A Separate Peace
(John Knowles)

Envy

While Gene and Finny are friends, it is obvious that Gene is envious of Finny. Gene is envious of Finny’s athletic ability, his nonchalance, his charm, and his ability to keep himself out of trouble in any situation. Gene is quite uptight, very competitive, and wrongly mistakes Finny for being competitive as well, not ever realizing that Finny actually admires his smarts.

It is Gene’s envy of Finny that fuels their entire friendship that is often toxic though Finny does not mean for it to be. Envy is what causes Gene to subconsciously make the tree branch shake causing Finny’s fall.

Identity

When Gene was first moving from the south to go to Devon he thought he may have to act like someone else to fit in, but he soon realized that he could just be himself. Gene has a hard time dealing with the person he is and often wishes that he could be like others, specifically Finny.

Gene does not realize that others are impressed by the person he is and his intelligence, especially Finny, and he wastes his time competing with them and being jealous. Even Brinker believes that he wants to enlist but then realizes that he does not agree with the war nor does he want any part of it. It is often difficult to come to grips with one’s identity during adolescence, and it is no different for the boys at Devon.

Friendship

Though the relationship between Gene and Finny may seem toxic, due to Gene’s preoccupation with competition and jealousy, the boys really do rely on each other and their friendship quite a bit. Gene actually feels as though he and Finny are so close that they are two parts of a whole and need one another to survive.

Everything Finny and Gene do is together, and, while it seems at first like Gene needs Finny around, it is really Finny who needs Gene to keep his mind off the harsh realities of the war. The two boys have not just a friendship with an overwhelming reliance on one another.

Youth

The boys at Devon are living in a haven that is guarded by their youth. Devon is the place where the boys can be separated from what is going on in the world and with the war. As long as the boys are still in their youth they are safe from being drafted and thus can enjoy their last year or so as an adolescent before being forced to grow up in the face of warfare. Ironically Finny, who never wanted to be faced with war but finally admitted that it was really happening, did not live to be old enough to be drafted to the war he tried so hard to deny.

Rebellion

Most of the rebellion at Devon School is at the hands of Finny who gets away with it due to his ability to charm the pants off anyone he comes into contact with. Finny fully embraces his youth and refuses to grow up to face the realities of the world and takes advantage of finding the fun in everything he does and going through life with a very relaxed and carefree attitude.

When the realities of the war begin to face the boys at Devon some of them, such as Brinker, decide that they want nothing to do with it and rebel against society’s expectations. In most cases, the rebellion seems a catalyst for refusing to take life seriously.

Memory

The concept of memory in this novel is not very reliable as the characters often second guess themselves and never seem to know exactly what happened and when. Gene seems to remember everything about Devon when he visits the school as an adult, but no one can seem to remember exactly what happened the day Finny fell from the tree as the stories are always changing.

Gene feels like maybe he made Finny fall on purpose, but is not sure though he feels very guilty about it. Leper feels sure he saw Gene make Finny fall but later is not sure either. Finny does not really remember anything and changes his idea of what happened several times. It seems that memory is all speculation and no facts.

Fear

Fear is central to adolescence, and it is no different for the boys at Devon. There is a fear of the unknown and a fear of the future, especially during wartime because the future is so unknown. Many of the boys fear going to war for something they do not believe in and other boys, like Finny, fear the seriousness of the situation.

Leper, the only one of the boys who has actually seen war, has a real, deeply ingrained fear, to the point that it makes him crazy and causes him to go AWOL. Seeing what happened to Leper makes the other boys even more fearful of becoming soldiers. Gene is the only one who seems to have fears outside of the war as he obviously fears not being good enough for others and often acts out of jealousy.

Religion

While Devon School gives its students a wholesome, religious education the boys do not necessarily seem religious except for Finny. Finny says his prayers every night and when Gene is with Finny he finds a spiritual beauty in nature and architecture.

After Finny’s accident Gene no longer sees beauty in anything and considers his spill into the dirty river with Quackenbush to be a sort of baptism into evil and vengeance. Finny represents God and light in Gene’s life as when Finny is not there everything is dark and grim, but when Finny is there Gene sees the light and hope and take the time to pray.

War

War is obviously central to the novel because World War II is going on and the boys are all overcome with thoughts about it and desires to enlist. Devon School begins training the boys for combat, knowing that when they graduate most of the boys will either enlist voluntarily or be drafted.

There are always recruiters coming to the school and Leper actually joins up until he becomes crazy and goes AWOL. Finny does not want to believe in the war and manages to convince himself that it is never really happening until Leper comes back, obviously a changed person. Gene has a sort of internal war going on the entire novel as he feels guilt about what has happened to Finny and a desire to make amends, yet still feels the need to compete with him.

Enmity

Though Gene and Finny are close Gene has made Finny his enemy, though only within his head. Gene has created an envy of Finny that makes him hate his friend, though not knowing how to function without him at the same time; which is ironic because Finny has no hatred in his body and has no use for enemies.

Finny is a genuinely kind and honest person who is not competitive in the least, despite the fact that Gene goes out of his way to compete with Finny, though Finny never seems to notice. Gene tells Finny he would make a bad soldier because he would try to make friends with the enemy and try to play baseball with them because he does not know how to hate or compete. The boys are all expected to hate the opponents in the war though they do not understand why they should hate anyone they do not know.