A Separate Peace

John Knowles

11/5/2002 1/23/2004

Gene and Finney are best friends. They are attending Devon, an exclusive boys school, in the 1940's. They are attending the 1942 summer session. It is their last peaceful summer before they are old enough to face the World War.

Gene is the first person narrator of this "coming of age" novel. He tells the story of him and his friend, Phineas. Finney is a natural athlete. Gene considers him superior. They are close friends. Gene is surprised each time Finney talks about their friendship. He finds himself jealous of Finney's natural popularity and leadership.

Finney talks Gene into the daredevil stunt of jumping out of a large tree into the nearby river. If the jumper doesn't jump out from the branches, he would land in shallow water. Finney and Gene are soon jumping out of the tree almost daily. Once, when Gene almost falls, Finney saves grabs him and keeps him from falling. Later, when Finney loses his balance, Gene lets him fall.

Whether it is my sex or my time focus, this book didn't impress me. It is one that is studied, included on many reading lists, etc. Has it become a classic? Possibly. I just don't get the deepness of this story. I understand the jealousy, envy, trust, love, and trepidation between the young men and their fear of the future. The war looms over all they do, even when they are still fairly carefree. Yet I've missed any deeper meanings.

(I also checked out a couple websites about the book before writing this review. I was hoping for insight on what I might have missed. No luck.)

A Separate Peace is fine, and insightful of the relationships between teen age young men almost ready to go out into the world. I hope someone who finds this book more enjoyable than I will add a review here. Maybe someone will show me what I've missed.

1/23/2004

A student who read A Separate Peace recently found my web page and disagrees with my opinion. He is wanting me to see what I missed. He didn't want to submit a review, but here are his comments:

"The two main characters in the book had the exact opposite characteristics. Gene was an introvert who preferred to keep to himself. While Phineas, or Finny, was an extrovert who enjoyed being with others. "Opposites attract" is shown here. Finny has all the characteristics Gene needs, and Gene has all the characteristics Finny needs. The two of them become best friends and bond.

The main thesis of the story comes when Gene becomes jealous of Finny. Gene refuses to share his emotions, but suppresses them inside of him. These feelings grow until Gene finally decides to jounce the limb, and make Finny fall.

The sex of the characters is simply to prevent any excess emotions opposite genders often have for each other. John Knowles focuses on Gene's jealousy and his 'shadow-self.'

If read carefully, this book is filled with symbolism from the seasons, to the tree itself. The larger war going on, and the seperate peace Gene and Phineas have are also symbolistic in nature."

Thank you so much! Here is more for me to think about, as well as other visitors to this page.

You can find more about this book at .

If you'd like to add any comments about this book, add them to my new blog. Be sure you mention the book title. I'll add your comments here.

11/27/07 Anonymous said:

I agree with your review of "A Separate Peace" in that I did not like it that much. I found its language was way too ornamented and that Gene's character did not seem to make any sense. If you are wondering what the metaphor is, the tree is supposed to represent the Tree of Knowledge in the Bible and the fall of Phineas stands for Original Sin in the book of Genesis. So the whole thing about Finny getting pushed off the tree was supposed to mean the fall of humanity. Of course, there are many other ways to interperet it.