A Separate Peace begins when Gene Forrester returns to Devon boarding school, the school in which he attended during world war two. It had been fifteen years since he had been there. Walking through the campus Gene remembers his time spent there. The one he remembered a lot was the summer session in '42 when he was 16. As Gene passed by a tree near the river he thought of his roommate, Phineas (nicknamed Finny), who was very athletic. When the book goes into the past, Finny jumps from a tall branch into the river. Jumping of the branch was forbidden except for the older boys. He dared Gene to jump. Gene was frightened but he still jumped. Finny found so much excitement in this he dared all his friends to do the same. Because Gene is not very