A Separate Peace was written by John Knowles. It was published in 1959 by the publisher Secker and Warburg, and contains 236 pages. The genre of the book is naturalism fiction. This tells the story of a boy at boarding school during World War 2, and his mixed feelings of admiration and jealousy he harbors for his best friend and roommate. The book was pretty okay and interesting to read, keeping an odd taste. Knowles chose to write this book to explore the rivalry that can lie in many friendships and can potentially destroy it. This story focuses on this friendship between two sixteen-year-old boys, and of course it’s complicated. Early in the book, the relationship seems fueled in part by Gene’s envy of his friend’s dominating spirit. His friend Finny is a bit of daredevil, who can get himself into and out of mischief. The setting of this book is at the Devon school. It is surrounded by nature most of the time and can be quite peaceful. It pretty much has isolated itself from the rest of the world problems, but gradually the war slowly creeps into the boy’s world. It also becomes less peaceful as the boys confront their own personal battles. Gene is the one who narrates this story, as in the beginning in the book it shows him fifteen years later revisiting the school campus. The events that happened are described as he had perceived them, which can be a bit messy, since we don’t know if his emotions would be getting in the way to tell the truth. This makes him the clear protagonist in this story, even though he can seem to be the antagonist at time. Some …show more content…
He’s trying to show this peaceful world that is separated from the world that is a war. We see how though it pries slowly into the school. Gene can only find peace through his relationship with Finny. But in the end, he has figured out how to live with himself. So now he can separate from Finny and is at