A Separate Peace
(John Knowles)

Gene Forrester is a sixteen year old boy attending summer classes at Devon School, a private boarding school in New Hampshire. Gene is good friends with Phineas (“Finny”), his roommate, and another boy named Elwin Lepellier (“Leper”). It becomes obvious that all is not sunshine and roses between Gene and Finny as Gene is jealous of Finny’s charm and knack for getting away with everything, as well as his superior athletic skills.

An accident happens one day when the boys are going to jump out of a tree, and Finny falls and shatters his leg, which is the end of his athletic career. Gene feels bad; worrying it is his fault that Finny fell because he made the branch shake, though Finny believes it to be an accident. When the boys come back to school for the Fall Finny it still at home recovering and Gene visits him to confess that it is his fault Finny fell.

Finny is furious with Gene but does not want to believe that it is true. Back at school one of the senior boys makes a joke that Gene pushed Finny on purpose, so he could have their room to himself, and tensions run high.

The boys all become preoccupied with the fact there is a war going on and they would all like to fight in it, rather than stay in school (WWII). When Finny returns to school he and Gene patch things up, putting Gene’s confession behind them. Finny begins training Gene to be an athlete in his place and to hopefully become an Olympian.

Leper decides to join the Army, but soon goes AWOL which he announces in a letter to Gene. Back at school the other boys relentlessly accuse Gene of pushing Finny out of the tree, and Leper takes their side, believing that Gene did, in fact, cause the fall. Finny hobbles off on his crutches in total distress and falls down the hard marble steps of the school, breaking his leg all again.

Gene visits Finny before his operation, and they make peace, which is good because Finny does not live through the operation. The novel concludes with Knowles’ views on peace and war and the notion of enemies.