change they can live harmoniously with their
past, and even leave it behind.

SPOR
SPORTS
TS AND A
ATHLETICS
THLETICS "Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence. Changed,
Finny views athletics as an "absolute good," and throughout A Separate Peace, I headed back through the mud. I was drenched; anybody could see it was time
athletic contests represent an idealized alternative to war. Like war, sports to come in out of the rain."
involve opposing sides intent on victory, but unlike war sporting events lack
the casualties common to the battlefield. Finny's perspective on sports is
exactly the opposite of his views on the war. He sees war as a construct
invented by governments, a conflict in which everyone loses, while he believes CHAPTER 2 QUOTES
"everyone always won at sports," which gives athletics a "perfect beauty." The
novel supports Finny's ideas most powerfully by depicting Gene's experience "I think we reminded them of what peace was like, we boys of sixteen....We
while training for the Olympics. The intense training and single objective were careless and wild, and I suppose we could be thought of as a sign of the
become a world of their own, a kind of cocoon surrounding Gene and life the war was being fought to preserve....Phineas was the essence of this
protecting him from the fears of both adulthood and war. When he's training, careless peace."
Gene experiences the same inner peace that Finny had before his injury.

JEAL
JEALOUSY
OUSY
At the core of the conflict between Gene and Finny is Gene's desire to be CHAPTER 3 QUOTES
more like Finny, or even to become him. Gene's jealousy of Finny corrupts "To keep silent about this amazing happening deepened the shock for me. It
their friendship and leads Gene to "jounce" Finny out of the tree. Some of made Finny seem too unusual for—not friendship, but too unusual for rivalry.
Gene's jealous feelings toward Finny are casual, such as his desire for Finny's And there were few relationships among us at Devon not based on rivalry."
carefree charm. Others are more deeply rooted, so much so that even Gene
doesn't understand their origin. For example, Gene finds himself unable to
respond when Finny says Gene is his "best pal." A deep-seated sense of envy
and rivalry prevents him from reciprocating Finny's pure feelings of friendship.
Gene's jealousy of Finny only wanes after Finny's injury destroys the traits
CHAPTER 4 QUOTES
about Finny that Gene most envied. "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
SYMBOLS yourselves alone....I felt better. We were even after all, even in enmity. The
deadly rivalry was on both sides after all."

THE TREE
The giant tree from which Finny falls looms in Gene's memory. As an adult, he
"He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never
imagines it as a "huge lone spike" or an "artillery piece," but when he sees it up
was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same
close during his return visit to Devon, it looks small and unthreatening.
quality as he."
Though the tree stayed the same, Gene realizes he has changed and grown
past its ability to define or scare him. The tree is therefore a symbol of both
the carefree joy and particular fears of boys growing into men, and a symbol
that in time men can leave those fears behind. "Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent
FALL (AUTUMN) AND FINNY'S FALL 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,
Finny's fall from the tree and the turn from summer to fall mark the novel's broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening,
main points of change. During the summer session, the boys enjoyed a time of unnatural thud. It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him
carefree youthful adventure. When the Summer Session ends and fall and make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the
winter come, everything changes: Devon returns to its strict disciplinary ways, river, every trace of my fear of this forgotten."
and the threat of having to fight in the war darkens everyone's consciousness.
The novel's other main "fall," Finny's, has much the same effect. With that fall,
the joy of childhood Finny symbolized disappears, and the boys' different
reactions to the fall help define who they'll be as adults.
CHAPTER 6 QUOTES
THE DEVON SCHOOL
Gene and Finny's school is an oasis from change. A 160 year-old institution,
Devon has successfully weathered the wars of the past and has changed just
enough to adapt to the changes in society. One of Gene's first observations

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 A Separate Peace
"Across the hall...where Leper Lepellier had dreamed his way through July and "I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the
August amid sunshine and dust motes and windows through which the ivy had enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active
reached tentatively into the room, here Brinker Hadley had established his duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there. Only Phineas never was
headquarters. Emissaries were already dropping in to confer with him." afraid, only Phineas never hated anyone."

"'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 SUMMARY & ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS
must have been my purpose from the first: to become a part of Phineas.
CHAPTER 1
Gene Forrester, a man in his mid Gene's return to his prep school allows
CHAPTER 7 QUOTES thirties, describes his return visit to him to confront his adolescent past from
the private prep school he attended, a grown-up perspective. One change: as
"In the same way the war, beginning almost humorously with announcements the Devon School, in New Hampshire an adult he feels more secure with who
about [no more] maids and days spent at apple-picking, commenced its fifteen years earlier. There are two he is than he did as a student.
invasion of the school." important places that Gene most
wants to see. First he visits the "First
Academy Building," one of the school's
main buildings. Once inside, he feels
"To enlist. To slam the door impulsively on the past, to shed everything down older, taller, and more secure than he
to my last bit of clothing, to break the pattern of my life....The war would be did as a student.
deadly all right. But I was used to finding something deadly in things that
attracted me." As Gene looks around the building, he Gene sees the Devon School's continuity
observes that it looks almost exactly as providing a harmonious relation with
the same as it used to. He observes the past. The implication is that he
that because it hasn't changed in 160 doesn't feel that same harmony.
CHAPTER 8 QUOTES years, the Devon School allows past
and present to mingle harmoniously.
"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 Gene's next important stop is a tree The tree, which hasn't changed, also isn't
the last moment eluded by a word from Phineas; I had simply ducked, that was by a river. The tree still has a branch as big as Gene remembered it. The
all, and the wave's concentrated power had hurtled harmlessly overhead." hanging over the river, but it looks difference in his perception shows him
smaller to him than it used to. Gene how much he's changed, and seems to
thinks to himself: the more things stay free him from a past that haunted him.
the same, the more they change. He
CHAPTER 9 QUOTES finds this comforting, and describes
himself "changed."
"It wasn't the cider which made me surpass myself, it was this liberation we
had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, The story shifts to the distant past, As the world went to war, sarcasm, a
this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace." with Gene recalling the Devon classic teenage tool, became a way for
summer session of 1942, when he Gene to deny his fear of the war.
was sixteen and World War II was in
full swing. Gene refers to it as his
CHAPTER 10 QUOTES "sarcastic" summer.

"Fear seized my stomach like a cramp. I didn't care what I said to him now; it Gene stands near a giant tree by a Finny's desire to jump from the tree
was myself I was worried about. For if Leper was psycho it was the army which river with his best friend, Phineas despite his young age is the first hint of
had done it to him, and I and all of us were on the brink of the army." ("Finny"), and three friends: Elwin his immense athletic skill and
"Leper" Lepellier, Chet Douglass, and adventurous spirit. Finny is also clearly
Bobby Zane. Finny is about to jump the leader of the group. His comment
from the tree branch hanging near the about the "war effort" is not sarcastic; he
river, a physical test no boy his age has conceives of war as just another game.
CHAPTER 12 QUOTES ever attempted. It's part of the fitness
"'You'd get things so scrambled up nobody would know who to fight any more. test that seniors at Devon have to
You'd make a mess, a terrible mess, Finny, out of the war.'" pass before graduating. Finny refers
to the jump as his "contribution to the
war effort."
Finny climbs the tree and jumps. Gene Gene jumps because Finny did, and his
"I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry
is next. He climbs the tree. Though sense of rivalry makes him fear Finny has
in that case."
he's terrified, thinks jumping is stupid, some kind of hold over him, over his
and wonders if Finny may have gotten identity. Finny, meanwhile, thinks they're
"some kind of hold" on him, Gene just friends.
jumps. The other boys all refuse to
CHAPTER 13 QUOTES jump. Finny tells Gene, "It's me and
you, pal."

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 A Separate Peace
As the five boys walk back to dinner, Gene and Finny have a real friendship. CHAPTER 3
Finny says that Gene did well after But Finny, comfortable in his athletic
being "shamed" into it, and then perfection, has no sense that his jokes As he thinks about Finny saving him in Saving Gene's life should have won Finny
makes fun of Gene for being so careful actually hurt Gene. Gene, meanwhile, the tree, it occurs to Gene that it was Gene's eternal gratitude. Instead, Gene's
to arrive at dinner on time. Gene tackles Finny partly in fun and partly Finny's fault he was in the tree in the jealousy makes him resent Finny.
tackles Finny. They wrestle, and end because the jokes anger him. It shames first place. He decides that the two
up so late for dinner they decide to him that they're accurate. cancel out.
skip it. They go to their dorm room, do
their homework, and go to sleep. Finny and Gene ask six friends to join Even as the boys form their society and
their society. Finny proclaims that enjoy life, Gene's fear in contrast to
every one of their nightly meetings Finny's carefree attitude eats at him.
CHAPTER 2 will begin with a leap from the tree.
Mr. Prud'homme, a substitute teacher Finny's charm and sense of self get him The leap never ceases to terrify Gene,
at Devon for the summer, shows up at out of all trouble, rendering all of Gene's but he doesn't voice his annoyance.
Finny and Gene's room the next worry about rules and regulations
morning to punish them for missing worthless. Finny hates the Devon summer Just as he reinvents the senior fitness
dinner. Finny tells him about their athletics program. When he finds a test tree jump, Finny transforms the war-
adventures and explains that they had medicine ball on the fields where the bound seniors' ball into a popular sports
to jump out of the giant tree by the seniors do calisthenics in preparation game. Sports are Finny's version of war,
river as part of their preparation for for joining the army, he invents pure fun in which there are no winners or
war. Mr. Prud'homme laughs and "blitzball" (named after "blitzkrieg"): a losers.
leaves without disciplining them. game in which everyone tried to
knock down the ball carrier, and when
Gene describes Finny as a unique boy, Finny is a leader, and someone whom there was a new ball carrier everyone
who somehow was good and kind and Gene admires and wants to be like. The tried to knock him down.
also a rule breaker. Gene also thinks faculty's sense of war as dreadful
the faculty looked fondly on Finny and contrasts totally with Finny's sense of it Blitzball soon becomes popular. Finny Gene's admiring depictions of Finny
the rest of the students in their year as thrilling: the understanding of adults is, of course, the best at it, just as he's nearly always have an underlying tinge of
because they reminded the adults of vs. the naïve excitement of youth. the best at socializing with other envy.
what peace was like. He describes students and charming the Devon
Finny as the ultimate example of the faculty.
"careless peace" of youth, even though
Finny himself celebrates the war by As narrator, Gene says that every Gene conveys how completely World
wearing wild shirts. person has a moment in history that War II shaped his identity.
defines, or even freezes, his or her life.
Finny and Gene go to a tea party Gene envies Finny's ability to get away He explains that World War II was his
given by Mr. Patch-Withers, the with breaking rules. This envy life-defining time.
Devon summer substitute embarrasses him and makes him feel like
Headmaster. Mr. Patch-Withers's wife a bad person. It's the beginning of a One day, Finny and Gene go Gene craves the approval of others, but
notices that Finny is wearing a Devon sense Gene has that Finny affects him swimming in the Devon pool. Finny Finny doesn't. Finny's achievements and
school tie as a belt. Finny gives an too much. decides he wants to break the school his ability to brush those achievements
elaborate explanation that gets him record, and succeeds on his first try. off make Gene not just jealous, but
out of trouble. Gene is embarrassed Gene wants to tell everyone, but aware he isn't in Finny's league.
that he feels slightly disappointed Finny makes him promise not to. Gene
Finny didn't get punished. thinks that this makes Finny "too
unusual for rivalry."
After the party, Finny and Gene head Finny's assured sense of self, fed by
to the river. On they way they discuss athletic prowess, makes him blind to the Finny then says that real swimming Finny's unfettered spontaneity contrasts
the war in Europe, which feels distant feelings of others. While Finny thinks he must be done in the ocean. He with Gene's cautious approach to life. Yet
and unbelievable to them. At the river, and Gene are solidifying their friendship, proposes that they go to the beach, a Gene admires Finny too much to ever
Finny asks if Gene is still afraid to he doesn't realize Gene's resentment of bike ride of a few hours. Though the say no to him, and hates this fact too.
jump. When Gene says he isn't, Finny his questions. Not that this really excuses trip breaks school rules and therefore
proposes they form a club to make Gene's resentment of his friend. makes Gene nervous, he agrees to go.
their partnership official. They name it
the "Super Suicide Society of the At the beach, Finny and Gene play in Gene hates anything that is more
Summer Session" and make jumping the waves. But after a big wave powerful than him, whether a wave or
out of the tree an initiation rite. overpowers him, Gene returns to the Finny.
beach. Finny frolics in the waves for
Gene and Finny climb the tree. Gene Finny saves his buddy's life. It's a sign of an hour alone.
delays for a second, and almost loses Finny's superior athletic skill and
his balance. Finny stabilizes him. Later, ironically foreshadows what Gene will Afterward they walk the boardwalk, The fake draft cards highlight their youth
Gene realizes Finny may have saved later do to Finny. eat hotdogs, and get a beer at a local and lack of seriousness about the war.
his life. bar using fake military draft cards.

As they settle down to sleep among Finny's feelings for Gene are genuine, but
the dunes, Finny tells Gene that he is Gene's feelings toward Finny have been
his "best pal." Gene begins to agree, corrupted by jealousy.
but can't bring himself to say the
words.

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 A Separate Peace
CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5
Back at school after the night at the Gene begins to interpret his own feelings The fall shatters Finny's leg. No one is Gene bounced Finny from the branch
beach, Gene flunks his trigonometry of envy toward Finny as Finny having allowed to visit him in the infirmary. because Finny was a threat to his
test. Later that night, Finny tells Gene feelings of envy for him. He's mixing up Though no one suspects Gene did identity. He had defined himself as
that he works too hard and that he's his own feelings with Finny's feelings, anything wrong, he questions whether Finny's rival and equal, and then
probably trying to be the class and in the process imagines a rivalry that he purposely made Finny fall. To make discovered that he wasn't. But because
valedictorian. Gene asks how Finny doesn't exist. himself feel better, he dresses up one Gene's sense of himself is entirely
would feel if he, Gene, were day in Finny's clothes. He feels relief wrapped up in Finny, it's only when he
valedictorian. Finny jokes that he'd kill when he looks in the mirror. He says "I dresses as Finny, becomes Finny, that he
himself out of envy. Gene thinks this was Phineas," and is happy that he'd feels comforted.
joke is hiding a real truth beneath. never have to "stumble through the
confusions of [his] own character
Gene now senses that he and Finny At the pool, Gene realized Finny was out again." By the morning the feeling is
are equal in their hatred of each of his league. By now imagining there is a gone.
other's successes: he envies Finny's rivalry, he gets feel once more to feel he's
athletic prowess and social charms, Finny's equal. A neat trick, except that it That morning, Gene runs into Dr. The fact that Finny can't play sports
while Finny envies his academic makes him hate his best friend. Stanpole, the school physician. He hammers home to Gene the enormity of
success. He thinks their relationship says Finny is improving, but that he'll what he's done. It also symbolizes the
has become a "deadly rivalry" and never play sports again. Gene starts loss of youthful perfection.
starts to suspect that all of the crying. The doctor tells him to be
activities Finny comes up with are strong, and says that Finny requested
designed to sabotage his academic to see Gene in person.
success.
As he goes to the infirmary, Gene Just as Gene's envy blinded him before,
Gene intensifies his studying, and The boys get along as well as ever thinks Finny wants to accuse him of now his guilt does. Finny in the infirmary
soon passes Chet Douglass as the because there is no rivalry: it's all in causing his fall. In the infirmary, Finny resembles an injured soldier.
best student in the school, on par with Gene's mind. Gene the thirty-year-old is propped up in bed, in a cast, with a
Finny's rank as Devon's leading narrator knows this, and his writing is full tube inserted in his arm.
athlete. Yet despite this rivalry, the of irony.
two of them get along as well as ever. Gene asks Finny what he remembers. Rather than confess, Gene acts
Finny says he lost his balance and cowardly: he checks what Finny
tried to reach Gene but couldn't. remembers, and even accuses Finny of
Gene also mentions his trip to the Gene even tries to get Finny into trouble. Gene is furious and asks whether trying to hurt him! Gene's still competing
beach with Finny to Mr. Prud'homme, Finny meant to pull Gene down with with Finny.
and is surprised when the teacher him? But Finny says he was just trying
doesn't care that they broke the rules. not to fall.
Then, one night as Gene is studying, For the first time, Gene lets his jealous
Gene asks what made Finny lose his Finny does suspect Gene, but can't bear
Finny barges in to announce that anger show. And Finny responds not with
balance. Finny then says he suspects to face it. This is a mark of Finny's unique
Leper Lepellier has agreed to jump anger, but with kindness and an
he didn't lose his balance for no goodness.
from the tree. Gene thinks Finny's expression of genuine admiration for
reason, but then apologizes for even
trying to distract him. He starts Gene's talents. Rivalry over, right?
implying Gene might have caused his
walking toward the tree, but angrily
fall.
says it's going to hurt his grade. Finny,
not at all angry, responds that it's just Gene realizes that his earlier thoughts The summer was a time of innocence
a game, and shouldn't come if he about their rivalry were "ludicrous," when the boys didn't have to face
doesn't want to. Finny then says how and realizes that, if he were in Gene's enlisting in the war. Finny's athletic
much he admires Gene's intelligence situation, Finny would confess. He daring embodied that innocence. Both
and his seriousness about academics. starts to confess, but just then Dr. end together.
Stanpole enters. The summer session
Gene is in shock. As he and Finny walk But because Gene defines himself
ends without Gene and Finny seeing
over to watch Leper jump, Gene against Finny, Finny's moral superiority
each other again.
realizes Finny never felt any rivalry at destroys Gene's sense of self, making him
all. He also realizes that this means more jealous. On his return trip to Devon for the fall Gene's jealousy has robbed Finny of his
that Finny is his moral superior. semester, Gene stops at Finny's identity as an athlete.
house. Finny is propped on pillows, a
shadow of the athlete that he was at
At the tree, Finny proposes they start Earlier, Finny stopped Gene from falling. Devon before his fall.
with a simultaneous jump. Gene and Now, jealousy pushes Gene to harm his
Finny climb the tree, but while on the best friend. And with his "enemy" gone, After some small talk, Gene tells It's no surprise that Finny rejects Gene's
branch Gene's knees bend. The Gene ceases to feel any fear of the jump. Finny that he was responsible for confession. Finny cannot comprehend
branch bounces. Finny falls to the Finny falling from the tree. Finny that a friend would harm him because he
riverbank. Gene dives into the water refuses to believe it. Gene realizes never would harm a friend.
feeling no fear. that telling Finny the truth only causes
more pain, and backs off. They agree
to see each other when Finny returns
to Devon at Thanksgiving.

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 A Separate Peace
Finny asks Gene if he's going to start Finny is trying to preserve their youthful But Finny can't understand why Gene It's a continued desire to be like Finny
playing by the rules now. Gene says he innocence. Gene's lie betrays it. would want to be a crew team that stops Gene from playing sports.
won't play by the rules, but knows that manager. Gene silently comments that Now Finny gives Gene a chance to be
he's lying. he wants to be assistant manager Finny, to take his athletic place.
because he no longer feels he should
play sports. But when Finny insists
CHAPTER 6 Gene has to play sports for Finny, it
At the first chapel service of the year, The more things stay the same, the more makes Gene realize now he has a
Gene observes that though the they change. The school looks the same, chance to be part of Finny.
campus looks the same, the calm ease but the innocence of summer, and Finny,
of the summer session is over: Devon is gone. CHAPTER 7
has returned to its strict rules and
Back at his room, Gene is visited by Brinker's macho joking hits Gene where
discipline.
Brinker. Brinker admires Gene's it hurts. He's the first to link Gene to
room, and jokes that Gene purposely Finny's fall, foreshadowing future events.
Gene decides that breaking rules Instead of admitting he broke Finny, injured Finny to get it all to himself.
means being broken by them in the Gene hides behind some abstract greater Gene defends himself, then changes
end. He thinks of Finny and concludes power that punishes rule breakers. the subject and suggests they go
that rule breakers will always end up smoke.
broken and reformed by society.
In the Butt Room, where they go to Gene's treatment of the boy in the Butt
Gene lives in the same room he Through his actions, Gene has "freed" smoke, Brinker continues to joke in room is a classic tactic of people's private
shared with Finny, but Finny's place himself of Finny. The change from the front of the other smoking students. wars against invented enemies: Gene
has not been taken, so Gene lives dreamy Leper to the impressive Brinker is Gene now plays along, confessing to makes the boy his enemy in order to
alone. But a prominent student on another indication of lost summer the crime, but stops in the middle of defeat him, and make himself strong. Of
campus named Brinker Hadley has innocence. describing how he knocked Finny course, the result is that Gene has an
replaced Leper, his neighbor from the from the branch. When another boy enemy he didn't have before.
summer. suggests Gene just pushed Finny off,
Gene ridicules him to take the focus
That afternoon, Gene walks to Gene thinks of Finny without jealousy off himself. He then goes back to
Devon's Crew House to report for his only after the athletic grace he envied in study without having smoked.
job as assistant senior crew manager. Finny is gone. Fall turns into winter and the first The change of seasons brings a change of
As he passes the Devon River he snow blankets Devon. Gene observes consciousness to Devon: the war
thinks of Finny performing a favorite that the war has also begun to take becomes more real for Gene and his
stunt: balancing on the end of a canoe. over the school: he and other students friends. Now it directly affects them.
He describes it as "perfection." have to do jobs like apple picking and
At the boathouse, Gene meets Cliff Quackenbush is an insecure bully, but snow shoveling. The normal workers
Quackenbush, the crew manager, who he's also right. Why did Gene become are all too busy with the war effort.
most students at Devon dislike. After assistant manager? By attacking On the way to help shovel the snow- While Leper is a dreamer, ignorant of
practice, Quackenbush demands to Quackenbush for calling him maimed, covered railroad tracks along which war, the other boys are excited by it. But,
know why Gene is working as an Gene provides a partial answer: he's troop transport trains ride, Gene because they're still just kids, they don't
assistant manager when he's a senior avoiding sports because of Finny, who's meets Leper. Leper is on skis and is know that, at best, being a soldier will be
and will never get to be a manager. athletic career Gene destroyed. Gene still "touring" the area looking for a beaver more similar to the misery of shoveling
Quackenbush calls Gene a "maimed feels his identity is tied up with Finny's. dam. Gene, Brinker, Chet Douglass, snow than to their dreams of valor and
son-of-a-bitch," implying Gene is and Quackenbush then spend a glory.
assistant manager only because he miserable day shoveling. They cheer
can't row. Gene hits Quackenbush in when at the end of the day a train full
the face. They fight, eventually of soldiers rolls along the tracks
tumbling into the river. they've cleared. The soldiers make
On the walk back to his dorm, Gene Ludsbury confirms Gene's observation: them feel like boys.
runs into Mr. Ludsbury, the man in the end of summer session is the end of They meet Leper on the way home. Brinker and Leper have adopted different
charge of his dormitory. Mr. Ludsbury peace and innocence. With Finny absent, He reports excitedly that he found the stances to the war. Brinker has fashioned
scolds Gene for taking advantage of law and order returns. beaver dam. Brinker mocks Leper, and himself as a war-ready grown-up. Leper
Mr. Prud'homme in the summer and disdainfully calls him an "abominable ignores the war, almost hides from it.
says that now things will return to snowman" and a "nat-u-ral-ist."
order.
Mr. Ludsbury then tells Gene he got a Finny's feelings for Gene remain
phone call. Gene calls back. It's Finny, uncomplicated. Brinker then tells Gene he wants to Gene views enlistment as a clean slate, a
who's relieved that no one has taken enlist in the armed forces tomorrow. new identity. The possibility of "owing] no
his spot as Gene's roommate. Gene considers enlisting himself. one anything" is enticing particularly
Once he realizes that the peace of the because of his concerns about owing so
summer will never return to Devon much to Finny.
and that in the army he'll "owe no one
anything," he decides to do it. When
he gets back to his room, Finny is
there.

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 A Separate Peace
CHAPTER 8 Mr. Ludsbury notices him training and Ludsbury, of the older generation, thinks
tells them to remember that all all actions should be seen in terms of the
Finny immediately mocks Gene's Finny hates how the war has changed athletic training is preparation for the war effort. Finny rejects such a view.
shoveling work clothes, and complains the school. It has destroyed the innocent war. Finny responds: "No." The reply Gene now so idealizes Finny that he
that the school no longer has maids. paradise of the summer. startles Mr. Ludsbury, who walks away accepts his view outright, without
Gene's explanation that the war muttering. Finny comments to Gene thought.
justifies scaling back luxuries doesn't that Ludsbury must be too thin to be
satisfy Finny. let in on the old fat men's conspiracy.
The next morning, Brinker enters. Before he was injured Finny saw the war Gene pities Ludsbury.
When he sees Finny, he starts to joke as distant, unreal fun and games. Now
about Gene offing Finny to get the that it's affecting him he reacts against it.
CHAPTER 9
room, but Gene quickly changes the Is this an extension of his earlier position, Through his training and friendship The focus on athletics keeps Gene from
subject to their imminent enlistment. or a change? with Finny, Gene has a newfound thinking either about himself or the war.
Finny is horrified, and Gene decides inner peace, though he comments as
that, in fact, he won't enlist. Soon he the narrator that this sense of peace
and Finny are making fun of Brinker's was "deceiving."
enlistment plans.
In January, to everyone's shock, Leper Leper justifies his sudden enlistment by
As Finny and Gene walk around the Finny's reciprocal love idea captures Lepellier enlists after watching a referring to biology, a subject he loves in
wintry Devon campus, Finny says that both his innocence and his self- video about mountain commandos school. Was he also motivated by
winter must love him, since he loves it. contained blindness toward other who travel on skis. Leper says he Brinker's mockery?
Gene silently thinks that Finny's idea people: he just assumes everything and believes that war is good for the
of reciprocal love has been proven everyone thinks just like him. human race, a test of evolutionary
false by experience, but that it should progress.
be true.
Leper leaves school one week later. To The boys' jokes show their understanding
Brinker and most of the other boys, is still childish, while Finny continues to
Finny suggests that they cut class and Though Finny seems to remain his same
Leper's participation in the war ignore the war completely. The question
go see the gym. Walking to the gym optimistic self, his body has clearly
becomes a running joke: they claim he Gene never considers is whether Finny is
makes Finny out of breath, and Gene changed and betrayed him.
was behind every allied victory. Finny, using athletics to make him, Gene, ignore
realizes the toll that FInny's injury
though, refuses to take part in these the war too.
truly has taken on him.
jokes, and slowly pulls Gene into
spending all of his time training for the
In the locker room, Finny again asks Finny describes the war, in essence, as a Olympics.
Gene what sports he's gone out for. War Against Youth, and places himself in
Gene says none because sports seem direct opposition to it, going so far as to One bleak winter Saturday, Finny Finny regains his identity and his
trivial during wartime. Finny rejects claim it doesn't exist. Finny therefore proposes the boys hold "The Devon leadership role among the boys, and
this notion, and describes the entire casts himself in the role of preserving Winter Carnival." With Gene, he through the carnival creates a tribute to
war as a fake. He says the war was Youth, Innocence, and Fun against this assembles a crew of collaborators, innocent youth, defying war and change.
invented by old men who want to stop false menace. including Brinker and his roommate Finny's dance celebrates the victory of
young people from enjoying Brownie Perkins. They drink hard peace over war and envy.
themselves, just as the Great cider and award prizes for athletic
Depression was used to wipe out the feats and the building of snow statues.
revelry of the Roaring Twenties. Finny even gets up on the table and
performs a dance that Gene calls a
Gene asks what makes Finny "so But Finny's outburst shows he has some "choreography of peace" with his one
special" that he can see this bitterness. Finny's ability to hold off good leg. In all, the carnival is a
conspiracy while everyone else reality through force of will is weakening. tremendous success. Gene describes
believes in the war. Finny blurts that it as their "momentary, illusory,
his understanding comes from having special, and separate peace."
suffered. Finny's claim shocks them
both. But as the carnival is going on, But the war is real and inescapable, and
Brownie brings Gene a telegram. It's Leper and the innocence Leper
Gene breaks the awkward silence that In the first half of the novel, innocent from Leper, who says he's escaped represents have clearly not done well
follows Finny's outburst by doing Finny invented "blitzball" a warlike sport from the military and needs Gene to confronting it.
chin-ups. Finny encourages him to do without killing or victory. Now he uses come visit him immediately at his
thirty, then says he once had the goal sports, through Gene, as a way to hide "Christmas location."
of making the Olympics. He resolves from the war.
to train Gene to qualify for 1944
Games. Gene agrees. CHAPTER 10
Leper's "Christmas location" turns out Gene's flashback reveals that he did
Over the following months, Gene Gene and Finny begin to really switch to mean his home in Vermont. Gene indeed enlist and join the war effort. It's
tutors Finny in academic subjects and identities, which is what Gene always takes a train there. Gene comments also foreshadowing, linking the war and
Finny helps Gene become a stronger wanted. that this late-night train trip was the enlistment to whatever happens at
runner. first of many he would take across the Leper's house.
country that year shuttling among
army bases, which was the extent of
One day while training Gene feels Perfection in athletics provides freedom. his military service during the War.
stronger and freer than before.

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 A Separate Peace
Gene hopes that when Leper said in Leper entered the war with only an Finny and Gene are back in their Brinker is intent on growing up, on facing
his letter that he had escaped he idealistic sense of what it would be like. room when Brinker comes in and asks reality, though he's no longer cruel about
meant that he had escaped from spies, The reality, it now seems, might have about Leper. Gene is vague, but it. He just thinks it has to be done.
not deserted the army. But when he driven him insane. Leper's fear about Brinker guesses that Leper has gone
arrives he quickly learns that Leper returning to civilian life represents all crazy and expresses his sympathy. He
did desert in order to avoid facing a soldiers' fears and troubles returning to then says, sadly, that their class at
Section Eight discharge, which the society after war. Devon now has two students who
army gives to the insane. Leper felt can't help the war effort, meaning
that it he received such a discharge he Leper and Finny.
would never be able to live a normal
life. At Gene's prodding, Finny says once Once again Gene links his identity too
again that there isn't really a war, but closely to Finny's. When Finny admits
Leper then starts claiming that "they" The army has made Leper grow up, this time he says it ironically. Gene the war is real, their shared "illusory"
have brainwashed Gene. When Gene though in the process it damaged him: he realizes that the war is real, that peace collapses. Gene's response is to
resists this idea, Leper says that he can admit painful things to himself now, everything that had sustained them become "careful and self-preserving," to
always knew but now can admit it to though they make him crazy. He can see during the winter, such as training for act grown-up.
himself: Gene was a good guy on the Gene's savagery now, while Finny still the Olympics, is just a dreamlike
outside, but a "savage underneath." refuses to. escape from the truth. Gene resolves
Leper says he knows Gene pushed to become "careful and self-
Finny out of the tree. Gene, furious, preserving."
kicks over Leper's chair.
As time passes, most of the boys other Brinker reveals that his early jokes about
Leper's mother rushes in to Leper's mother's intervention than Gene enlist. One morning, Gene purposely injuring Finny to get his
investigate the noise. Gene tries to underscores how young the boys still are. Brinker suggests that Gene is room had some substance behind them.
excuse himself, but Leper invites him delaying enlisting because he feels Here he suggests that guilt now binds
to lunch and Gene stays out of guilt. pity for Finny, and because some Gene to Finny since Gene made Finny his
He then goes for a walk with Leper details of the accident that need to be dependent.
afterward. "cleared up." Gene denies Brinker's
claim. Brinker says that the only
During the walk, Gene comments that Leper's insanity is a fear of things person who truly knows what caused
Brinker has changed a great deal, transforming, of things changing. It is a Finny's fall is Gene.
becoming much less cruel. Leper fear of growing up. When children look at
responds that he'd recognize the the world it makes sense. But as they Back in the dorm, as Gene does Finny's surrender to reality is a key shift
"bastard" even if he turned into Snow grow into adulthood, their idealism Finny's Latin homework, Finny says in his identity and can be seen as the
White, but the image of Brinker's head about the world is stripped away, and it he began to believe in the war once he climax of the novel. Once Finny, the
having the face of Snow White sends ceases to make sense or be beautiful. heard that it had made Leper "crazy." symbol and protector of innocence,
Leper into a sobbing fit. Hallucinations He adds that Leper definitely is crazy. acknowledges the war, the boys' fate is
of his corporal's face turning into a He saw him lurking in the bushes sealed.
woman's, and of more dreadful things, outside the Devon chapel that
are what caused him to face a Section morning. They decide not to tell
Eight discharge in the first place. anyone about it.
Gene begs Leper to stop talking, but Gene, still a child, can't bear to face the Later that night, Brinker and three The mock tribunal echoes the tribunals
Leper either won't or can't. Soon Gene horror of war and adulthood, so he runs. boys arrive at Gene and Finny's room. that took place after WW2. Both sought
can't bear it any more. He runs away They all go to the Assembly Room, a the source of people's actions in order to
into the snow-covered fields. large auditorium, in Devon's First determine guilt. Another link between
Building. Brinker announces that rivalry and war.
they've gathered there to investigate
CHAPTER 11 Gene and to determine the truth
Back at Devon, Gene finds Finny in Finny is still innocent and optimistic; the behind the events of Finny's fall.
the middle of a snowball fight with a snowball fight is another childish version
bunch of other students. A few hours of war. Leper used to be this way, but the They question Finny, who says he just Finny starts by trying to hide from the
later, Gene asks Finny if it's okay for adult world crushed him. Gene has lost his balance and fell, and that Gene truth. But just as Brinker hoped, the
Finny to play around that way on his become cautious again. was at the bottom of the tree. Gene tribunal forces him to confront it. Yet
bad leg. Finny responds that when his agrees with the story, but then Finny Finny still can't bring himself to entirely
leg heals it will be stronger than remembers that they were both on admit what happened.
before. the branch about to do a double jump.
Brinker wishes Leper were there to
Gene returns to his room and takes Gene feels that he no longer needs a false comment on the differences between
down some photos he had pasted up identity to prop him up. He feels he's Gene and Finny's story. Finny admits
that were of a southern plantation he gaining his own identity. he saw Leper that morning go into the
had implied to others was his home. school doctor's office.
Now that he feels he's growing up, he
takes the pictures down. The boys get Leper. Leper calmly says Just as he can't face his hallucinations,
that Gene and Finny were on the Leper also refuses to face the truth.
branch together when Finny fell. He
says the two moved like a piston in an
engine: one pushed down first (Gene)
and then the other rose and fell
(Finny). But when Brinker asks who
shook the branch, Leper refuses to
answer and starts to seem crazy again.

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 A Separate Peace
As the tribunal tries to calm Leper, Brinker tries to make Finny face "the Finny starts crying, and says that Is Gene lying? Is Finny? It's not entirely
Finny stands and says he doesn't care facts", i.e. reality, but Finny tries to assert Gene must not have known what he clear. But by accepting each other's
what happened. When Brinker his innocence, to hide from reality… was doing when he shook the branch. claims they preserve a childish innocence
protests that they need to get the Gene says it was a "crazy thing" inside in their friendship.
facts straight, Finny swears and him that made him do it. Finny says he
rushes from the room in tears. understands and believes him. Then
Dr. Stanpole tells Gene to return that
The boys hear the taps of Finny's cane …but this effort leads to disaster, just as evening after he has set Finny's bone.
as he runs down the hallway, and then Leper discovered. Hiding from reality
a crash as he trips and falls down the doesn't make it go away. When Gene returns to the infirmary, Finny's death freezes him forever in his
marble staircase. he is shocked to numbness when Dr. youth and peaceful innocence. Of course,
Stanpole tells him that Finny has died Finny's dead, so he's frozen for Gene.
because some marrow from the break
entered FInny's bloodstream during
CHAPTER 12 the operation.
The boys stay calm. Brinker makes As the boy most suited to facing reality,
sure Finny doesn't move as boys get Brinker takes charge. Finny's "simpler" Gene never cries about Finny's death, Finny's dead and Gene has what he
teachers and Dr. Stanpole to come to break, also refers to the break between not even at his funeral, because he always wanted: Finny's now a part of
Finny's aid. Dr. Stanpole tells Gene Finny and Gene. After the first fall it was feels as if it's his own funeral. him.
that he thinks it's a simpler fracture complicated, full of denial. This time it
that last time, and has Finny carried won't be.
away to the infirmary in a chair. Gene
wishes he could help, but knows it CHAPTER 13
might make Finny angrier.
Gene and his friends graduate, and With Finny's innocent influence gone,
Gene sneaks to the infirmary and Gene continues to idealize Finny, to see the school lets the military use part of the school itself becomes a military
hides outside and imagines all the him as a source of innocence. its campus during the summer. base...
funny things Finny must be saying to
Dr. Stanpole and Mr. Latham. Gene
laughs so hard he cries.
As the soldiers drive in, Brinker brings ... and all the boys enlist. But Brinker has
When it's dark and the doctors have Now without any athletic grace, Finny
Gene to meet his father, who can been changed. His illusions about war
left, Gene crawls up to the window finally acknowledges Gene's jealous
barely hide his disdain for Gene and have been stripped away. While refusing
and opens. Finny furiously accuses vengeful behavior toward him.
Brinker's plans to enter the Navy and to hide from the war, he also now levels
Gene of coming to try and hurt him
the Coast Guard, because neither is Finny's same criticisms against it.
some more. Gene apologizes several
dangerous and therefore honorable
times and leaves.
enough. When his father is gone,
Gene aimlessly wanders the campus, Gene feels nonexistent because he has Brinker apologizes, and denounces his
like a "roaming ghost." He feels as if he destroyed a huge component of his father's generation for starting a war
no longer exists. He spends the night identity: Finny. and making their children fight it.
sleeping under the stadium.
Gene then goes to empty his locker. Gene identifies peoples' fear of war and
The locker room has been occupied by growing up as fear of their own hate, and
some of the soldiers from the Army at implies that when people create enemies
The next morning, he finds a note in Finny was denying the existence of the Devon for the summer. Gene watches they are actually battling their own hate.
his room from Dr. Stanpole asking him war because he couldn't be a part of it. them, and thinks he is ready for the
to bring clothes for Finny. At the He, too, could feel jealousy! Yet Gene's war because he no longer has any
infirmary, Finny's hands shake as he response points out that Finny wanted to hate.
sorts through his suitcase. He be part of the war because he saw it from
confesses that he's sent letters to all his innocent perspective. By being kept Gene says all the hatred he felt Gene and his friends have made
the armed services trying to enlist, but out of the war, Finny's innocence was disappeared with Finny's death. He themselves men by turning people and
that none of them would take him preserved. says only Finny was able to maintain a things into enemies to be defeated. Their
because of his leg. The reason he constant sense of confidence and selves are then dependent on what they
denied the war existed was because affection as the world tumbled into overcame. Only Finny, perfect in youth,
he felt left out of it. Gene responds war around him. Everyone never an adult, and always self-sufficient,
that Finny would have been a terrible else—Gene, Brinker, Leper, and escaped this sad fate.
soldier. He would have made Quackenbush—fell prey to the war in
everyone friends. his own way, even though it was never
clear who the enemy was or if there
was an enemy at all.

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