A Separate Peace
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A Separate Peace (1959) is a novel written by John Knowles set in a school named Devon in New England during World War II. The book explores themes of hate, vengeance and guilt. In 1972 it was adapted into a movie starring Parker Stevenson and John Heyl.
Contents |
Characters
Gene Forrester
Gene Forrester is the narrator of the book. He is both the protagonist and antagonist of this novel. He is a very competitive student whose ambition is to earn the best grades in school. He is a sober, contemplative character, whose personality contrasts sharply with that of his best friend, Phineas (aka Finny). His internal conflict is the basis for almost all of the action in the book.
Phineas (Finny)
Finny is an outgoing and nonconformist character with a magnetic personality. A natural leader, other students are drawn to him, especially when he develops his creative games. Finny is pure of heart and noble in character, in contrast to his best friend, Gene. He also "refuses to believe" the war is happening, instead substituting his conspiracy theory that the war is just a big hoax started by "the fat old men." This is one of the ways Phineas attempts to reject life's unpleasantries (by thinking there is no war he can justify to himself his not enlisting/not being able to). He dies from injuries sustained from falling down the stairs to the main building after hearing Leper's testimony at the trial.
Brinker Hadley
Brinker is an elitist student leader. A noted "joker", he is the first to accuse Gene of causing Phineas's accident. Later in the novel Brinker organizes a "trial" with his cronies to "uncover the facts" behind Finny's accident, precipitating the climax of the novel. Brinker's name is symbolic, as he tends to push people "to the brink"; this is demonstrated many times in the book, most notably during the trial. Yet, to Gene, Brinker is not a memorable character, for years after his education at Devon the most prominent memory of Brinker is his "definite and substantial buttocks", which also alludes to his personality.
Elwin "Leper" Lepellier
Leper is the isolationist of the novel who was often ridiculed by fellow classmates. He was present when Finny "fell" from the tree. Eventually Leper, surprising his classmates, enlists in the ski unit after watching an army recruiter video. However, he later goes AWOL due to a mental breakdown, and returns to his home in Vermont. He then returns to school to hide as he is suffering from insanity brought on by his breakdown in the military.
Plot
The novel begins with older Gene, who returns to Devon, an exclusive New England prep school, to visit a large tree and a marble staircase. He then goes into a flashback of when he went to school there. Gene and Finny appear to be best of friends at Devon; however, Gene sees himself constantly at war with Finny, who he refuses to believe is better than him. Gene is a regimented good student who likes order, and Finny is a carefree, peace-loving athlete who can get away with anything. Gene hates Finny's irresponsibility and lack of respect for the rules, but he reluctantly goes along with whatever Finny does because he doesn't want to be outdone by him. Gene believes that the two of them are in a rivalry, but it is really one-sided; Finny truly believes that Gene is his best friend and would never hurt him. Gene proves him wrong.
One of Finny's ideas during the "gypsy summer" is to create a "Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session," with Gene and himself as charter members. Finny creates a rite of induction by having members jump out of an extremely large tree with scars on its trunk at a dangerous height into a clean river, the Devon River. One night, Finny decides that he and Gene should make the jump together. While up on the limb, with Finny about to jump, Gene "jounced the limb." There is no elaboration; his actions are bluntly stated. As a result of Gene's blind-impulse movement, Finny loses his balance, falls from the tree, and breaks his leg. It was too late for Gene to realize that he "was not of the same quality" as Finny; that Gene is suspicious and tends to see ulterior motives where there are none, while Finny is pure joy and untroubled innocence. Gene contemplates his action, while Finny slowly recovers.
Finny maintains his characteristically chipper and upbeat attitude throughout his convalescence, never having any animosity towards Gene or believing that Gene would hurt him. Through games, Finny begins to create a fantasy world of sorts around him to avoid believing in the world war. Finny is "the essence of this careless peace". He invents "blitzball," named for blitzkrieg, the German World War II style of "lightning war". He even trains Gene for the Olympics in 1944, even though the Olympics were canceled due to the war, saying that if he can't compete in them, then Gene will do it for him.
The action comes to a head when Brinker and his followers trap Gene and Finny and put them on trial to determine Finny's "casualty", or why he cannot participate in the war. They force the two to confront the events of the night Finny broke his leg. Gene denies everything at first, because he doesn't want to hurt Finny more by telling him the truth. Leper is called in, and he recalls the jump as he saw it, saying the two boys moved "like an engine," as in one went up and one went down. Finny, hurt to hear the truth, runs out of the room and falls down a nearby flight of stairs, re-breaking his leg. The boys at the trial carry him out to the infirmary. Gene tries to go to the infirmary and console him, but is shunned by the suddenly resentful Phineas. Gene walks around the campus that night as if he were a ghost. The next morning, Gene goes back to see Finny and they reconcile their differences: Gene admits that he did make Finny fall, but only because it came from some blind impulse that he could not control. Finny accepts this and forgives him, but Gene is still unsure of his excuse and is not sure whether he purposely caused Finny's fall. Gene leaves and recalls every moment of that day, waiting for Phineas to come out of surgery, and, after the operation to reset the bone, meets with the doctor. The doctor informs Gene that during the operation some bone marrow from Finny's leg went through his blood stream and to his heart, killing him instantly. Gene takes the news as a shock, but never cries about Finny; Gene believes that when Finny died, a piece of himself died as well, the part of him that was strict and regimented and anti-Phineas, and that one does not cry for one's own death.
Gene reflects that Finny's death was a result of Gene's hatred and jealousy towards him. He explains that there is a point in everyone's life when they realize that there is evil in the world and that they must fight their inner demons to control themselves. It is at that time when one's innocence is lost forever. Only Phineas was innocent, and although this made him a unique individual, Gene believes it eventually led to his demise. As Leper foreshadows, everything "evolves, or else it perishes".
Themes
Various themes run throughout the work, one of the foremost being the manner in which people perceive threats to themselves when such threats do not exist. For example, Gene feels that Finny willfully tries to sabotage his academic pursuits with the games he invents. Such perceived threats create a one-sided jealousy between the two friends, perhaps motivating Gene to "jounce the limb" out of envy or a need for revenge.
The novel also touches on themes of innocence and its loss. It is, perhaps, significant that the flashpoint of the work occurs in a tree, and that said flashpoint is a fall, with (given the context of the novel) a deep reference to Christian allegory, the Tree of Knowledge, Original Sin, and man's Fall from Grace. Even after the incident, Finny thought that he had fallen out of the tree himself, suggesting that one's innocence can (to some extent) remain true in the face of pain and hardship. The corruption of this innocence, attacked by both Gene and Brinker at the trial, eventually leads to Finny's death. In the end, his epiphany about his fall from the tree comes not from the natural world, or his own self, but from other people, his friends, and, as such, betrayal can be seen as a primary motif of the work. His death, caused by bone marrow from his leg moving to and blocking his chest, can quite literally be seen as Gene breaking Finny's heart.
After Finny died, Gene realizes that Finny's outlook on life and other people was justified and better than his own. He remarks that everyone was in a constant mental state of alert that is unnecessary, and that sometimes this becomes an obsession that hinders their every action.
From the book:
- All of them, constructed at infinite cost to themselves, these Maginot Lines against this enemy they thought they saw across the frontier, this enemy who never attacked that way — if he ever attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy.Β
Pop culture references
- In the movie Sideways an excerpt from A Separate Peace, in which Gene relects on Finny's death, is being read aloud in Miles' English class. The film centers on a week-long misadventure of two college-alum friends, Miles and Jack, and a friendship that bears similarities to Gene and Finny.