A Separate Peace
(John Knowles)
Chapter One
The novel opens with a grown Gene Forrester (whose name is not actually revealed until the third chapter) revisiting Devon School, the boarding school he attended in his adolescence. He is disappointed that the school has not changed in fifteen years, as he thought it would have aged with him. He begins to tour the campus and describes the buildings in great detail, which seems vibrant despite the fact that his surroundings are grey and wet as he is in New Hampshire in November. He finds himself in front of the school’s famed marble staircase which is so hard that it is not even worn down after all of the years it has been there. He feels that Devon has changed, though notes that he still fears some fear at being there. Gene heads to the tree at the river that changed his life at Devon, noting that it is bigger and wearier looking than he remembers.
The story flashes back, and Gene is a boy of sixteen standing by the tree with his friend, Finny. Gene does not want to climb the tree, despite the fact that Finny insists that they should. There are three other boys standing by the tree with them, including Elwin Lepellier (“Leper”).
The boys are all deciding whether they are going to climb the tree and jump off it into the river, which Finny thinks is a great idea. Finny strips down, and the narrator comments on his athletic build, and proceeds to climb and jump out of the tree. Gene feels he must live up to everyone’s expectations and do the same. Once Gene is in the tree he mentally freaks out a bit because he fears that if he does not jump out far enough he will smash his head in the dirt. He begins to resent Finny for getting him into this situation, and then he jumps. None of the other boys would jump, making the bond between Finny and Gene stronger than ever before because they were the only ones brave enough to do it. It is summer session, so there are few students around and no Headmaster. Finny tells Gene he did a good job once he was pressured to jump, as Finny apparently always teases Gene.
The two boys stop and wrestle rather than running when the dinner bell sounds. Realizing they are too late for dinner at this point they return to their dorm and do homework while listening to the radio they smuggled in.
Chapter Two
The next morning a substitute teacher, Mr. Prud’homme, confronts Gene and Finny for missing dinner the night before. Rather than try to make up an excuse for why they missed dinner Finny simply told Mr. Prud’homme the story what happened the night before: the beautiful day, the tree jumping, and the wrestling. The boys manage to get away without being punished, due to Finny’s ability to be boisterously friendly and charm the pants off of everyone. When the boys get dressed that day Finny puts on a pink polo shirt in honor of the U.S. having bombed Eastern Europe, though Gene picks on him for looking gay.
That afternoon the boys are set to have tea at the home of their substitute headmaster, Mr. Patch-Withers. It proves an awkward experience for all of the boys and faculty involved, though true to form Finny is the epicenter of lively conversation. In the midst of conversation, Mrs. Patch-Withers sees that Finny is using his school tie as a belt and is horrified. Gene expects that Finny will finally get into trouble, but alas he does not. Finny manages to talk himself out of yet another punishment and at the same time gets the very poker-faced Mr. Patch-Withers to laugh. Gene is at first upset but then congratulates himself for being friends with such a specimen.
As the boys are leaving the party, Finny suggests that they jump out of the tree together this time, as a symbol of solidarity. While they are walking toward the river, Finny states that he does not believe the bombing really happened and Gene agrees, because to the boys at the school the war was just something they heard about rather than something they experienced so to them, it was not real. After the boys swam for a bit, they climbed the tree together to jump in honor of the new society they formed called “The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session”. Gene nearly falls off the branch, and Finny steadies him, then they jump. Gene realizes Finny may have just saved him.
Chapter Three
Gene decides that he does not actually owe Finny any thanks at all because he never would have had a near-death experience had Finny not pressured him to jump from the tree in the first place. Finny decides that other boys must be inducted into their society, and he creates a series of crazy rules, one of which states that Finny and Gene will jump from the tree together at the beginning of every meeting.
The meetings occur every night, and Gene agrees to jump from the tree each time though he always fears he will fall. Finny is an adrenaline junkie only made worse by the fact that the athletic program in the summer is far inferior to the one in the normal school year, and Finny is an athlete. He proceeds to invent a game called “Blitzball” which involves tossing a medicine ball around from boy to boy, with the boy holding the ball becoming a target, and no one ever actually wins the game.
One day when Finny and Gene are at the school swimming pool all by themselves, Finny decides he wants to try to break one of the school records, which he does on the first try. Gene tells Finny to do it again in public, so Gene will not be the only one who has witnessed it, but Finny refuses and tells Gene not to ever tell anyone he did it. Finny decides that the two boys should take a trip to the beach, which is a couple hours by bike and is strictly forbidden by the school.
Gene, of course, agrees, and the boys set out on their trip. Finny greatly enjoys himself at the beach, and, though Gene is not enjoying himself quite as much Finny makes every effort to keep him entertained. They grab a hot dog for dinner and manage to get a couple of beers due to some forged draft cards they were carrying. The boys settle into to sleep on the beach and Finny tells Gene that he is his best friend and he is glad they came to the beach for the day. Gene almost tells Finny that he feels the same but changes his mind at the last minute and says nothing.
Chapter Four
When the boys get back to school in the morning, they are just on time for Gene to take his trigonometry test, which he fails. Gene is very disappointed in failing his test, but Finny distracts him by playing blitzball and having a society meeting. Later that night Finny studies his trigonometry and Finny teases him for trying to be valedictorian. Gene denies his accusations, but when he thinks about it, he realizes that he does want to be valedictorian.
Finny is the star athlete and Gene wants to be the star scholar, to match Finny’s athletic accomplishments. In the coming weeks, Gene really buckles down on his studies, and Finny begins to study more as well, Gene believes in an effort to make himself a slightly better student because Gene is a fair athlete and being a fair student rather than a poor one would make Finny equivalent.
Gene senses a faltering in his friendship with Finny because of the obvious jealousy, rivalry, and competition between them but in an attempt to not reveal this feeling to Finny Gene continues attending their society meetings. One night, Finny interrupts Gene’s studying to tell him that Leper is going to jump from the tree that night, but Gene believes that Finny only convinced Leper to do it as a means to interrupt Gene’s studying. As they head toward the tree Finny, tells Gene he can stay in and study, as he can tell that Gene is upset. Finny tells Gene that it is good of him to put so much effort into something he is good at and that he envies how intelligent and academically inclined Gene is.
Gene tells Finny that he is done studying, and he wants to see Leper jump. Gene notes that there must never have been the rivalry between then that he sensed and that Finny must definitely be superior to him as it seems obvious that he is incapable of jealousy. Gene and Finny climb the tree to jump together, as they do at the start of every meeting, but Gene’s knees buckle, shaking the limb, and Finny falls to the ground with a heavy thud. Gene jumps into the water, finally fearless.
Chapter Five
Word spreads around school that Finny’s leg is shattered, though no one has been allowed into the infirmary to see him yet. Gene wrestles with the idea that he caused Finny to fall on purpose and wonders if it is true, though he does not seem to know. The only time he feels better about the situation is when he dresses up in one of Finny’s outfits, with his pink shirt, but the next morning he is overcome with guilt and anxiety again. Dr. Stanpole tells Gene that Finny is feeling better and would like to see him. He says that Finny’s leg is shattered, and he will be able to walk again sometime, but he will never be able to play sports again, a revelation that causes Gene to cry. Dr. Stanhope tells Gene that he must stay strong for Finny.
Gene, still feeling guilty, asks Finny what he remembers about the incident because he wants to know if Finny feels like it is Gene’s fault that he fell. Finny hints at the idea that Gene caused the branch to shake on purpose, but immediately recants that notion as he feels terrible for bringing it up at all. When Finny tells Gene that he looked to him for support when he felt he would fall, Gene is outraged, believing that Finny meant to pull him down as well, but Finny says he was merely looking for support.
Gene is about to tell Finny that it is his fault that the branch shook when the doctor comes in and sends Gene away. After that day, Finny is not well enough for visitors and is sent home to Boston as the summer semester ends. When Gene returns to school in September, he stops at Finny’s house to see him before continuing his way to Devon. Gene tells Finny that he caused the accident and Finny is outraged and refuses to believe the confession. As Gene is leaving, Finny tells him that he will be back at Devon by late November.
Chapter Six
School has started up again for the fall semester, and Gene feels like there is something eerie about the campus and that it is not the same as it was before. The relaxed teachers and supervisors of the summer are gone, and the strict teachers are back, disappointed by all of the rule-breaking they heard occurred over the summer.
At the first church session of the new semester, the leaders encourage continuity of the standards of Devon, though Gene feels that they cannot go back to what was before because everything is different now in the wake of Finny’s accident. He does understand that the rules that are impressed upon the students are for a reason as Finny got hurt breaking them.
Gene feels alone in the dorm situation because he is still in the room he shares with Finny, only Finny has not yet returned to school, and also Leper has been moved to a different dorm, so there is a macho alpha male named Brinker Hadley living across the hall now. Gene is depressed by this change and feels alone.
School sports have started up again, though Finny is not there to play them and he will never be able to play again. Gene heads down to the river for crew practice, though it is not the river they spent the summer jumping into, it is the murkier river on campus called the Naguamsett. Gene arrives at crew late and is harassed by Quackenbush who is a total jerk and hated by everyone.
Gene wants to be crew manager this year, a role usually reserved for someone who is disabled, and is goaded relentlessly for it. He and Quackenbush get into it a bit and end up in the water before Gene is asked to leave. When Gene returns to the dorm, he has a phone call, and it is Finny.
Finny sounds very happy to hear Gene’s voice and is happy that his spot as Gene’s roommate is still open. In an effort to put aside Gene’s “confession” that he caused Finny to fall, he tells Gene that he was awful crazy when he came to visit. Gene agrees with Finny and they begin to talk about sports though Finny is disappointed when he hears Gene wants to be crew manager rather than actually participating. It is obvious that Gene feels he cannot play sports as long as Finny cannot, but Finny tells him that if he cannot play then Gene will play for him.
Chapter Seven
Brinker travels across the hall and into Gene’s room, commenting that he is jealous that Gene gets such a large room all to himself. Brinker, seemingly joking, tells Gene he must have pushed Finny out of the tree just so he could live in the big room alone. Gene, feeling quite awkward with his guilt, laughs along with Brinker and suggests they go downstairs to the “Butt Room” in the basement and have a smoke. When the boys arrive downstairs Brinker jokes with the other boys who are down there that he has brought the prisoner, Gene, who has tried to kill his roommate.
Gene keeps joking along with the boys, never denying their accusations. When the boys ask Gene to reenact the scene for them, he feels strange about it and turns attention to a younger boy, who does not realize the other boys are kidding, to do the dirty work. When the boy confirms that he believes Gene must have pushed Finny out of the tree Gene tells the others that he has to go study and leaves the room, never having smoked.
The boys of Devon help to shovel the snow off the train tracks because labor is hard to come by during the war times, and the soldiers need the train tracks clear, so they can travel. Leper does not help the other boys but rather goes off on his cross-country skis to find a beaver dam he heard about. After the tracks are shoveled a train of soldiers rides by and Gene notices that they all look happy and carefree and is jealous of the life experience they are all coming into.
On the way back to Devon, the boys all discuss the idea of leaving school and enlisting though some of them, like Quackenbush, would rather graduate before they join up. Back at Devon the boys see Leper coming back from his trip, and Brinker tells Gene that he is going to leave school, and enlist the next day because he cannot wait any longer. Gene decides that he wants to do the same and will leave the next day as well, but then he returns to his room and finds that Finny has returned.
Chapter Eight
Finny immediately begins picking on Gene, mostly his clothes which are extremely shabby and filthy after shoveling the tracks all day. Finny is upset that Devon does not have maid service this year, but Gene understands, unselfishly, that with the war going on Devon is trying to cut back on expenses. The boys go to bed and Gene prays, which he did not do while Finny was gone.
The next morning Brinker Hadley bursts into the room, excited about the plans he and Gene have made about enlisting, but sees Finny and remarks that Gene’s plan must have fallen through, obviously hinting toward the plan to kill Finny for the room. Gene explains to Finny that he was considering enlisting, though it is obvious that, with Finny being back, Gene will not be going anywhere. Gene feels that Finny needs him around and tells Brinker that he will not be enlisting with him. After Brinker leaves Finny and Gene begin to pick on him immediately, and dub him with the nickname “yellow peril”.
When the boys are headed back from chapel, Finny muses that he loves the winter, and, therefore, the winter must love him as well because when you love something so much it has no choice but to love you back. He then decides that he and Gene should skip class in honor of his first day back so he can explore the campus. Finny wants to go to the gym, which is a long trek on crutches and tires Finny out, but he takes a deep breath and makes a grand entrance into the gym anyway.
Finny wants to visit the locker room first, rather than the trophies, and then asks Gene what sport he is playing. Gene tells Finny that he did not go out for a sport, nor did he decide to manage the crew team, he is just going to gym class. Finny is flabbergasted and insists that Gene allow Finny to train him for the 1944 Olympics, as that is what Finny was going to do before he got hurt.
Gene tells Finny that, with the war, there will be no Olympics, but Finny sticks to his story that there is no war and a bunch of fat old men made it up to keep the country in line and tells Gene the reason he is privy to this information is because of the amount of suffering he has been through, a sentiment, which both boys seem shocked was mentioned. Gene proceeds to do chin-ups, thirty of them at the urging of Finny.
One day when Gene is running he feels different than ever before like he finally hit his stride and Finny is impressed. When Mr. Ludsbury asks what they were doing Finny tells him that they are training for the Olympics and when Mr. Ludsbury tells him that all training must be for war purposes, Finny simply says to him, “no”. Finny tells Gene that Mr. Ludsbury is too thin to be in on the fat old man plot.
Chapter Nine
Gene decides that he will go along with Finny’s view that there is no war going on, not because he believes it but because it makes life more carefree and enjoyable. Leper enlisted in the service which came as a big surprise to everyone because he is the last person they expected to enlist. Some recruiters came to Devon one day and showed the boys videos of the soldiers skiing, which sparked Leper’s interest and he decided that if he can ski as a soldier then he wants to enlist immediately. He enlisted just before he turned eighteen, so he was able to choose what he wanted to do, rather than be drafted and forced into something.
Gene thought that if Brinker had gone in first then it would awaken the boys to the reality of the war, and they could stop pretending it was happening, but Leper was not a significant enough member of the Devon community to have that kind of effect on the student body. From that point on whenever the boys heard about something big happening in the war, like an attempt to kill Hitler, they assumed that Leper must have been the one to do it, which made the war stories much more fun and interesting to discuss. Finny was the only one who did not subscribe to this mindset and instead immersed himself in training Gene for the Olympics, which was an attempt to keep Gene away from the war talk, as well.
Gene notes that Saturdays at Devon are extremely boring, and the boys must invent numerous activities to entertain themselves. One day Finny brings up the idea of having a carnival the following weekend and Gene agrees. The boys come up with prizes to give away for the winners of the events and Brinker even goes along with the idea and has fun with it, despite his recent role as a serious student.
The boys drink some hard cider, start to have a good time and Finny signifies the beginning of the games by burning a copy of “The Iliad”. Finny gets Gene to show off his Olympic skills and soon after Gene gets a telegram. The telegram is from Leper who has “escaped” and is hiding “at the Christmas location,” and he wants Gene to come to him right away. Leper signs the note “your best friend”.
Chapter Ten
Gene leaves that night to go to Leper’s house in Vermont, as it is obviously the Christmas location he not-so-cryptically mentioned in the telegram. Gene, as the narrator, muses that he would make the same journey many times in his life when he is in the military, though, he never actually saw combat because the war was basically over by the time he enlisted. Gene tells himself that Leper has just escaped from some spies because there is no way that he escaped the army.
Leper seems happy to see Gene, but he is acting strange. Leper seems extremely jumpy and emotional, and Gene asks him how long he is on leave before he has to go back. Leper tells Gene that he went AWOL (absent without leave) before they could dismiss him for being mentally insane, formally called a “section eight”. Gene is scared of Leper at this point because he is very different from the friend that left Devon. Gene lashes out at Leper out of fear and Leper throws Finny’s accident in his face, accusing Gene of pushing Finny out of the tree.
Gene attacks Leper which attracts the attention of Mrs. Lepellier. Gene tries to explain himself to Leper’s mother and apologizes to her and stays for lunch at Leper’s request because he felt bad if he refused the offer. After lunch, the boys go for a walk and Gene feels like being in nature will bring out the old Leper, though he is mistaken. Leper tells Gene about all of the crazy images and dreams he would have in the army--about things transforming into other things. Gene feels really odd and uncomfortable around Leper at this point and starts yelling at Leper to stop telling him these things as they have nothing to do with him. He runs away from Leper’s house right back towards the town and Devon.
Chapter Eleven
When Gene gets back to campus he wants to see Finny because Finny’s mind is always on sports, rather than war. Ironically, Finny is involved in a snowball fight with some other boys when Gene returns. Gene is distracted by the way Finny walks; he used to almost float and now he seems so crippled, aside from the fact that his leg is in a cast.
Finny asks about Leper and Gene keeps the gory details to himself. Gene tells Finny that he should be more careful and perhaps not do things like get into snowball fights because he may break his leg again, but Finny tells him that he thinks that once a bone grows back together it is stronger than it was to begin with. Later Brinker comes into Finny and Gene’s room and asks about Leper. Gene tells the other two boys that Leper went AWOL, and Brinker assumes correctly that Leper went crazy. Finny finally begins to admit that the war must be real because fake wars do not make people crazy.
Devon becomes immersed in the war and everything to do with it while Brinker, one of the boys who most wanted to enlist, finds himself interested in anything that has nothing to do with the war. Brinker tells Gene that the reason he did not enlist is because of Finny and Gene does not confirm or deny this accusation. Brinker brings up the old “joke” that Gene pushed Funny off the tree, and Gene gets a little uneasy over the whole situation.
One night while the boys are studying Finny says that he saw Leper on campus, and Gene remembers that Leper thinks he pushed Finny out of the tree, so Gene gets very uncomfortable at the thought of him being back at Devon. Later that night Brinker invites Finny and Gene to come out with him and his friends as he has a set of keys to the whole campus from being involved in so many clubs. The boys sneak out and end up in the Assembly Room where Brinker immediately begins making fun of Finny’s limp.
Brinker begins asking Finny what happened on the day Finny fell, determined to get to the bottom of the whole situation, much to Gene’s horror. Finny’s story changes numerous times as it becomes clear that he does not entirely remember what happened that day, he even thinks the tree may have shaken itself on purpose. Brinker and his friends decide they need to bring in a witness and get Leper. Leper refuses to answer any questions about the incident as he does not want to implicate himself and says a few other crazy things.
Finny gets angry at the spectacle, tells all the boys he does not care what happened that day and storms from the room. After Finny leaves the room the boys hear him fall the very large, very hard, marble staircase.
Chapter Twelve
Gene remembers every acting very responsible and exactly as they should in the wake of Finny’s accident. They held him still while someone went to fetch Dr. Stanpole and the wrestling coach, Phil Latham. Gene finds it strange to watch Finny being carried out because the only person Finny has ever needed help from was Gene, in any other case Finny was the one doing the helping. Dr. Stanpole says that Finny’s leg is, in fact, broken again, but this time it is not shattered it is a clean break and should heal just fine after surgery.
All of the boys are told to go back to their rooms, but Gene finds himself crouching in the bushes in the dark outside of the infirmary rather than going to his room. He hears the conversation between Finny and the doctors and begins making jokes with himself while he waits. Eventually once Finny is alone Gene calls out his name and crawls through the window.
Finny begins yelling at Gene, asking him if there is another bone in his body he would like to break while Gene apologizes fruitlessly. Gene leaves the infirmary but rather than go back to his dorm he wanders around campus, finding himself outside of the gym which looks strange to him. Gene feels as though he no longer exists, or maybe he never did; perhaps he was nothing more than a ghost all his years at Devon. Gene falls asleep leaning against the wall of the stadium.
The next morning Gene returns to the dorm and finds a note for him from Dr. Stanpole asking him to bring some of Finny’s clothes down to the infirmary. Gene grabs some of Finny’s clothes and sets out for the infirmary, feeling as though he is experiencing déjà vu, which, in a way, he is as this happened just last summer. He gets to the room and finds Finny alone and tries to explain himself. Gene apologizes, just as he did in Boston, and Finny tells him that the whole situation would be different if there were no war because Finny feels helpless having a broken leg and not being able to fight.
Gene tells Finny that he would be no good in a war anyway because he is too friendly and would probably try to make friends with the enemy. Gene and Finny agree that the tree situation was an accident, and not intentional at all and Finny goes in for surgery. When Gene returns to see Finny after his surgery he is greeted by Dr. Stanpole who tells him that Finny died during his surgery. It seems that a piece of marrow broke off and floated up to his heart, killing him. Gene tells the reader that he never once cried about Finny, not even at his funeral, because it would be like crying at his own funeral as Finny was a part of him.
Chapter Thirteen
As school was coming to a close that spring, some jeeps filled with troops rolled into the far common. Brinker and Gene went out to the common to see the greeting ceremony that is happening, and Brinker brings up Leper, but Gene does not want to talk about him, or about Finny. Gene feels as though peace no longer exists for anyone, even at Devon, except maybe for the boys who were there during the summer session.
Brinker introduces Gene to his father who reminds Gene of one of the fat old men who made up the story of the war happening that Finny always used to talk about. Mr. Hadley likes to talk about war and the boys’ responsibility to fight, which Brinker apologizes to Gene for but Gene thinks he knows where Mr. Hadley is coming from. He thinks that Brinker and Finny were similar in the way that they tried to rebel to forget that the war was happening at all.
Gene does not believe that war is the fault of the fat old men, but of ignorance in the hearts of many men. While Gene is clearing out his gym locker he thinks about Finny as he often does though he refuses to talk about him with anyone because Finny is not dead to him. Finny’s way of living still resides in Gene, even as he is telling the story. Finny never had any hatred for anyone or any enemies as most people did.
Gene says that most people find something to hate and spend their whole life making that one thing their eternal enemy, though Finny never did that. Gene says that he went to war though he killed no one and never hated any of his opponents because he knew Finny would not have. Gene says that the only enemy he ever had he killed while he was at Devon.